Good Fundamentals for LME Zinc, with LME Inventory Slipping to New Low

The nickel ore inventory at Chinese ports dipped 142,000 wmt from a week earlier to 8.45 million wmt as of January 21.

SMM data showed that China's social inventories of aluminium across eight consumption areas dropped 23,000 mt on the week to 776,000 mt as of January 6.

The moves of SHFE and LME have been heading toward different directions recently. As of December 8, LME lead has been falling for five consecutive sessions. SHFE lead, on the other hand, rallied strongly after falling for two days in a row, and rose 1.88% to 15,175 yuan/mt to close the day.

Market focus this week includes the readings of the manufacturing PMI in the Eurozone in November and the Markit manufacturing PMI in the United States in November; the one-year loan market interest rate as of November 22 in China. On the events front, the Federal Reserve FOMC will release the minutes of the monetary policy meeting this Thursday; Bank of England Governor Bailey will deliver a speech this Friday.

SMM data showed that China's social inventories of aluminium across eight consumption areas rose 31,000 mt on the week to 1.01 million mt as of November 4.

The social inventory of lead ingots across Shanghai, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Tianjin decreased by about 200 mt from October 22 and fell 7,200 mt from October 18 to 186,700 mt as of October 25.

The inventory of rebar across Chinese steel makers and social warehouses stood at 8.08 million mt as of October 21, down 204,500 mt or 2.5% from a week earlier. Stocks are down 1.99 million mt or 19.8% from a year earlier.

The social inventories of silicon metal across Huangpu port, Kunming city and Tianjin port increased 3,000 mt from the previous week to 58,000 mt as of Friday October 15.

This is a roundup of China's metals weekly inventory as of October 15.

Nickel stocks across LME-approved warehouses gained 2,874 mt on Monday to 69,180 mt