Lead social inventories rose to 3-month high amid slow buying

SHANGHAI, Nov 15 (SMM) – Social inventories of lead ingots in China rose for the third straight week, hitting the highest since August 9, showed an SMM survey on November 15. 

As of November 15, lead social stocks across Shanghai, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Tianjin increased by nearly 10,000 mt from a week earlier to 40,000 mt.

Lead smelters continued their delivery to social warehouses but downstream purchases weakened amid bearish market sentiment as the continued decline in prices of feedstock battery scrap cut costs of secondary lead. 

Environmental checks in Anhui province in the second half of the week affected secondary lead supply and significantly narrowed discounts of secondary refined lead. The smaller discounts will see downstream consumers pushing into primary lead, which is expected to slow the increase in lead inventories next week. 

As of November 15, prices of secondary refined lead stood at a discount of 200-50 yuan/mt against the average prices of SMM 1# lead, SMM assessed.