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SHFE nickel inventories increased by 8,475 tonnes or 17.3% over the past week to 57,395 tonnes as of Friday January 12. Stocks have now increased by 29.8% in the first two weeks of January, compared with 44,216 tonnes reported on December 29, 2017.
All 8,475 tonnes entered warehouses in Shanghai, with Shanghai XinYi seeing the most metal enter its sheds at 7,834 tonnes.
“The inflowing stocks were mainly bonded stocks – which have been entering SHFE-approved warehouses since the 2% nickel import tax was announced in the middle of December last year,” Metal Bulletin senior nickel analyst Ellie Wang said.
China increased its import tax for nickel from 1% to 2% at the beginning of 2018, which encouraged market participants who hold stocks in the bonded area to transfer them to the domestic market to avoid the higher tax.
As a result, stocks in the Shanghai-bonded area have sharply declined.
Metal Bulletin’s assessment of nickel stocks in Shanghai-bonded warehouses decreased to a historic low of 28,000-34,000 tonnes at the end of December, down 22.5% from the previous month and 61.7% on an annual basis.
Copper stocks also up
Tin inventories dip, other base metals higher