Copper Inventories across Major Chinese Markets Add 5,000 mt from January 6

SHANGHAI, Jan 9 (SMM) - As of Monday January 9, SMM copper inventory across major Chinese markets stood at 122,500 mt, up 5,000 mt from last Friday and 36,100 mt from the same period last year when the data was 86,400 mt. Over the weekend, the inventories in Shanghai, Guangdong, Jiangsu and Tianjin grew, while those in Jiangxi, Sichuan and Chongqing remained unchanged from last Friday. In detail, the inventory in Shanghai added 300 mt to 83,700 mt, the inventory in Guangdong rose 2,300 mt to 8,700 mt, the inventory in Jiangsu grew 2,200 mt to 23,600 mt, the inventory in Tianjin increased 300 mt to 1,300 mt, while the inventory in Zhejiang dropped 100 mt to 4,200 mt.

The continuous increase in the number of COVID-19 patients hindered the production. Besides, after the New Year's Day holiday, factories across the country successively started an early Chinese New Year holiday in advance, which further pushed up the copper inventory in various places. Smelters ramped up the shipments to east China and south China to dump their in-plant inventories approaching the Chinese New Year holiday.

SMM believes that the arrivals of domestic copper will edge higher this week amid the smelters’ dumping of inventories. Some sources will be shipped for delivery as the SHFE 2301 copper will be delivered next Monday. Processing enterprises are cautious about buying raw materials before the Chinese New Year, and the overall consumption weakens amid the high copper prices. SMM presumes that the copper inventory will continue to grow this week.