The zinc oxide operating rate was 50.58% this week, down 3.94 percentage points WoW. On the inventory side, end-use consumption was weak while raw material prices were high, and zinc oxide enterprises’ raw material purchases were mostly need-based, with little change in raw material inventory. The decline in operating rates this week was mainly due to recent production cuts and maintenance shutdowns at some enterprises affected by weak end-use demand. In terms of end-use consumption, the industry has fully entered the traditional consumption off-season, with orders across downstream application fields all showing weakness. For rubber-grade zinc oxide, downstream tyre industry end-user shipments were sluggish, finished product inventories at tyre factories kept rising, and production cuts and shutdowns in the market increased, directly suppressing procurement demand for rubber-grade zinc oxide, with limited order releases. Meanwhile, ceramic-related demand weakened simultaneously, with off-season characteristics becoming prominent, enterprises placing orders cautiously and transactions being sluggish. In addition, demand for feed-grade zinc oxide remained sluggish, with no significant improvement in the market, and need-based transactions maintained a mediocre trend. Looking ahead to next week, some enterprises are expected to gradually resume production, and the zinc oxide operating rate is expected to edge up to 51.46% with fluctuations.
