With the slowdown in the Chinese economy, particularly in key investment sectors such as construction, property and manufacturing, as well as an oversupply of many metals, markets have been hammered. This month, zinc reached its lowest price for six years, while nickel hit depths it hadn’t seen since 2003. Meanwhile copper will, according to Goldman Sachs research, be priced at around US$4,500 per tonne by the end of 2016, compared with almost US$7,000 per tonne this time last year.

Add to this the fallout to the Qingdao scandal, the High Court battle which led to confusion over the legitimacy and structure of repurchasing agreements (repos) for metals, and you’ve got a perfect storm which has contrived to hollow out China’s deals market in 2015. GTR spoke to Yongmei Evers Cai, partner at law firm Simmons & Simmons, at the GTR China Trade and Commodity Finance Conference in Beijing to get a view from the ground.