Shanghai bonded copper and zinc stocks modestly declined in October due to unfavorable market conditions for imports, while aluminium stocks were flat and nickel stocks registered the biggest gain.
Decline of copper stocks slows in October
Shanghai bonded copper stocks continued to fall in October - by 13.5% on a monthly basis. Stocks fell by 26.7% in September.
Fastmarkets assessed Shanghai bonded copper stocks at 197,500-211,500 tonnes on November 1, down by 32,000 tonnes from 229,500-243,500 tonnes on October 8.
The opening of the arbitrage window boosted import activity in the first half of October after Chinese market participants returned from the week-long China's National Day holiday on October 1-7. However, spot buying faded with unfavorable import conditions due to the high copper price and astonishingly high backwardations for copper contracts on the London Metal Exchange, market participants said.
"Buying activity was brisk after we came back from our holiday [in China] due to decent import profits, contributing to continuous draw-downs of bonded stocks, but things changed after the flare up in LME backwardations...