Holiday Atmosphere Gradually Intensifies, Purchases Decrease, East China Spot Aluminum Turns to Discount [SMM Spot Aluminum Midday Review]

SMM September 29 News:

SHFE aluminum mainly fluctuated and adjusted in the morning session, with the price center holding around 20,700 yuan/mt. In east China, pre-holiday stockpiling was largely completed, downstream buying sentiment weakened noticeably, and some market participants gradually entered holiday mode, leading to sluggish market activity. Actual transactions occurred at a discount of 10 yuan/mt to parity against the SMM average price. Today, the east China market selling sentiment index was 3.26, down 0.35 WoW; the buying sentiment index was 3.05, down 0.42 WoW. Today's SMM A00 aluminum price was 20,690 yuan/mt, down 80 yuan/mt from the previous trading day, at a discount of 10 yuan/mt against the SHFE 2510 contract, down 10 yuan/mt from the previous trading day.

In the central China market, approaching the Double Festival holiday, some suppliers actively sold goods. Considering low inventory and relatively tight spot supply, suppliers still intended to refuse to budge on prices. However, downstream stockpiling was successively completed, purchase intention weakened, and buying sentiment pulled back. Intraday actual transaction prices continued to weaken against the SMM central China aluminum price, dropping from a premium of 20-30 yuan/mt to near parity. Trading volume weakened compared to Friday. Today, the central China market selling sentiment index was 3.87, up 0.09 WoW; the buying sentiment index was 3.77, down 0.16 WoW. SMM central China A00 aluminum was recorded at 20,750 yuan/mt, up 70 yuan/mt from the previous trading day, at a premium of 50 yuan/mt against the SHFE 10 contract, flat from the previous trading day. The Henan-Shanghai price spread rose 10 yuan/mt WoW to 60 yuan/mt.

Inventory side, national aluminum ingot social inventory totaled 592,000 mt today, destocking 25,000 mt WoW from last Thursday. As downstream stockpiling activity nears its end, support from spot premiums is expected to weaken.