Domestic aluminum ingot inventory showed resilience

On Apr 18, 2024, SMM data showed that the social inventory of aluminum ingots in China’s eight major markets was 844,000 mt, (the amount for sale stood at 718,000 mt), down 10,000 mt WoW, down 15,000 mt compared with Apr 15 and 91,000 mt YoY, remaining at the lowest compared to the same period of past seven years. Although domestic aluminum ingot inventories grew slightly at the beginning of the week due to concentrated arrival of goods over the weekend, the overall inventories performance remained resilient. According to SMM statistics, the outflow of aluminum ingots from warehouses in the first week of April was 111,500 mt, up 9,500 mt WoW. Excluding the impact of fewer trading days in the week after the Qingming Festival holiday, it still increased by 4,600 mt compared with the last week of March, which was the best level for past half month. Domestic spot aluminum prices stabilized at 20,000 yuan/mt since mid-April. However, with the arrival of downstream peak season, the impact of imported goods on the spot market weakened, and the bullish sentiment picked up amid high aluminum prices. Spot trades in the three places were relatively active since April. Discounts rapidly narrowed, and were almost zero in east China on Apr 12. Supported by rigid demand, the spot market's adaptability to current aluminum price has been significantly improved.