SMM News on July 17:
As of Thursday, July 17, copper inventories in SMM's mainstream regions across China decreased by 4,300 mt from Monday to 143,300 mt, and slightly decreased by 400 mt compared to last Thursday. Weekly inventories ended a two-week increase and resumed a decline, currently standing 231,800 mt lower than the 375,100 mt recorded in the same period last year.
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Specifically, inventories in the Shanghai region decreased by 4,400 mt from Monday to 86,700 mt. The decline in inventories in this region was partly due to the lower volume of imported copper cleared through customs and partly due to the increase in downstream procurement volume driven by lower copper prices. Inventories in the Jiangsu region increased by 400 mt to 23,800 mt, primarily due to an increase in arrivals, especially deliverable supplies. Inventories in the Guangdong region remained unchanged at 25,800 mt from Monday, with a significant increase in arrivals this week, particularly deliverable supplies. According to statistics, the current warrant volume in the Guangdong region is 19,000 mt, a substantial increase of 9,500 mt compared to last Thursday. Additionally, consumption in this region improved this week, as reflected by the continuous rise in the daily average outflows from warehouses. In the Chengdu-Chongqing and Tianjin regions, inventories slightly decreased due to the recovery in consumption.
Looking ahead, we expect that the arrivals of imported copper will remain low next week, and the arrivals of domestically produced copper will also decline. Without the impact of deliveries, the total supply is expected to be lower than last week. On the downstream consumption side, the maintenance of copper prices at a low level will stimulate downstream enterprises to increase their procurement volume. Therefore, we believe that next week will witness a decrease in supply and an increase in demand, with weekly inventories continuing to decline.
