SMM Daily Review - 2012/1/12 Tin Market

[SMM afternoon comment on zinc in Shanghai: The market premium rose slightly, and the transaction was modest] On the whole, the transactions between traders are mainly dealt with the average price premium today. At the same time, affected by that, the market shipments with the market price decreased, and then some holders held up the price, so that the overall transaction was modest.

Total zinc inventories across seven Chinese markets stood at 119,600 mt as of September 10, down 2,500 mt from September 6 and 4,000 mt from September 3.

In recent weeks, the domestic rare earth market as a whole prospered evidenced by overall rising prices of all products. In particular, the price of praseodymium oxide increased significantly among others. In the middle and late June, the market prices of praseodymium rallied, and terbium bottomed out. Later, since mid-July, market prices of light and heavy rare earth rose across the board, and the market is relatively in tight supply resulted from insufficient pre-stockpile or oversold. Hence the short supply of metal intensified in current stage.

Spot premiums in Shanghai rose to 70 yuan/mt on February 18 from zero ahead of CNY due to costs during CNY holidays. However, spot premiums turned into wide discounts as of February 25 as SHFE copper prices surged, which stood at around 250 yuan/mt, a decline of nearly  460%. This signified that investors were selling aggressively to generate cash amid cash flow issues. Downstream inquiries were brisk but sellers refrained from lowering their quotes, with spot discounts stabilising between 150-140 yuan/mt.

It aims to establish a 130-billion-yuan industry from smart manufacturing

Traded prices of high-grade nickel pig iron (NPI) ore, with 1.8% Ni imported from the Philippines, rose to $54/wmt cif as of Tuesday May 22

The volume of China’s alumina exports is set to decline but the downward room is limited as profits remain, SMM believes.

China’s alumina imports are likely to decrease after March volumes hit a 16-year low

While LME aluminium surged nearly 30% on the US sanctions on Rusal from April 6, prices of alumina also soared with further upward room due to tight supplies and rising export margins

Eight tin smelters in Gejiu city, Yunnan province, plan to cut production by at least 20% in 2018 as supplies of tin ore tightened