SMM Aluminum Morning Meeting: Post-Holiday Inventory Build-Up, Demand Rebound, Prices Fluctuate

[SMM Aluminum Morning Meeting Summary: Supporting the Private Economy, Tug-of-War Between Sellers and Buyers Continues in a Volatile Pattern]

Inventory side, it remains in a post-holiday inventory buildup phase, with inventories expected to continue increasing rapidly this week. Demand side, the operating rate of leading domestic downstream aluminum processing enterprises rebounded significantly this week, up 5.7 percentage points MoM to 56.8%, mainly driven by post-Chinese New Year resumption of production. However, different sectors showed varying recovery trends. In the future, with increasing PV demand and full resumption of work and production by end-users, while supply-side increments remain limited, aluminum prices are expected to maintain a short-term high-level fluctuation.