Most steelmakers in China continued to maintain full operations and the impact of maintenance on output will further reduce from a month ago in June, driven by existing profits of rebar.

The China Solid Waste and Chemicals Management Bureau, a unit of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, granted import allowances for 10,423 mt of high-grade copper scrap to 14 companies in the latest release, bringing the cumulative quotas for this year to 540,184 mt.

Jiangsu Tafel New Energy Technology on May 17 kicked off construction of its phase II and III capacity of a power battery project, which is located at the Jiangning Development Zone, Nanjing.  

Prices of most light and medium-to-heavy rare earth oxides increased last week as sellers firmed up offers on active enquiries by downstream consumers. SMM expects the improvement in enquiries to continue to support prices of medium-to-heavy rare earth oxides this week, while prices of light rare earth, such as praseodymium-neodymium oxide, will likely pull back as the strength of demand may unable to sustain a price rally. 

Tangshan Fengnan Zongheng steel plant plans to put its 1780mm rolling lines into maintenance for 13 days from May 10, and this could impact hot-rolled coil output by 195,000 mt during the period, according to sources. 

Chinese silicon plants may face difficulties to resume production as scheduled in the wet season starting from June as the global widespread COVID-19 has disrupted the supply chain and led to a shortage of raw material wood charcoal. SMM learned that most silicon plants have conducted maintenance and tried to secure feedstock for the preparation of resumption.

A copper smelter in south-west China has put its facilities into month-long maintenance as scheduled, sources told SMM. 

Social inventories of stainless steel in China showed signed of declines at end-March, after the stocks hit the highest level on record last month. However, downstream demand has yet to recover sufficiently to support a sustained slide in the inventories, which may threaten lingering inventory pressure in April that will keep stainless steel prices under pressure. 

Tangsteel, a subsidiary of China's biggest steelmaker Hebei Iron and Steel Group (HBIS Group), planned to put its 1# galvanising lines into maintenance for three days from April 1, sources told SMM.

Trades in the spot copper market in Shanghai were active with spot premiums rising on the morning of March 31 as upbeat data on China’s manufacturing activities improved market sentiment and led to...