Zinc Price Forecast: Prices Drop Slightly as Another Base Metal Emerges

by Kyle Fitzsimmons onOctober 26, 2015

Zinc prices dropped slightly in Oct. 22 mid-morning European trade, along with aluminum and lead, but the big news comes from another base metal: copper.

According to The Wall Street Journal, copper prices climbed on Oct. 22 due in part to better than expected import data from China, the world’s largest consumer of the metal. Meanwhile, Chinese refined copper imports climbed 22% for the month of September compared to September 2014.

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“Copper is the best-performing metal today, helped by quite positive data on Chinese metals imports,” confirmed Stephen Briggs, BNP Paribas metals analyst, told the news source. However, Briggs added the increase wasn’t significant enough to suggest a consistent increase for copper due to China’s still slowly improving overall economy.

Zinc, along with aluminum and lead, declined in midmorning European trade on Oct. 22. Zinc dropped 0.2% to $1,722 a ton.

China’s Economy Growing, But at a Snail’s Pace

We presented our chart of the week on Oct. 22, which showed that Chinese annual GDP growth is slowly creeping along. China’s economy grew an annual 6.9% in the third quarter this year, barely surpassing expectations, but down from 7% expansion in Q2 this year. This quarter marks the slowest quarter of growth since the beginning of 2009.

China continues to recover from its recent massive devaluation of the yuan. And many of the base metals it consumes and produces continue to suffer as a result. How will base metals fare for the remainder of 2015 and into 2016? You can find a more in-depth zinc price forecast and outlook in our brand new Monthly Metal Buying Outlook report. For a short- and long-term buying strategy with specific price thresholds: