SHANGHAI, Feb 20 (SMM) - The aluminium ingot social inventories across China’s eight major markets totalled 1.23 million mt as of February 20, up 17,000 mt from February 17 and 152,000 mt from a year ago. Since February 19, the second day before the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday, the inventory has accumulated 488,000 mt.
However, the inventory growth has slowed down. Production recovery and lower aluminium prices drove downstream buyers to make purchases, allowing the weekly shipments out of warehouses in major markets to add 32,000 mt on a weekly basis to 144,000 mt last week (February 13-19). Inventory in Gongyi and Hangzhou began to drop. Inventory in Wuxi rose slightly, and large amounts of cargoes are bounding for this region.
Now that aluminium smelters in Yunnan have begun to cut their production and downstream operating rates are recovering, the seasonal inventory accumulation cycle is about to end. Downstream procurement and cargo arrivals deserve close attention.
