The backwardation of the SHFE April copper contract over the SHFE May copper contract stabilised at around 90 yuan/mt.
According to SMM statistics last Friday, the social inventory in Shanghai increased by 8,600 mt from last Monday to 121,300 mt.
There were still inflows of imported copper last week, and shipments leaving warehouses, most of which were SHFE warrants offered for sale to generate cash, were limited.
The market still need to pay attention to the impact from the fluctuation of the price spread between the SHFE front-month and next-month contracts on spot trades this week. Social inventories continued to fall in March. This, coupled with concentrated maintenance at smelters scheduled for April as well as the import losses which can hardly improve any time soon, will bolster spot premiums in the near term.
