54,000 tonnes gain in primary aluminium inventories in China pushes down the ingot price to the lowest

According to Shanghai Metals Market, the social inventories of primary aluminium ingots have gained 54,000 tonnes over the week ended March 19, across eight major consumption areas in China, including SHFE warrants. The inventories are thus, now 1.647 million tonnes, in contrast to 105,000 tonnes on last Thursday, showed the SMM data.

The continuous stack of primary aluminium inventories indicates muted demand for the metal among the downstream consumers, as end-use product productions are at halt across China.

The chart below indicates the current status of Chinese primary aluminium inventories in more details:

Wuxi this week has seen the highest growth in social primary aluminium inventories of about 34,000 tonnes, followed by Nanhai 18,000 tonnes and Shanghai and Hangzhou 7,000 tonnes. The inventories in Wuxi, Nanhai, Shanghai, and Hangzhou, have thus, come in at 649,000 tonnes, 427,000 tonnes, 151,000 tonnes, and 130,000 tonnes respectively. In Chongqing, the inventories have increased as well from 14,000 tonnes last week to 17,000 tonnes, but in Tianjin and Linyi, the inventories have shown restraint respectively at 57,000 tonnes and 12,000 tonnes.

By such continuous growth in inventories indicating poor transactions in the market, the price of A00 aluminium ingot has slashed by RMB 790 per tonne to come to the lowest at RMB 11,730 per tonne.