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China Baowu Steel Group (Baowu), the country’s largest steelmaker by installed capacity, saw its first primary aluminum ingot emerge from its own aluminum production line on July 30, marking the steel giant’s first foray into aluminium smelting and making further progress in the group’s production of metals suitable for use in auto manufacturing.
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Chinese prices of imported nickel ore and nickel pig iron (NPI) increased over the week to August 4, bolstered by additional procurement from domestic NPI smelters and stainless mills both needing to replenish their raw materials, market sources said on Tuesday.
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China’s national price for zinc ingot (≥99.995%) stood at Yuan 19,103/tonne ($2,736/t) as of July 31, having increased by another Yuan 565/t on week to finally return to the level before the nationwide outbreak of COVID-19 in late January, according to Mymetal’s data tracker. Mymetal is Mysteel’s data collection arm for non-ferrous products.
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Inventories of refined copper in China’s spot market increased further last week as the weak demand for the metal seen since the April-June quarter lingers on, according to Mymetal’s weekly report. Yet despite the lacklustre sales, domestic prices of copper have stayed firm given the tight raw materials supply conditions and strengthening global prices.
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Domestic prices of primary and secondary lead in China posted a remarkable rebound over July 27-31 thanks to an improvement in market sentiment, according to the latest survey from Mymetal, Mysteel’s nonferrous market data collection arm. But the rise in prices has weighed on lead demand among end-users, prompting some buyers to re-examine their purchasing needs.
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By August 3, China’s primary aluminum ingot stocks in the warehouses of the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) and 16 Chinese cities reversed up 8,000 tonnes on week to 696,000 tonnes, as higher spot aluminum ingot prices led to stock-up at the warehouses, according to weekly report from Mymetal, Mysteel’s nonferrous metal data collection arm.
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The world’s supply of gold increased from a surplus of 58.5 tonnes during April-June last year to a 72.4 tonnes surplus over this year’s second quarter, as the decline in supply was outpaced by a slump in demand caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the latest data from the World Gold Council (WGC) published on July 30.
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Chinese domestic prices of nickel pig iron (NPI) and ferrochrome (FeCr) both moved in a pronounced V-shaped curve during the first half of 2020, with prices at the end of June being generally on par with those at the same time last year, according to Mysteel’s interim report on both markets.
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China has massively reduced the tonnage of foreign metal scrap it will allow to enter the country under the latest import quota allocation, the tenth awarded so far this year, Mysteel Global notes from a release by China Solid Waste and Chemicals Management, the country’s import window for ferrous and nonferrous scrap. In fact, the quota volume is too small to mitigate the shortage of metal supplies prevailing in the domestic market, sources remarked.
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Chinese nickel pig iron (NPI) prices remained generally stable over the week to July 27, as most smelters refused to cut their prices given how much they were paying for nickel concentrates, market sources said on Tuesday. Trading activity of NPI in the spot market was low recently, they also noted.
