[SMM Analysis] Analysis of the reasons for the sudden and continuous increase of LME Aluminum inventory

The total inventory of rebar across social warehouses and steel makers in China stood at 12.04 million mt as of March 31, down 43,400 mt or 0.4% on the week, and down 3.55 million mt or 22.8% from the same period last year.

The total inventory of construction steel across social warehouses and steel makers in China stood at 12.08 million mt as of March 24, up 43,000 mt or 0.4% on the week, and down 3.51 million mt or 22.5% from the same period last lunar year.

This is a roundup of China's metals weekly inventory as of March 18.

The copper inventories in the domestic bonded zones increased 16,200 mt from December 31 to 203,500 mt as of Friday January 7. The inventory rose more quickly.

Total zinc inventory across seven Chinese markets stood at 124,200 mt as of December 20, flat from December 17, but down 2,300 mt from December 13.

The moves of SHFE and LME have been heading toward different directions recently. As of December 8, LME lead has been falling for five consecutive sessions. SHFE lead, on the other hand, rallied strongly after falling for two days in a row, and rose 1.88% to 15,175 yuan/mt to close the day.

The stocks of aluminium billet in five major consumption areas dropped 7,200 mt to 71,700 mt on December 2 from a week ago, a decrease of 9.14%. And the inventory has been falling for seven straight weeks.

The social inventory of lead ingots across Shanghai, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Tianjin decreased 4,300 mt from November 26 and 19,500 mt from November 22 to 134,900 mt as of November 29.

Social inventories of lead ingots across Shanghai, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Tianjin decreased 20,300 mt from November 19 and 15,200 mt from November 22 to 139,200 mt as of November 26.

Market focus this week includes the readings of the manufacturing PMI in the Eurozone in November and the Markit manufacturing PMI in the United States in November; the one-year loan market interest rate as of November 22 in China. On the events front, the Federal Reserve FOMC will release the minutes of the monetary policy meeting this Thursday; Bank of England Governor Bailey will deliver a speech this Friday.