Falling nickel futures prices hold back smelters

SHANGHAI, Jul 5 (SMM) – Spot lead traded weakly across China on Thursday July 5 as falling prices of nickel futures held smelters back from offloading supplies, SMM learned.

Downstream consumers either adopted a watch-and-wait stance or purchased on demand.

In Shanghai, Jinsha offered at 20,930-21,030 yuan/mt with a premium of 200-300 yuan/mt over the SHFE 1807 contract. Mengzi offered at 20,790 yuan/mt with a premium of 1,100 yuan/mt over the SHFE 1808 contract. Yuguang offered at 20,740 yuan/mt with a premium of 1,050 yuan/mt over the SHFE 1808 contract. Kazakhstan lead offered at 20,640 yuan/mt with a premium of 950 yuan/mt over the SHFE 1808 contract.

In Guangdong, Nanhua offered at 20,650-20,700 yuan/mt with a discount of 100-50 yuan/mt against SMM 1# assessments.

In Henan province, Yongning offered at 20,650-20,700 yuan/mt with a discount of 100-50 yuan/mt against SMM 1# assessments. Smelters across Henan are likely to gradually recover production next week as environmental inspections end.

In Hunan province, Shuikoushan offered at 20,700-20,750 yuan/mt with a discount of 50-0 yuan/mt against SMM 1# assessments. Other small smelters offered at 20,550-20,600 yuan/mt with a discount of 200-150 yuan/mt against SMM 1# assessments. Some demand was diverted to secondary lead on its wider discounts against SMM 1# assessments.