Today, SHFE aluminium prices moved higher in the morning session due to low aluminium ingot inventory and continued destocking. However, against the backdrop of the off-season, actual demand remained weak, and the futures market pulled back. In today’s spot market, due to weekend stockpiling demand, trading activity slightly improved, but downstream purchase willingness remained low. In east China, the market offered goods at a premium of RMB 5 per tonne over the SMM average price in the morning. Due to the lack of incremental demand during the off-season, market quotes and transactions were mostly concentrated at parity with the SMM price. Today, SMM A00 aluminium was reported at RMB 20,720 per tonne, down RMB 50 per tonne from the previous trading day, with a premium of RMB 180 per tonne against the 07 contract, unchanged from the previous trading day.
In the central China market, due to weekend stockpiling demand, trading activity slightly improved in the morning session, and spot premiums held steady. The spot market was at parity with the SMM central China price, and the price spread with east China held steady. Today, SMM central China A00 aluminium was recorded at RMB 20,560 per tonne against the SHFE aluminium 2507 contract, down RMB 50 per tonne from the previous trading day. The price spread between central China and east China was RMB 160 per tonne, unchanged from the previous trading day, with a premium of RMB 20 per tonne against the 2507 contract.
On the inventory side, according to SMM’s domestic aluminium ingot inventory data, domestic electrolytic aluminium ingot inventory stood at 312,500 tonnes on June 20, down 0.45 tonne from the previous trading day. In the short term, the low arrival of aluminium ingots and the reduction in inventory are conducive to high spot premiums in the spot market. However, there is a strong fear of high prices in the spot market, and downstream purchase willingness is poor, leading to transactions at discounts. It is expected that spot premiums will show a narrowing trend in the short term.