Orders for LME lead jump most in over a month – ING

Lead prices surged after a sharp rise in LME warehouse withdrawal requests, while SHFE data shows growing inventories across major base metals, ING's commodity experts Ewa Manthey and Warren Patterson note.

Base metal inventories rise across the board in China

"Requests to withdraw lead from LME warehouses jumped by 35,225 tonnes to 74,975 tonnes, driven by requests for metal in Singapore and Taiwan. This was the biggest increase since 9 June. LME lead prices jumped more than 1.8% on Friday following the jump in orders."

"Data from the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) shows that weekly inventories for all base metals rose over the past week. Copper stocks increased by 3,094 tonnes to 84,556 tonnes as of Friday. Aluminium inventories rose by 5,625 tonnes to 108,822 tonnes, while zinc stocks increased by 9.3% WoW to 54,630 tonnes, the highest since 18 April."