Major SHFE metals prices ease amid weak sentiment

As of Friday, the most-traded SHFE contracts for copper and aluminum for November delivery had declined by Yuan 270/tonne ($36.9/t) and Yuan 35/t respectively on week to close the daytime session at Yuan 66,160/t and Yuan 18,930/t, according to the exchange's data.

On the same day, the SHFE's most-traded November nickel contract dropped by an even larger margin, with the price plunging by Yuan 5,800/t from last Friday's settlement price to close at Yuan 146,000/t.

During the survey week, the country's nonferrous market weakened overall under the pressure of a rising US dollar index, propelled higher by expectations of short-term US interest rate hikes and intensifying uncertainties arising from global geopolitical conflicts, market sources noted.

On the other hand, China's domestic demand for nonferrous metals still lacked strong momentum to improve during the week, sources commented, adding that rising stocks of the nonferrous metals also weighed on their futures prices to some extent.

By October 20, inventories of copper and aluminum at the SHFE's registered bonded and normal warehouses had both increased on week, with copper up by 13,29 tonnes to reach 58,223 tonnes and aluminum higher by 5,839 tonnes to sit at 116,147 tonnes.

Meanwhile, nickel stocks inched down by just 5 tonnes on week to settle at 9,307 tonnes as of Friday, the SHFE data showed.

Written by Carly Chen, chenziyi@mysteel.com

Edited by Russ McCulloch, russ.mcculloch@mysteel.com