Lead stocks in Shanghai Futures Exchange-registered warehouses increased the most in percentage terms among the base metals complex, rising by 50% or 13,509 tonnes to 40,547 tonnes in the week to Friday July 17.
Metal mainly entered warehouses run by Zhongchu Wuxi in Jiangsu and Zhejiang Tianchuan in Zhejiang with rises respectively of 6,344 tonnes and 5,483 tonnes one week earlier to 13,296 tonnes and 22,588 tonnes.
"Oversupply in the domestic market is the major driver for the SHFE stock increase," an analyst in Shanghai said.
"Meanwhile, the domestic lead price and profit uptrend and supported a rebound in secondary lead output in July, but downstream demand has not seen any improvement as traders and lead acid battery manufacturers hold back from buying due to high lead price," the analyst said.
The SHFE most-traded August lead price closed the week at 14,925 yuan ($2,133) per tonne on July 17, up 3.9% from 14,360 yuan per tonne one month earlier on June 17.
SHFE copper stocks registered the second largest rise over the past week. Exchange inventory rose by 15.5% or 21,311 tonnes to 158,647 tonnes due to a slowdown in demand domestically.
SHFE stocks changes