As we wrote almost exactly a month ago, the technical picture for Shanghai zinc futures is decidedly bullish. Coupled with a yuan whose trend is towards weakness, it underpins rallies in the base metals complex. Volumes on the way up have been decent and open interest rose by a third last month, confirming this bull trend needs hedging. With the contract halting last week at secular trend-line resistance, it hints at a bit of a struggle here in the coming month. However, because volatility is subdued and the lagging line has managed a close above an ultra-thin Ichimoku cloud, it is just a matter of time before we squeeze up to retest major horizontal resistance at 17,330 yuan per tonne.