Nickel ore inventories at ports extend gains

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 prices of Ni1.5% ore average stood at $73.5/wmt on a cif basis on July 9, unchanged from a week earlier. Nickel ore prices remained stable this week. Quotations remained high but the mainstream traded prices in the market remained at CIF $72-75/wmt.

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.

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

SMM data showed that social inventories of refined zinc ingots across Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong and Hebei decreased 12,100 mt in the week ended June 25 to 116,500 mt. The stocks fell 6,400 mt from Monday June 21.

Nickel ore inventories across all Chinese ports declined 36,000 wmt from August 21 to 8.35 million wmt as of August 28, showed SMM data.

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.

Transactions were done at a maximum of $45/wmt fob, up $2/wmt from a week earlier,

SHFE nonferrous metals, except for lead, closed higher on US-China trade thaw

The largest high-grade nickel ore supplier in the Philippines, SR Languyan Mining Corp, will stop mining in Oct