Aluminium inventories in Shanghai-bonded warehouses had the sharpest drop aside from nickel after stocks were delivered to China on a persistently open arbitrage window, while stocks for copper and zinc continued rising amid no arbitrage opportunities and little activity.
Aluminium stocks significantly down on persistent opening arbitrage window
Fastmarkets assessed
Shanghai-bonded aluminium stocks at 1,000-3,000 tonnes on Thursday December 31, down by 78.2% from 13,500-14,000 tonnes in November 2020 due to the persistent open arbitrage window in China.
The inventory level was also down by 71.4% from 10,000-11,000 tonnes year on year.
The aluminium import arbitrage window in China reopened on November 9 before it flipped to a loss on December 29 and December 30.
For each tonne of the light metal brought to China, the
aluminium import arbitrage was calculated at an average of $54.96 per tonne during November 1-30, according to Fastmarkets' calculation.
China imported 188,973 tonnes of unwrought aluminium and aluminium products in November, marking a 158.6% increase year on year, according to China Customs data released on December 25.
Aside from the import profit,...