Zinc clawed back four days running. Now what.
By Siam Sukkhee Trading Co., Ltd — 2026-10-26 — Bing News — zinc price LME
Zinc finished the fourth straight day in the green on October 22. Volume ticked up. The real shift was beneath the surface—bearish traders were exiting.
Shanghai futures tagged the same pattern. Up 150 yuan, or 0.59 percent, closing at 25,700 yuan/tonne. The daily chart showed both buys and sells piling in, then the bullish momentum throttling back into consolidation mode. Typical corrective bounce.
On the ground, though? The picture fractured.
In Shanghai, spot sentiment split. Refined zinc traders were half-keen, half-hesitant. Middlemen bought sparingly—they'd already covered this week. Spot dealers were trimming offers, yes, but the actual transaction flow was thin. The forward curve wasn't screaming enough urgency to pull them in. Guangdong traders struck the same tone: prices down, enquiries down, enthusiasm down. The medium-term bid had simply evaporated.
Tianjin didn't budge much. Buyers kept expectations low and restocked only what they needed immediately. Ningbo was listless. The underlying fact was clear: the lifting of futures prices hadn't convinced local purchasers that tightness had actually returned.
Actually, that's not quite right—let me correct that. The inventory data showed China's official stockpiles down to 200,200 tonnes as of October 19. So metal was moving in different directions at different points in the supply chain.
The bigger reading? Bears were unwinding. Geopolitical volatility had dragged hedges into profit, and traders simply closed out. Oil prices stayed stable. Macro sentiment softened enough to trigger some covering. Meanwhile, LME supply logic had relaxed. The scarcity narrative that held prices aloft for months had lost its grip.
Weak recovery, more or less, with unresolved demand underneath.
Tags: zinc ingot supply demand