China’s imports of nickel ore shrank in April as mining operations and shipments from the top supplier—the Philippines—were suspended to stem the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nickel ore inventories across all Chinese ports continued to fall sharply this week, decreasing 347,000 wmt from last Friday April 24 to 8.85 million wmt as of Thursday April 30, showed SMM data.

Social inventories of lead ingots in China continued to trend downsides this week, but the decline slowed down from a week ago due to rising supplies of secondary lead.

China’s nickel ore imports from the Philippines, one of the major sources of ore supply, could be badly hit in April as the Philippines has suspended all mining operations in its nickel mining hub...

Zinc inventories in China continued to fall over the weekend, propelled by declines in east and north China where downstream consumers were keen to make purchases. SMM data showed that social inventories of refined zinc ingots across Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong and Hebei stood at 304,000 mt as of Monday March 30, down 3,000 mt from Friday March 27 and 20,000 mt from Monday March 23.

Inventories of steel rebar across Chinese steelmakers and social warehouses fell for the second consecutive week as of March 26 on the back of improved downstream purchases. However, the overall inventories remained significantly higher than the same period after the Chinese New Year holiday last year, which threatens some downside risk in spot rebar prices. SMM expects the overall inventories to return to levels of the previous year only around mid-May.

Inventories of aluminium billet in China fell for the third consecutive week as of March 26, due to stable deliveries and reduced arrivals.

Social inventories of long steel (including wire rods and rebar) in Guangzhou fell 4.24% in the week ended March 25 to 2.3 million mt, 25.49% higher than the same period after the Lunar New Year holiday last year, showed SMM data.

China’s imports of nickel ore shrank sharply in February as Indonesia banned exports from the start of the year. China imported 1.38 million mt of nickel ore and concentrate last month, down 48.4% from January and 31.9% from February 2019, according to SMM calculations based on data from China customs. China’s nickel ore imports have fallen for five consecutive months.

Zinc inventories in China continued to trend higher over the weekend, as demand remained muted amid the epidemic outbreak