SHANGHAI, Apr. 16 (SMM) -- According to a recent SMM survey, China’s spot aluminum inventories have fallen for three consecutive weeks (excluding the Qingming Festival). As of April 12, total stocks of aluminum ingot in Shanghai, Wuxi, Hangzhou, and Nanhai were 861,000 mt, down 11,000 mt from a week earlier and down 34,000 mt from a high of 895,000 mt last seen in mid-March.

Aluminum ingot inventories were down last week, with inventories in Nanhai falling by 16,000 mt. Some domestic aluminum producers and cargo-holders were unwilling to ship goods to warehouses given current high costs, causing regional aluminum inventories to fall. Meanwhile, improving downstream demand also helped reduce aluminum inventories. Some aluminum producers in Central China extended their internal industrial chain by improving their own aluminum ingot deep-processing capacity in order to consume some aluminum ingots.