SHANGHAI, Jan 6 (SMM) - As of January 6, the social inventory of lead ingots across Shanghai, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Tianjin was 41,300 mt, up 3,200 mt from December 30 and 2,500 mt from January 3.

According to research, lead prices fell after soaring last week, and thus the prices spread between futures and spots gradually narrowed. The market transactions declined compared with the previous week as downstream enterprises were cautious about procurement amid the wait-and-see attitude. Amid the approaching Chinese New Year and the halted logistics services, the deliverable goods were transferred to the social warehouses, hence the social inventory of lead ingots increased as expected. However, the social inventory increase slowly as the export window of lead ingots remained open and some goods were exported amid the narrowed SHFE/LME price ratio. Next week, the upstream and downstream enterprises in the lead industry chain will have a holiday, hence both supply and demand will decline further. As the restocking of downstream enterprises is about to end, the consumption will decline more obviously. Coupled with the delivery of SHFE 2301 lead contract, the social inventory of lead ingots is expected to extend the increase.