SHANGHAI, Aug 29 (SMM) – SHFE lead prices this week failed to continue their strong performance from last week, just barely remaining at last week's highs as supplies recovered in the previously rising market, SMM believes.

As prices rose, primary lead smelters became keen to offload their cargoes and secondary lead smelters turned keen to produce on recovering profits. This eased previous supply shortages and eroded the upward momentum in prices.

Downstream consumers retained their on-demand purchases and did not stockpile.

SMM expects the most traded SHFE lead contract to trade rangebound at 18,000-18,500 yuan/mt after losing steam.