Social inventories of lead ingots in China continued to trend downsides this week, but the decline slowed down from a week ago due to rising supplies of secondary lead.

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.

Nickel ore inventories across all Chinese ports decreased 400,000 wmt in the week ended March 27 to 10.26 million wmt, compared to a decline of 670,000 wmt in the previous week, showed SMM data.

Inventories of steel rebar across Chinese steelmakers and social warehouses fell for the second consecutive week as of March 26 on the back of improved downstream purchases. However, the overall inventories remained significantly higher than the same period after the Chinese New Year holiday last year, which threatens some downside risk in spot rebar prices. SMM expects the overall inventories to return to levels of the previous year only around mid-May.

Inventories of aluminium billet in China fell for the third consecutive week as of March 26, due to stable deliveries and reduced arrivals.

Social inventories of long steel (including wire rods and rebar) in Guangzhou fell 4.24% in the week ended March 25 to 2.3 million mt, 25.49% higher than the same period after the Lunar New Year holiday last year, showed SMM data.

The Philippines will ban vessels from entering Surigao del Norte from March 18 to the end of the month, growing concerns about nickel ore supply as the country is the world’s largest exporter of the raw material for stainless steel and nickel pig iron (NPI) following Indonesia’s export ban effective from this year. The ban, which has been signed, is aimed at preventing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed 12 lives out of 140 confirmed infections in the Philippines.

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...

Zinc inventories in China continued to trend higher over the weekend, as demand remained muted amid the epidemic outbreak

Logistics partially resumed, allowing lead smelters to move their in-plant stocks to social warehouses before the delivery of the SHFE February contract