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. 

Resumption of production in Yunnan and Sichuan accounted for the rally in April’s operating rates. Silicon plants in Nujiang of Yunnan and Ngawa and Leshan of Sichuan reopened part of their capacity ahead of the arrival of rainy session, and this offset some capacity curtailment in Xinjiang and Chongqing due to losses and tight ore supply. 

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

Last month, the capacity in operation reduced in Xinjiang, Sichuan and Shaanxi. Continued raw materials shortage kept major silicon plants in Xinjiang from resuming the capacity that has been shut down since February. Meanwhile, falling silicon prices prompted some medium-scale producers to cut output or undergo maintenance in the second half of March. 

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.

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. 

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.

Stocks of copper across Shanghai bonded area fell this week, as arrivals dwindled due to COVID-19 outbreak globally and as purchases of hydro-copper under warehouse warrants increased after copper prices stabilised and domestic demand recovered. SMM data showed that Shanghai bonded copper stocks decreased 1,000 mt in the week ended March 27 to 339,000 mt, after a gain of 7,000 mt in the previous week.