Bloomberg reported that industrial metals futures trading in China slumped in the first half of this year amid a rout in global commodities as investment banks called an end to the super cycle of gains in raw materials prices.
Data from the China Futures Association showed that zinc volume dropped the most among base metals, falling 43% in the first six months from a year ago to 7.25 million lots on the Shanghai Futures Exchange. The total number of contracts on the SHFE and futures bourses in Dalian and Zhengzhou climbed with the addition of four new products including coking coal.
The LMEX Index of six base metals on the London Metal Exchange, the biggest bourse for metals trading, dropped 13% this year on concern that slowing growth in China, the largest user of metals, would damp demand. Raw materials lagged behind equities this year as banks from UBS AG to Deutsche Bank AG forecast the decline of the commodity super cycle, a longer than average period of rising prices.
Mr Wang Zhouyi, an analyst at Shanghai Cifco Futures Co said that "The overall performance of commodities wasn't attractive enough to draw in funds, given the China slowdown theme. That's why a very small number of products had volume gains.'