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Despite the hit that the domestic and global economies suffered from the spreading COVID virus last year, Chinese white goods manufacturers managed to maintain comparatively stable production and sales throughout 2020, thanks in part to increasing overseas demand, new official data shows.
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Note:
South32’s
financial year runs from July to June.
Unless otherwise
noted: percentage variance relates to performance during the half year ended
December 2020 compared with the half year ended December 2019 (YoY) or the
December 2020 quarter compared with the September 2020 quarter (QoQ);
production and sales volumes are reported on an attributable basis.
Source: South32,
released
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Total aluminum stocks hold at local warehouses across China swelled further during the January 13-19 week amid lacklustre demand among end-users and because of logistics challenges, according to the latest weekly survey by Mymetal, Mysteel’s nonferrous metals data collection arm. The higher stocks continued to weigh on domestic aluminum prices over the survey week, the report noted.
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Domestic prices of spot copper in China increased on week during the January 13-19 week, but were still lower than the nine-year high level reached earlier this month, according to Mymetal’s weekly report. However, the downward correction is seen as temporary and served to moderately prop up sales and clip stock levels slightly.
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China’s national price of zinc ingot (at least 99.9995%) as assessed by Mysteel continued to weaken late last week and early this week, falling by Yuan 532/tonne ($82.2/t) on week to reach Yuan 20,779/t including the 13% VAT as of January 19.
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BHP, a leading copper producer in the world, produced 841,000 tonnes of copper in pure metal over July-December, down 5% on year because of the adverse impact of the COVID-19, and the company has refined the production guidance for its FY21 (July 2020-June 2021) to 1.51-1.645 million tonnes from the original 1.48-1.645 million tonnes, according to the latest quarterly report on January 20.
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BHP’s Production by Product over October-December 2020
(i) Iron ore comprises WAIO and Samarco (previous FY21 guidance did not include production for Samarco).
Source: BHP, released on January 20
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Chinese consumers of lead, mainly lead-acid storage battery manufacturers, have become more active in building up their internal lead stocks prior to the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday over February 11-17. The inventory build, together with the tighter supplies of the metal, have lent support to domestic lead prices, according to the latest survey from Mymetal, Mysteel’s nonferrous metals data collection arm.
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Chinese prices of nickel pig iron (NPI) continued climbing over the past week as sentiment among domestic smelters improved further. The producers sensed a recovery in demand from stainless steel mills, Mysteel Global learned.
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Rio Tinto’s mined copper output for 2020 declined 9% on year to 527,900 tonnes, which was mainly due to degrading in the deposits and the operation interruption by the COVID-19, the company shared in its latest production report released on January 19.
