Chinese silicon plants may face difficulties to resume production as scheduled in the wet season starting from June as the global widespread COVID-19 has disrupted the supply chain and led to a shortage of raw material wood charcoal. SMM learned that most silicon plants have conducted maintenance and tried to secure feedstock for the preparation of resumption.

Social inventories of stainless steel in China showed signed of declines at end-March, after the stocks hit the highest level on record last month. However, downstream demand has yet to recover sufficiently to support a sustained slide in the inventories, which may threaten lingering inventory pressure in April that will keep stainless steel prices under pressure. 

Trades in the spot copper market in Shanghai were active with spot premiums rising on the morning of March 31 as upbeat data on China’s manufacturing activities improved market sentiment and led to...

Transactions of spot copper were active in Shanghai on the morning of Friday March 27 as traders stepped up purchases on reduced futures prices. This prompted spot cargo holders to lift premiums.

Prices of rebar may continue to struggle against the headwind of slower-than-expected recovery of downstream demand as manpower issues constrain the construction progress even as the resumption rate of work for building and infrastructure projects has climbed to 86.05% as of March 25, showed an SMM survey. 

Transactions of spot copper in Shanghai revived on the morning of Wednesday March 25 as the copper futures continued to regain losses from earlier this week and this improved market sentiment. Trading activities were brisk in early session this morning with downstream consumer buying on relatively low prices and traders procuring for the delivery of long-term contracts.

Treatment charges for spot copper concentrate dropped last week, as fears of supply disruption grew after a slew of countries including major copper producers—Chile and Peru, put more stringent measures in place to contain the fast-spreading COVID-19 pandemic. The SMM copper concentrate index, which assesses TCs for imported copper concentrate spot trades in China, stood at $68.35/mt for the week ended March 20, down $3.12/mt from a one-year peak of $71.47/mt in the prior week.

Domestic downstream companies were on the sidelines and tended to deplete their in-plant stocks instead of replenishing inventories in light of their low operating rates and potential further declines in silicon prices.

The most active copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange for May delivery fell 6% to its daily limit-down at 39,960 yuan/mt in Wednesday afternoon trade.

The price spread of domestic and overseas cobalt continued to expand, which coupled with rising inventories of cobalt salts in China, added to bearish and cautious sentiment in the market. In the lithium sector, demand recovery in the downstream power battery market remained slow and barely supported prices of battery-grade lithium carbonate. The revival of the digital devices market underpinned prices of industrial-grade lithium carbonate. SMM expects the near-term price development of battery raw materials to be determined by expectations of demand recovery. If the global coronavirus outbreak fails to be effectively addressed in the second quarter, subdued downstream demand may continue to depress prices of upstream raw materials.