SHANGHAI, Feb 10 (SMM)—Social inventories of lead ingots across Shanghai, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Tianjin rose 5,600 mt from the previous week to 42,300 mt as of Wednesday February 10. This was up 400 mt from Monday February 8.

Export for those plants which plan to operate normally during the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday, upstream and downstream plants have already been off for the holiday, and thus trades were quiet in the spot market. In addition, the suspension of logistics also helped to keep lead social inventories stable.

More primary and secondary lead smelters will operate as usual during the CNY holiday, an SMM survey showed, which is likely to further boost inventories.