Lead Smelters Held Fewer Lead Concentrate Stocks in February

SHANGHAI, Mar 16 (SMM) - In February, lead smelters held 21.79 days of lead concentrate stocks on average, 2.45 days shorter than in January.

The dressing activities of many mines in Inner Mongolia, Gansu and other regions had not resumed in early February and the import window of lead concentrates remained closed, thus smelters were digesting raw materials that they had stocked up before the CNY break. Towards the end of February, lead concentrates from mines in Inner Mongolia, Yunnan and Guangxi began to flow into the market. Smelters were generally cautious about purchasing, even as mines intended to lower TCs, thus their raw material inventories declined to varying degrees.