Latest Update in the China Stainless Steel Market

SHFE nonferrous metals increased broadly on Friday November 27. Nickel, the best performer, jumped 2.94%, copper rose 2.11%, aluminium advanced 1.67%, tin added 1.56% and zinc climbed 0.86%, while lead underperformed with a 0.13 loss.

Operating rates across primary lead smelters in Henan, Hunan and Yunnan provinces gained 0.6 percentage point from the previous week to 61.6%in the week ended November 27, showed an SMM survey.

As of November 27, iron ore inventories across 35 ports tracked by SMM totaled 119.08 million mt, a decrease of 1.16 million mt from the previous week and an increase of 4.92 million mt year-on-year. This marked three consecutive weeks of decline. Daily average deliveries from the 35 ports decreased 31,000 mt on a weekly basis to 2.93 million mt this week.

Social inventories of silicon metal across Huangpu port, Kunming city and Tianjin port declined 5,000 mt from the prior week to 74,000 mt as of Friday November 27, SMM data showed. 

Operating rates across lead-acid battery producers in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hubei and Hebei provinces averaged 74.59% in the week ended November 27, unchanged from the previous week. 

Inventories of refined nickel in the Shanghai bonded areas remained unchanged from a week ago and stood at 23,800 mt as of November 27, showed SMM data.

Operating rates across licensed smelters of secondary lead in Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan and Guizhou averaged 50% in the week ended November 27, unchanged from the previous week, showed an SMM survey.

The following table shows the ferrous and nonferrous metals movement on the SHFE and DCE on November 27, 2020