LME zinc prices closed up $13.5/mt or 0.59% at $2,310/mt last Friday evening. The trading volume stood at 6958 lots, and open interest added 2372 lots to 207,000 lots.
LME zinc inventories increased by more than 50,000 mt to 142,775 mt this week amid large quantities of deliveries to LME warehouses. Meanwhile, the contango of LME cash to the three-month zinc contract pointed to sluggish oversea demand. There may be additional deliveries to LME warehouses in the near term.
Last Friday evening, the most active SHFE 2310 zinc contract prices closed at 19915 yuan/mt, up 25 yuan/mt or 0.13%. Trading volume stood at 47,000 lots, and open interest decreased by 342 lots to 96,000 lots. The decline in zinc prices has driven the buying sentiment of downstream enterprises, and the available spot cargoes decreased sharply. However, there has been little change in the downstream start-up.
