Copper Inventory in China Bonded Zone to Grow

SHANGHAI, Mar 14 - The bonded zone inventory will increase slightly this week on intensive arrivals of imported goods in mid-March and the continuous exports by Chinese smelters.

As of March 10, copper inventories in the domestic bonded zones increased 10,300 mt from March 3 to 195,500 mt according to SMM survey. The inventory in the Guangdong bonded zone fell 1,300 mt from a week earlier to 16,200 mt , while that in the Shanghai bonded zone added 11,600 mt to 179,300 mt. The inventory increase was contributed by the exports of domestic smelters and the arrivals of some bill of lading at bonded zone warehouses. The import losses stood at 300-500 yuan/mt, which once enabled the shipments of goods stored at warehouses. However, at present, under the contango structure of SHFE front-month copper over the SHFE next-month copper contract, most traders stood on the sidelines before the delivery of the SHFE 2303 copper, limiting the warrant shipments.