The galvanised iron tower sector is expected to give a significant boost to zinc consumption in 2020 as the construction of “new infrastructure” drives the commencement of a large number of ultra-high voltage power grid projects in the second half of the year.

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%.

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.

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.

London and Shanghai base metals cruised broadly lower in early morning trade on Monday, as investors continue to assess the economic impact of the global coronavirus pandemic that continues to spread rapidly.

Shanghai base metals were higher for the most part in early morning trade on Friday, while most of their counterparts on the London Metal Exchange were mixed. LME tin dived more than 7% to a new more than one-decade trough, while its SHFE counterpart plunged nearly 5% to its lowest in close to four years.

London base metals cruised higher across the board in early morning trade on Wednesday, rebounding from sharp losses on Tuesday. Following overnight plunges in London base metals, Shanghai base metals opened broadly lower.

On the Shanghai Futures Exchange, copper closed the day up 0.3% and aluminium gained 0.4%. Tin tumbled nearly 3% to lead the be worst performer, nickel dropped 1.1%, lead fell 0.9% and zinc slipped 0.6%. Base metals on the London Metal Exchange extended the rally in European trading hours. The comeback was strong, with nickel jumping more than 7% on the day as of 18:30 Beijing time.  

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.