Inventory Stock Levels

Zinc in Oversupply For Now, But What’s to Come?

by Stuart Burns on May 14, 2012

Style:    Category: Inventory Stock Levels, Non-ferrous Metals, Supply & Demand

Keywords: , , ,

Zinc buyers (and/or metal-with-a-significant-zinc-content buyers) may be forgiven for feeling pretty sanguine about the supply market for the zinc content of their components. Rising LME inventory levels and prices of zinc that have moderated from the highs of last July suggest a market that is comfortably in oversupply, and indeed the International Lead and Zinc [...]

{ 0 comments }

Higher Physical Metal Premiums Profit No One

by Stuart Burns on May 10, 2012

Style:    Category: Commodities, Inventory Stock Levels, Investing Hedging, Non-ferrous Metals

Keywords: , , ,

Continued from Part One.  In contrast, consumers of tin (arguably a market much more in balance than oversupplied aluminum) are not facing high spot delivery premiums because mills are keeping the market well-supplied with direct deliveries, said to be at premiums for high-grade tin over the LME cash price of $625 to $650 a ton, [...]

{ 1 comment }

Are Physical Delivery Premiums Being Manipulated?

by Stuart Burns on May 10, 2012

Style:    Category: Commodities, Inventory Stock Levels, Investing Hedging, Non-ferrous Metals

Keywords: , , , , , , ,

Metals buyers are an assiduous lot, carefully tracking and recording the price movement of those base metals on which the materials and components their firm depends with admirable diligence. Ask a metals buyer for the current copper price and he will often have the number to within a cent per pound off the top of [...]

{ 0 comments }

Should Metal Buyers Care If Lead Goes Into Backwardation?

by Stuart Burns on May 4, 2012

Style:    Category: Inventory Stock Levels, Non-ferrous Metals

Keywords: , , , ,

Continued from Part One.  Total registered tonnage of lead in Europe today stands at 101,025 tons, of which 60 percent, or 60,575 tons, is in the form of canceled warrants. The ratio in Spain is 85% and that in Italy is 95%. Where it is going remains a mystery, but Reuters points the finger at [...]

{ 0 comments }

Copper Prices Up, But Chinese Smelters Taking a Beating

by Stuart Burns on May 1, 2012

Style:    Category: Inventory Stock Levels, Non-ferrous Metals, Supply & Demand

Keywords: , , , , , ,

LME copper has been on a steady decline this month, but the last week has seen a marked uplift in part because falling inventories on the LME have been taken as a sign of a tight market. Recent LME copper price curve. Source: LME The rise in Shanghai inventories on the other hand has been [...]

{ 0 comments }

Copper: A Disconnect on What the Future Holds

by Stuart Burns on April 30, 2012

Style:    Category: Inventory Stock Levels, Non-ferrous Metals, Supply & Demand, Uncategorized

Keywords: , , ,

Delegates at the recent CESCO Copper Conference in Chile from both the major miners and the major copper producers lined up for interviews, giving a not surprisingly similar and upbeat view of the market. In a Reuters report on the conference, industry experts predicted similar views of the future: Copper prices would dip this year [...]

{ 0 comments }

Aluminum and the LME: A Love (or Hate) Story? – Part Two

by Stuart Burns on April 25, 2012

Style:    Category: Inventory Stock Levels, Investing Hedging, Non-ferrous Metals

Keywords: , ,

Continued from Part One. So you could be waiting up to six months for your aluminum, being charged storage all the while, having to finance the stock and insure it. What’s more, consumers are undoubtedly paying a premium for metal both in terms of physical delivery premiums over the LME spot price, and in terms of [...]

{ 0 comments }

Aluminum and the LME: A Love (or Hate) Story? – Part One

by Stuart Burns on April 24, 2012

Style:    Category: Inventory Stock Levels, Investing Hedging, Non-ferrous Metals

Keywords: , , , , ,

How did we ever get into this situation? We seem to accept the state of the aluminum market, and in particular the inventory financing and storage of the metal on the LME, as a perfectly normal state of affairs, but step back a moment and take another look. As a recent MB article reproduced in [...]

{ 3 comments }

← Previous Entries