Latest Update in the China Lead Market

The following table shows the ferrous and nonferrous metals movement on the SHFE and DCE on April 20, 2021

Shanghai base metals set for a mixed start on Tuesday morning. China on Tuesday kept the one-year loan prime rate (LPR) unchanged at 3.85% and five-year LPR at 4.65%. 

The dollar slumped to a six-week low against major peers on Monday, with Treasury yields near their lowest in five weeks, after the U.S. Federal Reserve reiterated its view that any spike in inflation was likely to be temporary.

SHFE nonferrous metals rose for the most part on Monday April 19, mirroring trading in global markets.

Social inventories of lead ingots across Shanghai, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Tianjin fell more than 950 mt from last Friday April 16 to 75,000 mt as of Monday April 19, an SMM survey showed. This was up 14,100 mt from last Monday April 12.

The following table shows the ferrous and nonferrous metals movement on the SHFE and DCE on April 19, 2021

Three-month LME copper closed 1.37% lower at $9,182/mt last Friday, while the most-traded SHFE 2106 copper contract shed 0.6% to end at 68,130 yuan/mt last Friday night.

The dollar fell to a four-week low against a basket of currencies on Friday, still smarting from a sharp drop in U.S. Treasury yields the previous session, and as investors increasingly bought into the Federal Reserve’s insistence it would keep an accommodative policy stance for a while longer.