Latest Update in the China Chromium Market

As of January 26, iron ore inventories across 35 ports tracked by SMM totaled 119.65 million mt, a decrease of 200,000 mt from the previous week but up 8.08 million mt year-on-year. Daily average deliveries from the 35 ports increased 34,000 mt on a weekly basis to 2.66 million mt this week.

SHFE nonferrous metals broadly fell on Friday February 26 as global markets are roiled by a sudden spike in bond yields, which sent investors fleeing highly valued segments of the market.

Operating rates across licensed smelters of secondary lead in Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan and Guizhou averaged 49.2% in the week, down 4.1 percentage points from the previous week, an SMM survey showed.

Inventories of refined nickel in the Shanghai bonded areas increased 800 mt from a week ago and stood at 18,400 mt as of February 26, showed SMM data.

Social inventories of silicon metal across Huangpu port, Kunming city and Tianjin port declined 5,000 mt from the prior week to 62,000 mt as of Friday February 26, SMM data showed.

Social inventories of lead ingots across Shanghai, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Tianjin gained 3,300 mt from February 18 and rose 2,100 mt from February 22 to 46,700 mt as of Friday February 26, an SMM survey showed.

Nickel ore inventories across all Chinese ports decreased 614,000 wmt from February 18 to 7.26 million wmt as of February 26, showed SMM data. 

Copper prices surged to record new highs after the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday, while the the price spread between copper cathode and copper scrap fluctuated vigorously. The tax-included price spread between 1# bare bright copper and copper cathode rose to the second highest on record of 3,779 yuan/mt on February 25. It touched an all-time high of 3,936 yuan/mt on February 22.