[SMM thread monthly carding] supply VS demand, May thread price who is the main ups and downs?

As of April 15 Friday, SMM China copper inventory across major markets in China added 4,000 mt from Monday April 11 to 139,300 mt, down slightly by 1,000 mt from last Friday. The weekly inventory dropped again after a short increase last week. Compared with the domestic inventory recorded on Monday, the local stocks all added except for Shanghai during this period.

As of Friday, April 8, SMM copper inventory across mainstream regions in the country achieved the first weekly rise since March 4, with an increase of 3400 mt to 140300 mt compared with Wednesday April 6, and a slight increase of 2600 mt compared with last Friday.

The social inventory of lead ingots across Shanghai, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Tianjin dropped 3,200 mt from Friday March 11 and rose 9,800 mt from Monday March 7 to 119,000 mt as of March 14.

China’s lithium carbonate output was 18,609 mt in February, a month-on-month decrease of 2% but a year-on-year increase of 51%.

According to SMM survey, the operating rates of magnesium powder plants were suppressed under the impact of Beijing Winter Olympics. Some plants in Tianjin and Shanxi cut the production, and the overall output declined by 30%.

Intraday carbonate lithium prices recorded high ahead of the Chinese New Year holiday. The supply side was affected by the shutdown and maintenance of the upstream lithium salt manufacturers and the production reduction of the brine lake.

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 European energy issues did not worsen last week, but the overall market bullishness remained.

The electricity prices fell to recent lows due to warmer temperature in Europe last week.