Nickel ore inventories at ports extend gains

Social inventories of silicon metal across Huangpu port, Kunming city and Tianjin port expanded 2,000 mt from the previous week to 42,000 mt as of Friday July 30.

Shanghai base metals traded mixed after opening on Thursday morning, as Fed failed to set a timeline for tapering asset purchase, and COVID-19 pandemic made a comeback. Meanwhile, their counterparts on LME mostly went up.

SMM data showed that China’s social inventories of aluminium across eight consumption areas fell 26,000 mt on the week to 832,000 mt as of June 24, mainly due to the decline in Wuxi and Hainan.

Shanghai base metals were mostly lower on Tuesday morning as investors awaited the release of China's trade data for June. Meanwhile, their counterparts on the LME also fell for the most part.

SMM data showed that social inventories of refined zinc ingots across Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong and Hebei increased 1,700 mt from last Friday July 9 to 122,000 mt as of Monday July 12. The stocks were up 6,200 mt from July 5.

SMM data showed that the stocks rose 4,200 mt from the prior week to 439,800 mt as of Friday July 9.

This is a roundup of China's metals weekly inventory as of July 9.

Zinc inventories in China fell over the weekend, primarily propelled by a decrease in Shanghai and Guangdong.

Inventories of refined nickel in the Shanghai bonded areas fell this week, as shipments under bill of lading were delayed due to COVID-19 related lockdowns while there were flows from bonded areas to domestic markets.  SMM data showed that inventories of pure nickel in the Shanghai bonded areas stood at 17,900 mt as of Friday April 17, down from 18,600 mt a week earlier.

Nickel mining in Surigao del Norte province, the Philippines has yet to resume, SMM learned, even as a large local miner said Monday its two units in the region will resume ore shipments.