Zinc Prices Continued to Fluctuate with Strong Fundamentals

SHANGHAI, Mar 27 (SMM) - Last Friday, the 2023 annual meeting of the China Development Forum opened, and the heads of Apple, Bridgewater, Qualcomm, Pfizer, and Schneider all attended. Foreign investors are welcome to invest in China. Zhou Hongyi, CEO of 360 Digital Security Group, also attended the forum and said that it will take two to three years for China's big language model to catch up with GPT-4. The US government is said to be considering increasing support to help regional banks including First Regional Bank to weather the storm, and the emergency lending tool the Bank Term Funding Program (BTFP), launched by the Federal Reserve after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, may also be expanded.

Last Friday, LME zinc dropped. LME inventory declined by 50 mt overnight to 39,650 mt. On the macro front, the US government is said to be considering enhancing the support to help regional banks such as the First Republic Bank weathered the difficulties. The emergency lending tool the Bank Term Funding Program (BTFP), launched by the Federal Reserve after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, may be expanded. At present, the overall market risk is reduced, and both longs and shorts are relatively cautious.

Last Friday night, SHFE zinc opened lower and closed at 22,505 yuan/mt, down 175 yuan/mt or 0.77%. The operating rates of galvanising plants in north China slipped slightly due to cold weather and environmental protection-related production restriction, but still stood high. Since the consumption is still resilient, it is expected that SHFE zinc prices will keep moving sideways.