SHFE nonferrous metals rose across the board on Friday, as market sentiment was rallied after China’s Ministry of Finance pledged to make an early allocation of the special-purpose bond quotas for transportation infrastructure construction. 

Operating rates across primary lead smelters in Henan, Hunan and Yunnan provinces averaged 53.8% in the week ended April 3, up 1.3 percentage points from the prior week, showed an SMM survey.

Crude oil prices jumped on Thursday, following their biggest-ever quarterly losses, as US President Donald Trump said he expected Saudi Arabia and Russia to reach a deal soon to end their oil price war.

The impact from the coronavirus pandemic on China’s aluminium exports is mounting as greater part of the world comes under lockdown to stop the spread of the virus. On Wednesday, Vietnam, a major buyer of Chinese aluminium, entered into a 15-day period of nationwide isolation. Residents are required to stay at home and can only go outside for “essential needs,” such as food, medicines, urgent medical services or to go to work at companies permitted by the government to remain open.

Shanghai base metals opened mostly higher on Wednesday morning, as Beijing said that it will roll out a set of fiscal and financial policies to expand domestic demand, assist businesses reopening, sustain employment, and help all types of businesses to weather this difficult time.

SMM data showed that stocks across eight consumption areas in China, including SHFE warrants, decreased 3,000 mt from last Thursday March 26 to 1.664 million mt as of Monday March 30.

In early February, raw materials shortage due to suspended logistics and disrupted operations at mines weighed on production at silicon mills in Xinjiang, Sichuan, Guizhou and Heilongjiang. This outweighed ramped-up production in Fujian, Guangxi and Chongqing and accounted for the declines in overall operating rates in February.

Zinc rose 0.8%, tin climbed 0.7%, nickel advanced 0.6%, aluminium gained 0.2% and copper inched up 0.1%, while lead fell 0.6%.

Lead plunged 1.4% to lead the losses across nonferrous metals, zinc dropped 1.2%, copper fell 0.8%, aluminium shed 0.7%, and nickel lost 0.5%, while tin extended gains by 0.6%.

SHFE tin, copper and nickel advanced 1.4%, zinc rose 0.7%, aluminium gained 0.5%, while lead stayed flat.