China Lead Concentrate Imports up to 132,000 mt in August

SHANGHAI, Oct. 10 (SMM) – China imported 132,000 mt of lead concentrate in August, up 1.34 percentage points MoM, Customs data showed.

SMM attributed the month-on-month rise in August’s concentrate imports to the following reasons:

First, growth in operating rate at domestic lead smelters boosted demand for lead concentrate. SMM survey showed that average operating rate at major domestic smelters increased 4.71 percentage points from July to 65.26% in August.

Second, imported lead concentrate enjoyed big price advantages over domestic materials. Profits from imports were RMB 1,100/mt (Pb content) above domestic concentrate in July, leaving July’s average profit much higher than June’s RMB 200/mt (Pb content). Expanding profits attracted smelters to buy.

Around 20,000 mt of lead concentrate was imported from goods at bonded warehouses. In August, imports were up 7,000 mt to 13,000 mt, 6,000 mt to 12,000 mt and 7,000 mt to 10,000 mt at Yuteng Nonferrous Metals, Jingui Silver and Zhuzhou Smelter Group respectively, all on MoM basis. Wanyang Group increased imports to 6,000 mt. And 11,000 mt was imported by Henan Yuguang Gold & Lead, 8,000 mt by Guiyang Yinxing Nonferrous Metals and 5,000 mt by Hunan Shuikoushan Nonferrous Metals Group with the three companies reporting no imports in July.

However, imports fell 1,000 mt to 10,000 mt at Jinli Lead in August, versus a cut of 1000 mt to 3,000 mt at Hechi Nanfang Nonferrous Metals Group, of 8,000 mt to 2,000 mt at Shandong Humon Smelting and of 5,000 mt to 1,000 mt at JinchengChengyuan Smelting, all on MoM basis.

August saw 28 countries exported concentrate to China with US as the top one supplier. Imports from US increased 16,000 mt MoM to 26,000 mt in August due mainly to concentrate arrivals of goods from Red Dog Mine in August-October. Imports from Peru edged up to 19,000 mt and 15,000 mt from Namibia. The number of countries supplying over 10,000 mt to China reduced 2 from July.