Discounts of high-grade NPI against stainless steel scrap averaged at 122 yuan/mtu, which was slightly lower than the previous week, but the price per mtu remained cost-effective.

There is a sharp rise in nickel prices recently due to capital factors as the short term fundamentals of nickel pig iron (NPI) and stainless steel exceeded expectations, boosting the spot prices of related products. On the other hand, Indonesian NPI resources are eroding the share of the domestic NPI market. The SMM nickel team gives a near term outlook on the NPI market.

The most actively traded stainless steel contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange advanced more than 3% to a more than three-week peak of 13,195 yuan/mt in morning trade, on track for the first weekly gain in five weeks.

China’s copper cathode output continued to rise in May after some of the smelters recovered from maintenance.

Tianrun Special Alloy, a high-grade nickel pig iron (NPI) producer in north China’s Inner Mongolia will suspend production at the end of June, when its existing nickel ore stocks are expected to be depleted, SMM learned.

Tsingshan’s stainless steel mill in south China’s Fujian province has just made another large purchase of high-grade nickel pig iron (NPI), bringing its cumulative procurement for this month to 100,000 mt which is estimated to secure its production until at least July.

China’s copper cathode output in March increased even as secondary copper production continued to contract due to the unfavourable price spread between copper cathode and copper scrap, in addition to copper scrap supply issues. The global outbreak of COVID-19 took a toll on copper scrap supply from Malaysia.

Prices of spot manganese have not received significant support from the resumption of downstream demand and have extended their slide this week. SMM expects the prices will remain weak with pressure from elevated inventories of #200 cold- and hot- rolled stainless steel.

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.

Foreign trade vessels that arrived at Chinese ports between March 1 and June 30 are exempt from port construction dues, which are paid by the Chinese importers to local authorities, a move aimed at...