Latest Update in the China Stainless Steel Market

SHFE nonferrous metals declined broadly on Friday January 22. Copper fell 0.61%, zinc slumped 2.51%, lead shed 0.66% and nickel weakened 1.13%, while aluminium edged up 0.1% and tin rose 1.83%. 

Inventories of hot-rolled coils of steel sheets used to produce home appliances and cars in China extended gains this week amid high output across major steel makers and weakening downstream demand.

Operating rates across lead-acid battery producers in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hubei and Hebei provinces remained unchanged at 74.36% in the week ended January 22.

Operating rates across primary lead smelters in Henan, Hunan and Yunnan gained 1.1 percentage points from the previous week to 55.2% in the week ended January 22, showed an SMM survey.

Operating rates across licensed smelters of secondary lead in Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan and Guizhou averaged 47.5% in the week, slightly down 0.3 percentage point from the previous week, an SMM survey showed.

Social inventories of lead ingots across Shanghai, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Tianjin dropped 11,100 mt from the prior week and declined 10,400 mt from Monday to 45,400 mt as of Friday January 22, an SMM survey showed.

As of January 22, iron ore inventories across 35 ports tracked by SMM totaled 118.53 million mt, an increase of 410,000 mt from the previous week and 2.16 million mt year-on-year.

Social inventories of silicon metal across Huangpu port, Kunming city and Tianjin port declined 6,000 mt from the prior week to 77,000 mt as of Friday January 22, SMM data showed.