Latest Update in the China Stainless Steel Market

SMM offices will be closed for the Mid-Autumn Festival holidays from September 19 to September 21, 2021, and open as usual on September 22.

The dollar held near three-week highs on Friday after better-than-expected retail sales numbers in the United States boosted bets on the strength of the US economy and earlier monetary policy tightening.

 This is a roundup of China's metals weekly inventory as of September 17.

Shanghai nonferrous metals closed with mixed performance, and the power rationing has been disrupting the production of metals, which remains as the market focus.

The iron ore inventories across 35 ports tracked by SMM totaled 129.29 million mt, a decrease of 330,000 mt from the previous week, but up 14.24 million mt year-on-year. The arrivals of imported iron ore at ports increased, but the efficiency of port deliveries has been restricted, driving down the port inventory.

Operating rates across lead-acid battery producers in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hubei and Hebei provinces stood largely flat at 69.94% on the week as of Friday September 17.

Operating rates across licensed smelters of secondary lead in Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan and Guizhou averaged 60.2% in the week ended September 17, down 0.91 percentage point from the previous week, showed an SMM survey.

Nickel ore inventory at Chinese ports grew 546,000 wmt from a week earlier to 7 million wmt as of September 17.