Seasonal peak for hardware, low zinc prices grow Nov operating rates at zinc alloy producers

Operating rates across licensed smelters of secondary lead in Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan and Guizhou stood at 61.11% this week, down 1.62% from the previous week, an SMM survey showed.

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.

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.

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.

It has been more than 3 months after China is hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, and restrictions on industrial activities and transportation were the harshest in February. During this period, SMM is continuously tracking market recovery on the metals market. Please see our detailed findings for the nonferrous metals sector below. We will keep you posted on the latest happenings via our website www.metal.com and our social media channels on Linkedin and Twitter. Please register for our webinars in March as we continue to connect you with the latest happening in the China ferrous and nonferrous metals market. The next session is happening on Wednesday March 18, 5pm CST, where we present to you a macro update of the resumption of metals industry as China recovers gradually from COVID-19 , with a deep-dive in the ferrous metals markets.

Operating rates across Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hubei and Hebei averaged 55.21% in the week ended January 3

Operating rates across EAF steelmakers stood at 57% as of Oct 11, down 2 percentage points from the middle of Sep

The rate gained 1.23 percentage points from the prior week to stand at 53.06% in the week to Aug 16