Zinc prices hit a decade high on Friday on tighter supply concerns before settling lower on the day.
The metal used to galvanize steel posted a fifth straight weekly advance, the longest run in 13 months.
Most metals gained on the week, with aluminum jumping 1.8 percent on Friday as Chinese trade data increased optimism on demand.
Higher prices helped a gauge of mining stocks reach the highest in almost five years.
Base metals are near multiyear highs amid solid trade data that shows China, the world’s top user, continuing to gobble up commodities while also increasing exports last month — signaling healthy demand elsewhere.
Prices are also getting support from the US dollar’s selloff, which is making metals cheaper for major consumers outside the US, such as China.
“From the macro point of view, this is not an environment where you’d want to be shorting metals,” Michael Widmer, head of metals research at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, said by telephone from London.
Zinc slipped 0.1 percent to US$3,383.50 a tonne on the London Metal Exchange (LME), bringing gains for the week to 0.9 percent.
Low treatment charges for concentrates, high physical delivery premiums for refined metal and low stockpiles all point to a tight market, Widmer said.
LME inventories fell for a 13th week, reaching the lowest level since October 2008.
PALLADIUM GAINS
Palladium bulls are having a party. The metal used to curb pollution from gasoline-fueled engines climbed to a record in the spot market amid signs of robust demand.
Palladium last year climbed 56 percent in the spot market, while its counterpart in the futures market beat returns of 33 other most-actively traded commodities tracked by Bloomberg.
Supplies of the metal are expected to tighten further.
Palladium production will lag behind consumption until at least 2022, Morgan Stanley analysts said in report on Dec. 11 last year.
Palladium inventories in warehouses tracked by the New York Mercantile Exchange shrank 25 percent last month, capping a fourth straight annual decline, the longest streak since 2000.
The precious metal for immediate delivery on Friday climbed as much as 3.9 percent to US$1,128.68 an ounce in New York, surpassing the record US$1,125 set 17 years ago, according to Bloomberg generic pricing.
On the Comex, the metal for March delivery settled at US$1,105.35, after extending its climb to an all-time high.
Other metals and mining:
Gold futures on Friday advanced to US$1,334.90 an ounce. It posted the fifth straight weekly advance, the longest stretch since mid-2016, rising 1.21 percent.
Aluminum on Friday rose as much as 2.5 percent amid expectations that the US Department Commerce might soon impose tariffs on imports. The price climbed even as data shows Chinese aluminum shipments reached a five-month high last month.
Copper slipped 0.4 percent to settle at US$7,110 a tonne.
“The physical market has not tightened as much as prices would suggest,” Widmer said.
The FTSE 350 Mining Index added as much as 0.5 percent to the highest since February 2013.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day