China’s refined tin output fell MoM in July as a large-scale smelter in Yunnan suspended production for maintenance.

China’s primary lead output ended its four-month increases and fell by more than 10,000 mt in July as primary lead smelters, including Yunnan Chihong, Jiangxi Copper, Hunan Shuikoushan and Jingui, undertook routine maintenance. Besides, equipment breakdown across some smelters in Henan, Jiangxi and Yunnan further weighed on July output.

China’s copper cathode output shrank in July as some smelters conducted maintenance to deal with shortage of copper concentrate.

China’s NPI output fell 3% from June and 14.74% from a year earlier to 43,200 mt (Ni content) in July. This included 36,000 mt (Ni content) of high-grade NPI, down 3.87% on month, and 7,200 mt (Ni content) of low-grade NPI, up 1.56% month on month.

SMM data showed that China produced 52,300 mt of nickel sulphate in July, or 11,500 mt in nickel content, up 16.35% from June and 2.8% from a year ago. This included 45,200 mt of battery-grade nickel sulphate and 7,100 mt of electroplating-grade nickel sulphate.

Most of the large-scale copper mines in the world saw year-on-year declines in output in the first half of 2020, according to their H1 production results.

China produced 14,600 mt of refined nickel in July, down 3.05% or 460 mt from June, but up 15.73% from a year earlier.

China’s stainless steel output is 2,179,600 tons in October, up 2.55% MoM. The total output from January to October is 20.14 million tons, up 6% YoY.

Vale’s output fell 3.3% from Q2 to 76,000 tonnes in the third quarter due to maintenance, SMM understands.