London — So much for the commodity recovery. After a 2016 rally that ended five consecutive years of declines, prices of everything from crude oil and zinc to sugar and soybeans are once again mired in slumps. The outlook for industrial materials like iron ore and coal may get even worse, with slowing economic growth in China — the world’s top consumer — compounding global surpluses. The Bloomberg Commodity index has dropped for three consecutive months, the longest decline in more than a year. While demand for many raw materials remained strong, the growth and the tight supplies that supported the rally in 2016 were fading, said Macquarie Group. Oil inventories are so large that oil cartel Opec and its partners agreed in May to extend its production cuts for another nine months. Global stockpiles of grain before the 2017 harvest are the biggest ever, and a London Metal Exchange (LME) price index is in its steepest decline since 2015. "You can see weakness emerging in many parts of ...
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