Resilience in the antimony supply chain
Susan van den Brink, René Kleijn, Benjamin Sprecher, Nabeel A Mancheri, Arnold Tukker
Abstract
Antimony is considered a critical and strategically important metal and is used in a wide range of products. This study examines major antimony supply chain disruptions from 1913 to 2018 and analyses how resilience mechanisms and price feedback loops contributed to supply chain resilience. We found that the antimony diversity of supply of both mining and refining is low, but is enhanced by recycling, around 25% of global antimony supply is produced via recycling of antimony bearing metal alloys. Based on production volume, almost 70% of antimony was mined as by- or co-product in 2018, indicating a high supply risk. However, the presence of unrecovered by-products can also make the supply more elastic. Substitution is possible for some antimony applications, but for one of the main applications, flame retardants, performance of substitutes is still considered inadequate. Overall, stockpiling played a significant role in both dampening and exacerbating supply disruptions. It is recommended that the mined production and processing capabilities are diversified, stockpiles are explored as a mechanism to absorb sudden shortages, and, most importantly, recycling of antimony (trioxide) should be further improved.