Nickel ore port inventory slips further

As of April 15 Friday, SMM China copper inventory across major markets in China added 4,000 mt from Monday April 11 to 139,300 mt, down slightly by 1,000 mt from last Friday. The weekly inventory dropped again after a short increase last week. Compared with the domestic inventory recorded on Monday, the local stocks all added except for Shanghai during this period.

As of Friday, April 8, SMM copper inventory across mainstream regions in the country achieved the first weekly rise since March 4, with an increase of 3400 mt to 140300 mt compared with Wednesday April 6, and a slight increase of 2600 mt compared with last Friday.

Shanghai base metals mostly closed with gains in the overnight trading last Friday as the Fed indicated more aggressive measures for countering the inflation. LME metals basically picked up on Friday as well.

In terms of supply, according to research, the supplies of NORNICKEL nickel, nickel briquette, NIKKELVERK nickel were in critical shortage, mainly due to the large price spread between SHFE and LME.

The social inventory of lead ingots across Shanghai, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Tianjin dropped 3,200 mt from Friday March 11 and rose 9,800 mt from Monday March 7 to 119,000 mt as of March 14.

Shanghai base metals mostly closed with gains on Thursday night. LME metals performed similarly on Thursday.

Total zinc inventories across seven Chinese markets stood at 125,300 mt as of December 10, down 6,300 mt from December 6 and 4,800 mt from December 3.

Huayou Cobalt has commissioned the hydrometallurgical nickel smelting project using laterite nickel ore at its PT.HUAYUE NICKEL COBALT recently after completing the equipment installation and debugging work.

Shanghai nonferrous metals closed with mixed performance as the hawkish rhetoric from US Federal Reserve Chair Powell supressed the market, while the November Caixin PMI in China was relatively positive than before.

SMM data showed that the purchasing manager's index (PMI) for downstream nickel industries, including stainless steel, electroplating, alloy and battery, stood at 49.92 in November. A reading above 50 indicates expansion.