The latest data from the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) shows that copper inventories in China fell significantly by 54,858 tonnes for a fifth consecutive week to 116,753 tonnes as of last Friday. This was the biggest weekly decline on record, taking total inventories to their lowest since the end of January 2025. The decline was largely due to strong demand in the physical market, with spot prices trading at steep premiums. Last week, China pledged to ‘fully prepare’ emergency plans to defend against increasing external shocks and said it will take a patient approach in defending growth, ING’s commodity experts Ewa Manthey and Warren Patterson note.
Copper inventories in China plunge to lowest since January
“In other metals, aluminium inventories fell by 11,871 tonnes for a fourth straight week to 178,597 tonnes (the lowest since the week ending on 31 January 2025), while zinc inventories declined by 7,207 tonnes (-12.3% week-on-week) for a sixth consecutive week to 51,378 tonnes (the lowest since 7 February 2025) at the end of last week. Meanwhile, lead and nickel stocks fell 20% WoW and 2.5% WoW, respectively.”
“The latest data from the China Gold Association shows that gold consumption in the country fell almost 6% year-on-year to 290.5t in the first quarter of 2025. The association further added that the decline was led by jewellery demand falling by 27% YoY to 134.5t in the first quarter, following higher domestic prices of the precious metal. On the supply side, China produced around 87.2t of gold in the period, up 1.5% YoY.”
“The latest positioning data from the CFTC shows that speculators increased their net longs of COMEX copper by 2,093 lots for the second consecutive week to 16,588 lots as of 22 April. In precious metals, managed money net longs in COMEX gold decreased by 11,197 lots for a fifth straight week to 125,722 lots over the last reporting week, the fewest bullish bets since the week ending 27 February 2024. Money managers’ interest in gold continues to remain muted following higher prices. In contrast, speculators increased net longs of silver by 2,845 lots for a second consecutive week to 26,174 lots as of Tuesday.”