Kunming Rongke New Materials was the only bidder for indium stocks formerly held by the defunct Fanya Metal Exchange, Reuters reported Jan. 18.

The 3,609.46 tonnes of indium sold to Kunming Rongke for 2.85 billion Chinese yuan are equivalent to several years' worth of global supply for the metal, which is used in flat-panel displays, according to Reuters. Established in September 2019, Kunming Rongke paid nearly 1.4 billion yuan in October and November the same year for four auctions of germanium, gallium, selenium and bismuth previously held by Fanya, according to Reuters.

Spot indium prices are at 875 yuan per kilogram, implying that the company bought the stockpile at a 10% discount, the newswire added.

Proceeds from the sale will be used to repay creditors of the Fanya exchange, which collapsed in 2015. The exchange's creditors claim that they are owed a total of 43 billion yuan, with the completed auctions raising about 8.5 billion yuan to-date, the report said.

In September 2019, a unit of China Minmetals Corp. Ltd. purchased three lots of antimony, terbium oxide, and dysprosium oxide from the metals auction held by the Kunming Intermediate People's Court. In the same month, China Molybdenum Co. Ltd. placed the winning bid for ammonium paratungstate stocks previously held by the exchange.

As of Jan. 17, US$1 was equivalent to 6.86 Chinese yuan.