But not absolutely!
Basis refers to the spot price of a specific commodity at a specific time and place and the expiration date of the commodity.
The difference between futures prices in commodity markets.
Basis consists of two components, namely "time" and "space", which separate the spot market from the futures market. So the basis includes the transportation cost and holding cost between the two markets. The former reflects the spatial factors between the spot market and the futures market, which is the basic reason why the basis difference between the two different places is different at the same time; The latter reflects the time factor between the two markets, that is, the holding cost of two different delivery months, which also includes storage fee, interest, insurance premium and loss fee, among which the change of interest rate has a great influence on the cost.
It can be seen that the basis difference in different regions varies with the transportation cost. But as far as the same market is concerned, the basis of different maturities should fully reflect the holding cost in theory, that is, the basis of holding cost changes with time, and the longer the futures contract expires, the greater the holding cost. When the contract expiration date is very close, the spot price and futures price in a certain place will be almost equal, and the basis difference between agricultural products and mineral products will be reduced to reflect only the transportation cost.
If the recent demand is super large or the forward price expectation is weak, then the spot will be higher than the futures.