SHFE nonferrous metals rose across the board on Friday, as market sentiment was rallied after China’s Ministry of Finance pledged to make an early allocation of the special-purpose bond quotas for transportation infrastructure construction. 

Stocks of copper across Shanghai bonded area declined for the second consecutive week as of April 3, falling 5,200 mt from a week ago to 333,800 mt, showed SMM data.

Social inventories of copper cathode in south China’s Guangdong province continued to trend downsides, falling for the fourth consecutive week as of Friday April 3. 

Prices of battery-grade nickel sulphate, a raw material used to produce electric vehicle batteries, halted their decline that lasted for much of March, and edged higher as of March 30, as concerns about feedstock supply disruption intensified after Papua New Guinea banned vessels at ports to stop the spread of the COVID-19.

Manufacturing activities across nickel downstream sectors in China expanded in March after contracting for eleven consecutive months, as factories get back to business amid the easing of movement restrictions from COVID-19.

The most-active silicon manganese contract for May delivery on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange (CZCE) surged to its maximum daily limit of 6% to a nearly seven-month high of 6,950 yuan/mt on March 26, as a nationwide lockdown of major ore supplier South Africa exacerbated supply woes. South Africa has imposed a 21-day nationwide lockdown from midnight on Thursday, in a bid to contain the coronavirus outbreak.

China's ternary precursor market will likely face continued headwinds of falling export orders for digital batteries and delays in recovery of new energy vehicle demand, as the global spread of the coronavirus has yet to show signs of slowing. This is expected to expand the downside room in ternary precursor prices this week. 

Transactions of spot copper in Shanghai were stagnant on the morning of Thursday March 19 as financial market volatility and worries about the crippling impact of the coronavirus kept consumers on the sidelines. 

The higher profits, however, have not prompted steelmakers to shift their molten iron to produce rebar at the expense of HRC, given current greater inventory pressure of rebar and uncertainties around the strength of the price rally. As of March 17, the profit gap has expanded to 126 yuan/mt, up from 10-30 yuan/mt in early March, with the national average prices of rebar rising over 100 yuan/mt in the month to March 17. 

Linyi Yichen Nickel Chrome Alloy’s stainless steel new materials project, which is designed with an annualised capacity of 500,000 mt, has commenced construction in February and the phased I capacity will commission by end-October.