SHANGHAI, Jul 29 (SMM) - As of Friday July 29, SMM copper inventory across major Chinese markets decreased by 12,400 mt from Monday to 70,600 mt, down 23,900 mt from last Friday. The weekly inventory has been declining for two consecutive weeks, and it will not rise in the short term. Compared with Monday's data, the inventories across China decreased this week. The total inventory dropped by 79,600 mt compared with the same period last year when the inventory was recorded at 150,200 mt. Among them, the inventory in Guangdong dropped by 54,600 mt, and the inventory in Shanghai dipped by 22,000 mt. The decrease in inventory this week was contributed by the drop in supply. Firstly, the amount of imported copper in all regions of China remained low. Secondly, domestic smelters were still under maintenance, and the supply did not grow.
In detail, the inventory in Shanghai decreased by 9,500 mt to 56,000 mt due to the fewer customs clearance of imported copper, and the inventory in Guangdong fell by 2,000 mt to 7,000 mt because of the maintenance of a smelter in Guangxi and the decrease in imported copper.
Looking forward, some smelters will resume production next week and the customs clearance of imported copper will also increase, so the supply is expected to recover. However, the downstream consumption is expected to be better than this week. According to the SMM research, many copper rod factories will resume their production next week from maintenance. The increase in demand will be faster than that in supply, thus the weekly inventory will still fall.
