Flash: Copper spot discounts in Shanghai

Last week, the US Fed announced that it may begin to shrink the balance sheet at the next meeting in May. The pace will be accelerated to a monthly reduction of $95 billion.

Shanghai base metals mostly fell after Fed’s hawkish statements and amid the weakened demand before the China’s National Day holiday. Meanwhile, their counterparts on LME basically fell as well.

Shanghai base metals mostly trended higher on Friday morning amid slumping US dollar and eased market concerns about the default of Evergrande. Meanwhile, their counterparts on LME performed similarly.

 This is a roundup of China's metals weekly inventory as of September 17.

The Biden government of the United States on September 9 stated that it would restart a procedure to permanently suspend the development of the Pebble Mine project, thereby permanently protecting the ecology of an important water area in Alaska.

Shanghai base metals trended mixed on Tuesday morning without significant bullish or bearish influential factors in the market. Meanwhile, their counterparts on LME mostly fell.

Trades in the imported copper market were quiet today as import losses expanded to 200 yuan/mt. Backwardation of LME cash to the three-month copper contract stands at $6.5/mt.     

Shanghai base metals mostly went down on Wednesday morning amid the cooled down market sentiments by the uncertainty of economic recovery. Meanwhile, their counterparts on LME all increased.

US CPI in July stabilised, basically in line with market expectations. Some Fed officials believe that the inflation rate will not surge for a long time, and will return to the 2% target. The labour market is expected to improve in light of the employment data two weeks ago. As such, the market believes that the conditions for reducing debt purchases will be met within a few months, supporting a hawkish sentiment.

Operating rates of copper-zinc alloy billet producers stood at 57.64% in July, down 1.28 percentage points month on month and 8.75 percentage points year on year.