Backwardation in zinc has been a persistent theme in the market since the start of 2019, but the tightness in the cash-to-three-month spread on the London Metal Exchange has largely waned over Thursday-Friday July 4-5, with no significant deliveries into the exchange's sheds.
On the morning of July 5, the backwardation in the cash-to-three-month zinc spread was $9.50 per tonne. It was as wide as $116 per tonne only 10 days ago on June 25."This year, there have been times when the cash-to-three-month spread was in contango, but they were very brief, and on average it has been in backwardation," Fastmarkets base metals analyst Andy Farida said."We had a double-digit backwardation in March-April, but triple-digit from May onward. I think some market...