Price of Jinchuan Refined Nickel, Nov 17

Shanghai base metals traded mixed after opening on Thursday morning, as Fed failed to set a timeline for tapering asset purchase, and COVID-19 pandemic made a comeback. Meanwhile, their counterparts on LME mostly went up.

Shanghai base metals were mostly lower on Tuesday morning as investors awaited the release of China's trade data for June. Meanwhile, their counterparts on the LME also fell for the most part.

This is a roundup of China's metals weekly inventory as of July 9.

According to customs data, China imported 10,407 mt of refined nickel (including unwrought unalloyed nickel with the total amount of nickel and cobalt ≥99.99% and cobalt ≤0.005%, and other unwrought unalloyed nickel) in January 2021, a month-on-month decrease of 12.41%, but a year-on-year increase of 31.82%.

Inventories of refined nickel in the Shanghai bonded areas decreased 1,500 mt from a week ago to 11,300 mt as of March 26, showed SMM data.

The Development and Reform Commission of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the Department of Industry and Information Technology, and the Energy Bureau have issued the Several Measures to Ensure Control of Energy Consumption recently. Local lead and zinc concentrate mines and refined zinc smelters have been required to control their energy consumption which cannot exceed the level in the same period last year.

China’s refined nickel output rose 5.33%, or 692 mt, from January and 1.7% from a year earlier, to 13,700 mt in February. The Gansu smelter and Xinjiang smelter produced 12,600 mt and 1,073 mt of refined nickel respectively, while other smelters remained suspended.

Many alloy producers have operated at full capacity since August because of good situation on new orders. New orders are likely to be stable as demand from the infrastructure sector will extend.

Inventories of refined nickel in the Shanghai bonded areas rose 1,000 mt from a week ago and stood at 24,300 mt as of November 6, showed SMM data.

China produced 14,600 mt of refined nickel in July, down 3.05% or 460 mt from June, but up 15.73% from a year earlier.