Snapshot: Steel mills maintenance schedule

The total inventory of rebar across social warehouses and steel makers in China stood at 12.57 million mt as of March 3, up 333,200 mt or 2.7% on the week, but down 5.13 million mt or 29% from the same period last lunar year.

SMM has done a thorough research regarding post-CNY (Chinese New Year) copper cathode supply and demand pattern as well as the potential changes of inventory, which, we assume, must be the key concern of the market participants. The result of the research comes as follows:

The inventory of rebar across Chinese steelmakers and social warehouses stood at 5.62 million mt as of December 9, down 532,000 mt or 8.6% from a week earlier. Stocks are down 569,600 mt or 9.2% from a year earlier.

The inventory of rebar across Chinese steel makers and social warehouses stood at 7.64 million mt as of November 11, down 261,800 mt or 3.3% from a week earlier. Stocks are 90,900 mt or 1.2% higher from a year earlier.

The inventory of rebar across Chinese steel makers and social warehouses stood at 7.9 million mt as of November 4, down 36,400 mt or 0.5% from a week earlier. Stocks are down 569,700 mt or 6.7% from a year earlier.

SMM data showed that China's refined zinc output stood at 508,900 mt in August, down 1.22% on the month and 0.04% on the year. Output from January to August was 4.04 million mt, a year-on-year increase of 4.47%. Alloy output at domestic refined zinc smelters in SMM’s survey sample registered 75,500 mt in August, up 80 mt on the month.

China's import volume of unwrought copper and copper semis in August were 393,900 mt, a year-on-year decrease of 41.07%, and a month-on-month decrease of 7.2%. The imports from January to August were 3.61 million mt, a year-on-year decrease of 15.4%.

The maintenance starts from Nov 15

Handan will lift the response from Nov 10

Copper tightness should feed through quickly to prices if demand picks up