SMM News on April 30:
In terms of aluminum billet inventory, according to SMM statistics, as of April 30, the aluminum billet inventory in major domestic consumption areas reached 151,000 mt, a decrease of 11,600 mt from Monday and 26,800 mt from last Thursday, indicating smooth destocking. Benefiting from the improvement in downstream construction extrusion orders and production, the rigid demand for aluminum billets showed a marginal strengthening trend. Coupled with the significant pullback in aluminum prices from the previous period, the production enthusiasm in the end-use market improved, driving inventory destocking. Meanwhile, stockpiling before the Labour Day holiday released consumption momentum. Aluminum billet producers maintained low in-plant inventory levels, and market suppliers actively lowered prices before the holiday to accelerate the pace of outflows from warehouses. Inflows to social warehouses were low, while outflows increased, exacerbating the rapid decline in inventory. From the perspective of outflow data, aluminum billet outflows from warehouses for the week of April 21-25 were 67,000 mt. Despite a WoW decrease of 1,900 mt, outflows remained at highs, indicating the continuation of resilient end-use consumption.
The macro and fundamental fronts remained stable this week. However, due to rigid demand stockpiling before the holiday, SHFE aluminum exhibited a structure of higher near-term prices and lower forward prices. The most-traded SHFE aluminum contract fluctuated around the 20,000 yuan/mt level during the week, with bulls and bears evenly matched. As the holiday approached, the participation of aluminum billet suppliers in the market declined somewhat. However, due to persistent downstream demand and a shortage of special-type aluminum billets, processing fee quotes in the three regions remained firm, with some areas even seeing increases in processing fees amid the upward trend in aluminum prices. In terms of transactions, downstream enterprises conducted pre-holiday stockpiling based on demand. With an increase in consumption orders, the market's stockpiling sentiment turned positive, and market transactions improved. As of April 30, 2025, the aluminum billet market in Foshan reported processing fees of 320/370 yuan/mt, unchanged from last week. In Wuxi, aluminum billet processing fees were reported at 350/450 yuan/mt, with 120 aluminum billets rising by 40 yuan/mt and 90 aluminum billets rising by 90 yuan/mt. In Nanchang, processing fees were reported at 400/450 yuan/mt, up by 90 yuan/mt. (Unit: yuan/mt)
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