SHANGHAI, Jan 13 (SMM) - As of January 13, the social inventory of lead ingots across Shanghai, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Tianjin was 49,800 mt, up 8,400 mt from January 6 and 6,200 mt from January 9.

According to research, the deliverable lead ingots gradually arrived the warehouses before the delivery of SHFE 2301 lead contract as the logistics services will be halted amid approaching Chinese New Year. In addition, the downstream restocking period was about to end and most lead-acid battery enterprises will take holidays for CNY since this weekend). As such, the market transactions decreased sharply and the social inventory increased accordingly. Next, only some large-sized lead-acid battery companies will continue to produce until the Chinese New Year. As the logistics services will be halted, the lead market transactions will decline further and the lead ingot inventory, especially that of smelters, may continue to rise.