Zinc Hits 7-week Low

Zinc futures fell to around $3,200 in mid-March, marking its lowest level since January 21, as rising inventories at the Shanghai Futures Exchange and in LME warehouses, along with a strong US dollar, weighed on market sentiment. SFE stocks rose 9.2% in a week, while over 21,000 tonnes delivered into Singapore pushed LME inventories to their highest level since July.  Adding downward pressure on zinc prices was the US dollar remaining strong amid safe-haven demand linked to escalating Middle East tensions. However, losses were still limited due to ongoing concerns about tight supply and historically low inventories in certain regions. Zinc also received support from China’s industrial recovery, with output rising 6.3% yoy in the first two months of 2026 and fixed-asset investment showing modest improvement. Meanwhile, Boliden’s Tara mine in Ireland has reopened after a 2023 shutdown, while Ivanhoe Mines’ Kipushi project in the Democratic Republic of Congo is ramping up production.

Zinc decreased to 3222.00 USD/T, the lowest since January 2026. Over the past 4 weeks, Zinc lost 4.46%, and in the last 12 months, it increased 9.03%.

Zinc futures in the UK rose to $3,330 per tonne in March, remaining near the three-year high of $3,430 from January 29th as higher operating costs for refiners magnified the impact of tight supply. Iran's effort to block energy exports from the Persian Gulf drove power prices to surge across major economies, raising the cost of power-hungry refiners in their electrolytic process. Refined zinc output barring China fell 1.6% despite the 5.4% jump in global mined output, consistent with output curbs among smelters in Kazakhstan and Japan. Likewise, treatment charges for zinc rose toward $105 thousand tonnes, compared to 230.5 thousand tonnes at the start of last year, after their near depletion of on-and off-warrant stocks at the start of the fourth quarter. Base metals also received broad support from expectations that electrification push and datacenter investments would maintain consumption of industrial inputs despite headwinds to global growth.