Shanghai base metals were mostly higher on Wednesday morning as investors waited for the release of China's latest benchmark lending rate. Meanwhile, their counterparts on the LME also rose for the most part.

Silicon prices of various grades started to decline after a short period of stability in December 2020. The pressure on the supply side began to appear after the demand fell with high stocks of downstream raw material.

Nonferrous metals on both SHFE and LME declined across the board on Tuesday morning after shares on Wall Street pulled back overnight from all-time highs.

Ganfeng Lithium, a top lithium producer in China, has said it is stepping up efforts to construct a lithium hydroxide expansion project, with an annualised capacity of 50,000 mt, to catch up with the schedule delayed by the coronavirus outbreak. The project is slated to come online in Q4 this year.

The short-term supply tightness of cobalt raw materials lifted cobalt salt prices last week, but limited trades and continued weakness in consumption may cap any rebound in the near-term prices. Prices of lithium carbonate will unlikely to extend declines given the raw materials costs and the trade prospects in Q2 this year. 

China has held the most important political event of the year on Friday May 22- The National People's Congress (NPC) meetings, also known as “Two Sessions” in Chinese. The annual gatherings will also reveal Beijing's plans for how to revive an economy battered by COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to the country's first economic contraction after decades of continuous growth.

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.

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.

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. 

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...