Buying Sentiment of Some Downstream Enterprises Slightly Recovered Ahead of Labour Day Holiday [SMM Spot Aluminum Midday Review]

SMM April 22 update:

SHFE aluminum 2605 fluctuated upward in the morning session. End-users mainly maintained just-in-time procurement, with some buyers stockpiling ahead of the holiday. Mainstream transactions were concentrated around the SMM A00 aluminum average price to +10 yuan/mt. The shipments sentiment index in east China was 3.36 today, flat MoM; the purchasing sentiment index was 3.21, up 0.05 MoM.

SHFE aluminum had declined for consecutive days recently. Premiums in central China showed an upward trend, and buying sentiment among downstream processing enterprises recovered slightly. As the Labour Day holiday approached, some traders began stockpiling ahead of schedule to avoid sharp pre-holiday price increases, and overall trading volume in the market increased. Additionally, affected by invoicing limits, cargoes with invoices dated this month were in tight supply, and some traders started selling cargoes with invoices dated next month in advance, which indirectly pushed up premiums for cargoes dated this month. Ultimately, the transaction price range in the central China market was between a premium of 10 yuan and a premium of 25 yuan over the central China price. The shipments sentiment index in central China was 2.83 today, flat MoM; the purchasing sentiment index was 2.39, up 0.03 MoM.

Inventory side, aluminum ingot inventory in major consumption areas was flat MoM today.