Lead ingot stocks at Chinese primary lead smelters down by 48.92% MOM in late July 2014
2014-08-07 10:09:02 [Print]
BEIJING (Asian Metal) 7 Aug 14 - Statistics published by Asian Metal on lead ingot stocks held by 51 lead smelters with total annual production capacity of 4.56 million tonnes in China showed that lead ingot inventories held by the smelters totaled 18,900t by the end of July 2014, down by 48.92% month-on-month.
The following table shows lead ingot stocks in Henan, Hunan and Yunnan provinces.
Unit: tonne
Province |
Late July 2014 |
Late June 2014 |
Henan |
5400 |
22500 |
Hunan |
4200 |
5300 |
Yunnan |
2800 |
3700 |
Others |
6500 |
5500 |
Total |
18900 |
37000 |
Table 3: Lead ingot stocks in Henan, Hunan and Yunnan provinces in late July 2014
Lead ingot prices were relatively stable at around RMB13,800-14,000/t (USD2,262-2,295/t) on the Chinese market and most lead smelters held large inventories of lead ingots during the first half of July, due to the sluggish demand from consumers. However, lead ingot prices rocketed sharply from RMB13,800-14,000/t (USD2,262-2,295/t) to RMB14,800-15,000/t (USD2,426-2,459/t) during the last week of July on speculative buying from investors, so most lead smelters were active in selling the metal on the physical spot market or futures market, leading to a sharp decline in lead ingot inventories at the end of July.
