Latest Update in the China Zinc Market

SMM has adjusted the sample size of zinc concentrate enterprises to 147 companies in January.

Shanghai base metals set for a mixed start on Tuesday morning. China on Tuesday kept the one-year loan prime rate (LPR) unchanged at 3.85% and five-year LPR at 4.65%. 

The dollar slumped to a six-week low against major peers on Monday, with Treasury yields near their lowest in five weeks, after the U.S. Federal Reserve reiterated its view that any spike in inflation was likely to be temporary.

SHFE nonferrous metals rose for the most part on Monday April 19, mirroring trading in global markets.

SMM data showed that social inventories of refined zinc ingots across Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong and Hebei decreased 3,000 mt from last Friday April 16 to 217,700 mt as of Monday April 19. The stocks were down 14,900 mt from April 12.

The following table shows the ferrous and nonferrous metals movement on the SHFE and DCE on April 19, 2021

Three-month LME copper closed 1.37% lower at $9,182/mt last Friday, while the most-traded SHFE 2106 copper contract shed 0.6% to end at 68,130 yuan/mt last Friday night.

The dollar fell to a four-week low against a basket of currencies on Friday, still smarting from a sharp drop in U.S. Treasury yields the previous session, and as investors increasingly bought into the Federal Reserve’s insistence it would keep an accommodative policy stance for a while longer.