Social inventories of primary aluminium ingots across eight consumption areas in China, including SHFE warrants, decreased 51,000 mt from last Thursday May 14 to 1.007 million mt as of Monday May 18.

Inventories of steel rebar across Chinese steelmakers and social warehouses accelerated their declines in the week ended May 14 as deliveries improved in various regions after the Labour Day holiday. 

Social inventories of primary aluminium ingots in China continued to fall sharply, propelled by strong demand and fewer arrivals.

SHFE nonferrous metals closed mixed on Wednesday, as copper, aluminium, nickel and tin reversed a pullback at the open. Nickel jumped 1.9%, tin rose 0.6% and copper gained 0.4%, while aluminim dipped 0.1%, zinc fell 0.8% and lead dropped 1.2%.

SMM data showed that inventories of pure nickel in the Shanghai bonded areas declined 700 mt in the week ended April 3 to 18,600 mt, with stocks of cathode shrinking 600 mt to 16,700 mt.

The amounts of cargoes flowing in and out of warehouses at ports fell significantly from last week as traders mostly depleted their inventories and slowed down purchases on falling export orders.

Shanghai base metals, except for tin, opened higher on Friday morning, as oil prices skyrocketed overnight on hopes that Saudi Arabia and Russia could reach a deal.

Social inventories of stainless steel in China showed signed of declines at end-March, after the stocks hit the highest level on record last month. However, downstream demand has yet to recover sufficiently to support a sustained slide in the inventories, which may threaten lingering inventory pressure in April that will keep stainless steel prices under pressure. 

SHFE nonferrous metals, except for tin, relinquished the increase from the previous day, with lead leading the losses and ending down 1.51%

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.