In terms of SHFE zinc prices, the market should be concerned about zinc concentrate, which is still short of supply.

SMM data showed that the aluminium ingot social inventory in China totalled 1.04 million mt as of February 17, 2022, up 90,000 mt from last Thursday February 10.

The social inventory of lead ingots across Shanghai, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Tianjin increased 7,600 mt from last Friday January 28 and rose 3,100 mt from Monday February 7 to 93,100 mt as of February 11.

The Inventories of rebar across Chinese steelmakers and social warehouses stood at 10.43 million mt as of February 10, up 3.74 million mt or 55.9% from pre-CNY holiday level. Stocks are down 3.59 million mt or 25.6% from a year earlier.

The SHFE nickel continued to rise strongly last week, as the LME and SHFE inventories both dropped to extremely low levels and are expected to keep falling.

The most active SHFE 2203 copper contract prices are expected to move between 69,900-72,000/mt this week, and LME copper will trade between $9,750-10,050/mt.

The social inventory of lead ingots across Shanghai, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Tianjin decreased 1,700 mt from last Friday January 21 and fell 3,900 mt from last Monday January 17, to 86,600 mt as of January 24.

As of Monday January 24, the copper inventory across major Chinese markets increased 1,400 mt from last Friday to 90,400 mt. The inventories recorded gains on Monday over the weekend for eight straight weeks, but the increment has always been moderate.

The nickel ore inventory at Chinese ports dipped 142,000 wmt from a week earlier to 8.45 million wmt as of January 21.

The upstream supply of rare earths continued to be tight. In terms of ore imports, the enterprises in south China are more dependent on ores imported from Myanmar. However, as the COVID-19 pandemic situation in Myanmar has been worrying, the ore traders were pessimistic about the re-opening of the China-Myanmar boarder port in the first quarter of 2022, and they were less interest in selling rare earth ores from Myanmar.