Social inventories of lead ingots in China continued to trend downsides this week, but the decline slowed down from a week ago due to rising supplies of secondary lead.

Zinc inventories in China continued to fall over the weekend, propelled by declines in east and north China where downstream consumers were keen to make purchases. SMM data showed that social inventories of refined zinc ingots across Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong and Hebei stood at 304,000 mt as of Monday March 30, down 3,000 mt from Friday March 27 and 20,000 mt from Monday March 23.

Inventories of steel rebar across Chinese steelmakers and social warehouses fell for the second consecutive week as of March 26 on the back of improved downstream purchases. However, the overall inventories remained significantly higher than the same period after the Chinese New Year holiday last year, which threatens some downside risk in spot rebar prices. SMM expects the overall inventories to return to levels of the previous year only around mid-May.

Inventories of aluminium billet in China fell for the third consecutive week as of March 26, due to stable deliveries and reduced arrivals.

Social inventories of long steel (including wire rods and rebar) in Guangzhou fell 4.24% in the week ended March 25 to 2.3 million mt, 25.49% higher than the same period after the Lunar New Year holiday last year, showed SMM data.

Linyi Yichen Nickel Chrome Alloy’s stainless steel new materials project, which is designed with an annualised capacity of 500,000 mt, has commenced construction in February and the phased I capacity will commission by end-October. 

Zinc inventories in China continued to trend higher over the weekend, as demand remained muted amid the epidemic outbreak

Logistics partially resumed, allowing lead smelters to move their in-plant stocks to social warehouses before the delivery of the SHFE February contract

Zinc inventories in China continued to trend higher in the second week after the Chinese New Year holiday, as demand recovered slowly with downstream consumers struggling to resume work

Social inventories of long steel (including wire rods and rebar) in Guangzhou stood at 2.05 million mt as of February 12