LME to Raise Initial Margins of Copper and Aluminium Trading from March 31

The moves of SHFE and LME have been heading toward different directions recently. As of December 8, LME lead has been falling for five consecutive sessions. SHFE lead, on the other hand, rallied strongly after falling for two days in a row, and rose 1.88% to 15,175 yuan/mt to close the day.

Market focus this week includes the readings of the manufacturing PMI in the Eurozone in November and the Markit manufacturing PMI in the United States in November; the one-year loan market interest rate as of November 22 in China. On the events front, the Federal Reserve FOMC will release the minutes of the monetary policy meeting this Thursday; Bank of England Governor Bailey will deliver a speech this Friday.

Nickel stocks across LME-approved warehouses gained 2,874 mt on Monday to 69,180 mt

As per data released by LME on Thursday. LME Lead inventory is 145,075 tons, setting new low during past two years.

Recently see continuous drop of LME Copper inventory. During Sept.26th to Nov.23rd, LME inventory totally dropped 86,075 tons but copper price is scarcely boosted by the inventory tendency.

As per data released by LME on Wednesday, LME Zinc inventory dropped to 222,525 tons. As per data released by SHFE, SHFE Zinc inventory rose to 84,510 tons last Friday.

LME Inventory continued to drop over 7,000 tonnes last night. LME Copper rebounded under this influence. SHFE Copper followed with LME with less strength.

As per commitments of traders report released by LME this Tuesday, up to Nov.3rd, fund managers have loaded net long of LME Zinc of 76,101 hands, 477 hands lower than last week.

The London Metal Exchange (LME) will launch cash settled contracts in scrap and rebar on November 23rd.

The French Bank Natixis in its latest research report forecasts LME Aluminium price to average around $1,840 per mt in 2015.