[SMM lead data on May 8th]

China produced 848,500 mt of copper cathode in March, up 8.42% MoM and down 5.79% YoY, according to SMM statistics.

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

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 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.

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

SMM data showed that China’s alumina output was 6.20 million mt in September, including 5.99 million mt of metallurgical grade alumina. The daily average output of metallurgical grade alumina was 199,500 mt, up 0.46% on the month and 5.05% on the year.

Domestic zinc output stood at 508900 mt in August 2021, down 1.22% or 6300 mt on the month and 0.04% on the year, according to SMM. Cumulative output in January-August totalled 4.042 million mt, a year-on-year increase of 4.47%. Alloy output at domestic zinc smelters in SMM’s survey sample was 75,500 mt in August, up 80 mt on the month.

The Group for Air Pollution Prevention and Control in Handan City, Hebei, issued a plan on September 1 for limiting production in key industries from September 1 to October 31, which further strengthened the production restrictions.

China’s polysilicon output hit a new high at 43,100 mt in August, up 3.9% on the month and 62% on the year.