Copper inventories in mainstream areas nationwide increased by 0.68 million tons at the end of the week [SMM Weekly Data].

On Monday, January 29, the SMM national mainstream areas of copper stocks increased by 0.68 million tons to 92,000 tons compared to last Friday. Most regions across the country saw an increase in inventory, with only the Shanghai region experiencing a slight decrease. The total inventory of 263,900 tons is lower than the same period last year by 171,900 tons, with Shanghai lower by 91,400 tons and Guangdong lower by 33,100 tons and Jiangsu lower by 41,000 tons.

Specifically, the Shanghai region stocks fell by 0.08 million tons to 63,200 tons compared to last Friday. Even though there were fewer warehouse arrivals over the weekend, the outflow of stock was still available, resulting in only a slight decrease in the region's stocks. Jiangsu region stocks increased slightly due to the increase of goods from the north moving southward. Meanwhile, Guangdong region inventory increased significantly by 0.64 million tons to 14,800 tons. Whether it was domestic or imported copper, arrivals were higher, and many downstream processing enterprises entered a state of semi-holiday, leading to low average daily inventory from Guangdong.

Looking ahead, we anticipate that this week there will be more downstream activity leading to weakened consumption, resulting in smelters increasing the amount sent to the warehouse. Therefore, we expect that there will be increased supply and weakened consumption this week, with weekly inventories expected to continue to increase.

For more details, please contact raezhang@smm.cn.