SHANGHAI, Aug 22 (SMM) - The aluminium ingot social inventories across China’s eight major markets totalled 683,000 mt as of August 22, up 3,000 mt from last Thursday, but 60,000 mt lower than in the same period last year. The figure was 13,000 mt higher than at the end of July.

Although cargo outflows from social warehouses increased by 7,300 mt on a week-on-week basis last week, the arrivals of cargoes in Wuxi and Hangzhou caused the total social inventories to maintain a slight increase. Some cargoes in south China were transferred to other regions due to big discounts in the region. Downstream producers in Gongyi restocked as needed, and the weekly cargo outflows from social warehouses in the region remained at 50,000 mt. Due to the severe power shortages in Sichuan, local aluminium smelters are almost all shut down. Smelters in Chongqing lowered their output slightly thanks to less tight power supply than in Sichuan.

SMM will pay close attention to how the production reduction by aluminium smelters and downstream processing enterprises in various regions will affect the changes in aluminium ingot and billet inventories.