LME Zinc: At the beginning of the week, LME zinc continued its upward trend from the previous week. Subsequently, as the policy outlook of major overseas central banks remained unclear and market participants adopted a wait-and-see approach, LME zinc shifted to a fluctuating trend. Following that, with the continuous accumulation of overseas inventories and the announcement by Korea Zinc to expand its smelting capacity, market expectations for a looser medium and long-term supply strengthened significantly, putting LME zinc under pressure. Later, LME zinc inventories increased substantially to over 95,000 mt, indicating a gradual easing of short-term supply, and LME zinc continued its weak trend and moved lower. However, the US unemployment rate in November hit a four-year high, while the non-farm payrolls data for October and November showed mixed results, presenting a mixed picture of the job market. The US dollar index declined, allowing LME zinc to stop falling and stabilize, maintaining a fluctuating trend. Subsequently, US CPI growth unexpectedly slowed down, but initial jobless claims dropped back slightly, showing mild fluctuations, and LME zinc maintained its fluctuating trend. As of 15:00 this Friday, LME zinc was recorded at $3,073.5/mt, down $65.5/mt, a decrease of 2.09%.
SHFE Zinc: At the beginning of the week, the positive signals released at the domestic press conference on national economic performance boosted macro sentiment, while social inventory continued its destocking trend, pushing SHFE zinc prices to rise slightly. Subsequently, Korea Zinc announced plans to invest in building an integrated smelter in the US, involving an annual zinc capacity of 300,000 mt. Expectations of future supply increases impacted market sentiment, causing SHFE zinc to open lower with a gap under pressure and continue to decline after brief consolidation. However, continuous declines in domestic zinc ingot social inventories, coupled with expectations of short-term reductions in smelting output, provided fundamental support for prices, allowing SHFE zinc to stabilize and rebound slightly. Nevertheless, current domestic end-use consumption overall showed a mediocre performance, with downstream users mainly making just-in-time procurement, resulting in limited actual demand support for price increases and insufficient upward momentum for SHFE zinc, maintaining a fluctuating trend. As of 15:00 this Friday, SHFE zinc was recorded at 23,065 yuan/mt, down 540 yuan/mt, a decrease of 2.29%.
