Throughput of Aluminium Scrap Drops Slightly due to the Pandemic Control Measure

SHANGHAI, Oct 25 (SMM) - From October 17 to October 23, the throughput of aluminium scrap in Shandong Linyi East China Nonferrous Metal Market was about 16,900 mt, down 2,300 mt or 11.8% compared with the previous week, that of copper scrap stood at about 28,500 mt, down 6.7% WoW, and that of stainless steel scrap was about 12,900 mt, down 8.04% WoW.
Spot prices of A00 aluminium fluctuated narrowly and dipped 40 yuan/mt from the previous Friday to 18,660 yuan/mt. The average price of tense and taint dropped 100 yuan/mt. In terms of supply, the spot aluminium prices fell 390 yuan/mt last Monday and Tuesday, and upstream retailers shipped actively to mitigate the losses. However, the repeated pandemic in many places in China hindered the logistics and transportation, thus the supply of aluminium scrap did not increase significantly. On the demand side, the average operating rate of leading secondary aluminium producers was 51.6% as the scrap users mainly purchased on dips and the demand increased slightly. In general, the supply and demand of aluminium scrap were stable. However, the pandemic outbreaks in China hindered transportation in Linyi, and the orders of domestic secondary aluminium enterprises have not grown sharply recently.
On Monday October 24, A00 prices fell 10 yuan/mt to 18,650 yuan/mt, and the SHFE 2211 aluminium contract opened at 18,590 yuan/mt and closed at 18,575 yuan/mt after climbing to 18,710 yuan/mt, down 10 yuan/mt or 0.05% from the previous trading day. SMM statistics showed that the inventory of aluminium in major domestic markets was 626,000 mt on Monday, down 38,000 mt from last Monday. At around 17:00 on October 23, Linyi Metal Market was temporarily shut down due to the pandemic outbreak. At present, there is no news on when the operation will resume, so the transaction is stagnated. SMM will keep an eye on the following situation.