SMM

As of Thursday, December 5, SMM copper inventories in major regions across the country decreased by 12,900 mt compared to Monday, reaching 130,300 mt, and decreased by 7,200 mt compared to last Thursday. This marks the seventh consecutive week of destocking, although the destocking speed has slowed. Attention should be paid to whether destocking can continue next week. Compared to Monday, inventories in all regions across the country decreased, with total inventories 72,700 mt higher compared to 57,600 mt in the same period last year. Among them, inventories in Shanghai were 59,500 mt higher YoY, Jiangsu was 13,300 mt higher, and Guangdong was 1,100 mt lower.

Specifically, inventories in Shanghai decreased by 9,400 mt compared to Monday, reaching 99,100 mt. Inventories in Jiangsu decreased by 100 mt to 15,000 mt. The popularity of low-priced imported copper in Shanghai led to faster destocking in the region, while inventories in Jiangsu only saw a slight decrease. Inventories in Guangdong decreased by 2,900 mt to 9,400 mt. The consistently low arrivals were one of the reasons for the inventory decline in this region. Additionally, consumption gradually improved in the latter half of the week, as reflected by the rebound in Guangdong's daily outflows from warehouses.

Looking ahead, with smelters completing maintenance, production is expected to increase significantly. Attention should be focused on the arrivals of domestically produced copper. On the downstream consumption side, it is reported that some manufacturers still have annual targets to meet at year-end, so consumption is expected to increase next week. Therefore, we believe that next week will see both an increase in supply and demand, and weekly inventories may increase again.