Retail Transactions of Reduced Lead Diverged Across Regions amid the Approaching Chinese New Year

SHANGHAI, Jan 10 (SMM) - The average price of SMM reduced lead dropped 150 yuan/mt compared with the previous Friday. The smelters still mainly delivered in the form of long-term orders last week while the retail transactions diverged across regions. As the production of smelters in Inner Mongolia was not stable, the supply of reduced lead decreased. Therefore, the cargo holders quoted firmly and the prices stood at 14,050-14,250 yuan/mt (excluding tax, ex-factory). The prices of goods delivered to Hebei were 14,230-14,450 yuan/mt with freight rate of 180-200 yuan/mt, and that to Henan were 14,330-14,550 yuan/mt with freight rate of 280-300 yuan/mt. Since the delivery-to-factory prices offered by the smelters in Hebei and Henan were 14,150-14,350 yuan/mt last week, the bargaining space between the two parties was small and the retail transactions were relatively thin. It is worth noting that the reduced lead prices offered by a smelter in north-east China stood at 15,150 yuan/mt (including tax, ex-factory), and 1,000 mt of goods were sold to Hebei. The prices of reduced lead offered by smelters in Sichuan stood at 14,150-14,250 yuan/mt last week, and retail transactions were limited as downstream enterprises were cautious about the procurement amid wait-and-see attitude. The overall retail transactions across the country did not improve significantly compared with the previous week.