Today’s snapshot — 2026-10-06
Top mover: Zinc (Kallanish) jumped to $3,742.30/t (+43.95, +1.19%), its first meaningful bounce after a seven-plus session slide, with China reportedly increasing refined zinc exports into a tight LME market.
Notable prices:
- Zinc = $3742.3 (43.95)
- Rotterdam HMS 80:20 FOB = $346.0 (-4.50)
- US HRC Midwest = $62.71 (0.1)
- Nickel = $15645.0 (115.00)
Headline driver: Per the sanitized desk brief, China is increasing refined zinc exports as the LME zinc market stays tight with Western production under pressure — a plausible driver behind today’s reversal, though not confirmed as the cause by the physical tape alone. Turkey’s benchmarks (Kallanish) held flat for a second session after Monday’s break; Fastmarkets’ Pakistan-bound index remains on its confirmed Friday-only cadence, so no fresh print was due today.
Action signal: Wait on non-ferrous fixing — one session’s bounce doesn’t yet confirm a floor under zinc’s slide; re-check the reference price before quoting. No action on Pakistan or Turkey pricing today — both unchanged from yesterday.