Stocks of copper and nickel in Shanghai bonded warehouses rose at the end of July on the closure of the import arbitrage window, while zinc inventories witnessed a decline despite the poor arbitrage. Aluminium stocks were little changed.
Shanghai bonded copper stocks up amid closed arbitrage
The lack of appetite for imported copper amid the closed arbitrage window between London and Shanghai led to an increase in stocks of the metal in the Shanghai bonded zone over the past month.
Fastmarkets assessed Shanghai bonded copper stocks at 205,000-220,000 tonnes on July 27, up by 0.2% from 207,000-217,000 tonnes on June 29.
During the week of July 27-31,
Shanghai bonded copper stocks are set to grow by another 5,000 tonnes, according to Fastmarkets' latest survey, which would represent an increase of 2.6% from the June-29 level.
"The negative arb has muted import appetite [and bonded] stocks are rising," a Shanghai-based trader told Fastmarkets.
"More growth is expected with no signs of improvement in the arb," a second trader in Shanghai said.
The loss for importing copper into China averaged $35.70 per tonne...