Zinc nears $4,000 and on track for biggest monthly jump since January

Zinc struck a four-year high near the $4,000 mark on Friday and was on course for its biggest monthly climb since January as available stocks on the London Metal Exchange shrank, renewing investor concerns over market tightness. Benchmark three-month zinc on the London Metal Exchange was up 1.6% at $3,947 a metric ton as of 0900 GMT, after earlier touching $3,955, its highest since May 2022. Zinc, used to galvanise steel, was poised for an 8.2% gain in August, which would mark its strongest month since the start of the year. It is up 3.2% this week and heading for a sixth straight weekly jump. The LME is closed on Monday for the August bank holiday in Britain. LME stocks data showed 19,125 tons of fresh zinc warrant cancellations on Thursday, or orders to remove metal from warehouses, mostly in Singapore. That reduced the available zinc in LME warehouses to 75,600 tons, equivalent to around two days of global consumption. Zinc snaps six-day rally as rising stocks ease tightness “Zinc’s outperformance reflects increasingly visible physical tightness,” Neil Welsh, head of metals at Britannia Global Markets, wrote in a note. “LME inventories have been drawn sharply lower, mine and sme