China imported 6,600 mt (Co content) of cobalt raw materials in January 2021, down 28% on the month, but up 2% on the year, customs data showed. In February, imports stood at 6,400 mt (Co content), down 3% from January, but up 24% from a year ago. Imports totalled 12,900 mt (Co content) in the two months, up 12% from the same period last year. 

In recent years, the steel industry has witnessed a series of reforms. From key words such as the "supply-side reform" in 2016, the "capacity reduction" in 2017, the "ultra-low emission transformation" in 2018, and the "accelerating state-owned enterprise reform" in 2019, "high-quality development" in 2020 and "carbon peak", "carbon neutrality", "reduction of crude steel output", "promoting mergers and reorganization of the steel industry", "high-quality development of the steel industry” in 2021, we can see that China's steel industry is gradually moving towards green development.

China produced 8,958 mt of tin ore and concentrate in December, up 24.3% on the month, but down 4.2% on the year, and output totalled 94,463 mt in 2020, up 10.4% from a year ago, data from National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed.

China imported 9,100 mt (Co content) of cobalt raw materials in December 2020, up 2% from November, but down 9% from a year ago, customs data showed. Imports totalled 90,000 mt (Co content) in 2020, basically the same as the previous year. 

South Africa has tightened its COVID-19 prevention measures imposing Level III lockdowns as the pandemic has worsened, triggering concerns about supply of cobalt raw materials.

China imported 1.83 million mt of copper ore and concentrate (hereinafter referred to as copper concentrate) in November 2020, a month-on-month increase of 8.3% and a year-on-year decrease of 15%, according to China Customs.

China's refined nickel imports totalled 8,414 mt in October, down 37.65% on the month and 29.09% on the year. The import of unwrought unalloyed nickel with the Ni and Co total content over 99.99% and Co content less than 0.005% dropped 93 mt from September to 762 mt. The imports of other unwrought unalloyed nickel dropped 4,157 mt to 7,652 mt on the month, accounting for 90.94% of the total import. China's import of refined nickel from January to October cumulated 106,000 mt, down 37.98% on the year.

The stainless steel market remained stable with scarce transactions. The basic quotations of #304 cold rolled coils were between 12,900-13,400 yuan/mt. According to the survey from traders, due to the tight spot supply from Hongwang, some agents had suspended selling coils, and they are reserving the supply for later sale of plates.

Mainstream refining charges (RCs) of domestic blister copper stood between 1,350 -1,550 yuan/mt on a delivery to factory basis in October, with the monthly average RCs down 50 yuan/mt from the previous month.

China approved just 121,000 mt of aluminium scrap for imports in its 12th batch of approvals, bringing the total approved amounts to 818,000 mt so far this year, according to the China Solid Waste and Chemicals Management.