The zinc oxide enterprise operating rate came in at 59.75% this week, up 0.68 percentage points WoW. Inventory side, post-holiday raw material prices remained elevated, suppressing zinc oxide enterprises' raw material purchase willingness, and enterprise raw material inventories pulled back somewhat; finished product inventories maintained a balanced production-sales pattern, basically flat with last week overall. Currently, overall demand in the zinc oxide industry is relatively stable, but market price involution is prominent; meanwhile, some enterprises saw rising production costs due to production processes and raw material cost increases, while product selling prices are constrained by market competition, leaving limited upside room. By end-user segment, feed-grade zinc oxide demand remained dragged down by the hog market, with weaker YoY performance; rubber-grade and ceramic-grade zinc oxide demand stayed stable, and electronic-grade zinc oxide market demand continued to show resilience. Looking ahead to next week, the zinc oxide enterprise operating rate is expected to fluctuate around 60.06%.
