SHANGHAI, Mar 13 (SMM) - After the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday, aluminium ingot social inventories were in a seasonal accumulation cycle throughout February, with a monthly increase of 221,000 mt, but the growth slowed down significantly at the end of last month. The social inventories stood at 1.266 million mt as of March 9, up 122,000 mt or 10% from the same period last year. Considering output cuts by smelters and downstream production recovery, the social inventories are unlikely to grow considerably in the future and may even enter a destocking cycle in mid-to-late March.
The aluminium billet social inventories began to fall in the third week after the CNY holiday, and the destocking cycle came earlier than in the same period of previous years. The inventories rose slightly on a weekly basis to 163,000 mt as of March 9 due to increased proportion of aluminium billets by smelters and concentrated cargo arrivals, but the accumulation will only be temporary.
