Global zinc market in surplus during Q1 2015: ILZSG

Author: Paul Ploumis
19 May 2015 Last updated at 03:00:37 GMT
SPOKANE (Scrap Monster): The latest statistics published by the International Lead and Zinc Study Group (ILZSG) indicates that global refined zinc market was in surplus of 140,000 tons during the initial quarter of the current year. The total reported zinc inventories at LME declined by 180,000 tons during the quarter. Meantime, inventories at Shanghai Futures Exchange increased by 57,000 tons. The stocks reported by producers reported a jump of 40,000 tons during Q1 this year.

The zinc mine output reported declines in China. However, the fall in output was covered with the increased mine output from other countries including Australia, India, Peru and Sweden. Overall, the zinc mine output grew by 4.3% during the quarter when compared with the corresponding quarter last year.

The refined zinc metal production during the three-month period totaled 3.414 million tons, 4.3% higher when compared with the 3.153 million tons output during corresponding three-month period in 2014. The Chinese refined zinc metal production surged higher in Canada, China, India and the Republic of Korea.

The global demand for refined zinc metal increased by 2.3% to 3.274 million tons during Q1 2015. The Chinese apparent usage increased by 3.9%. The US reported a demand rise of 13.9% during the quarter. The usage reported higher levels in the Republic of Korea, Africa and Thailand. The apparent consumption in the Europe region remained flat during the quarter.

Interestingly, Chinese net imports of refined zinc metal plunged 78% during Q1 2015 in comparison with the first quarter of 2014.

The ILZSG preliminary data indicates that global zinc mine output totaled 1.08 million tons during the month of March alone. The global refined zinc metal production totaled 1.144 million tonnes, whereas global zinc demand totaled 1.107 million tons.