SHFE Zinc Prices Hover Around High Levels

SHANGHAI, Feb 27 (SMM) - At the beginning of last week, SHFE zinc rebounded strongly driven by the overseas market. In addition, SMM survey showed that the social inventory of zinc ingots in seven places across China dropped, which provided further momentum to SHFE zinc. The sharp increase in SHFE zinc greatly curbed downstream companies’ purchasing interest. The spot market was sluggish. As a result, SHFE zinc climbed slowly and fluctuated at a high level afterwards. However, the market was still manipulated by the consumption expectation with few macro data or news being released. The domestic market is anticipating the consumption recovery in the peak season of March and April, but the actual consumption did not boom as expected at least at present. The market shall keep an eye on the resilience of consumption. SHFE zinc hovered around high levels amid the expected consumption recovery and the game between longs and shorts, while the spot transactions remained poor. As of 15:00 last Friday, SHFE zinc closed at 23,505 yuan/mt, with a weekly increase of 660 yuan/mt or 2.89%.