SHANGHAI, May 8 (SMM) – Zinc inventories in China rebounded this week, propelled by substantial increases in Tianjin and Hebei as downstream consumers were held back on procurement due to higher prices and aggressive stockpiling before the holidays and also on the back of arrivals of deliveries from Guangdong.

SMM data showed that social inventories of refined zinc ingots across Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong and Hebei increased 10,100 mt from Thursday April 30 to 237,000 mt as of Friday May 8, after declining for seven consecutive weeks. The stocks were 800 mt higher than Wednesday May 6.

Zhejiang also saw a sharp increase in zinc social inventories this week, while stocks in Guangdong inched up as downstream consumers in the two regions held back from stockpiling due to poor orders as foreign demand has been hit hard by the coronavirus lockdowns.

Compared to Thursday April 30, social inventories of refined zinc across Shanghai, Tianjin and Guangdong increased 6,800 mt, after a decline of 14,900 mt between April 24 and April 30.