Global zinc market in surplus of 181kt during Jan-Apr 2015: ILZSG

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 181,000 tons during the initial four-month period of the current year. The total reported zinc inventories at LME declined by 223,000 tons during this period. Meantime, inventories at Shanghai Futures Exchange increased by 74,000 tons. The stocks reported by producers reported a jump of 48,000 tons during January to April this year.

The zinc mine output grew significantly in major producing countries including Australia, China, India, Peru and Sweden. Overall, the zinc mine output grew by 9.8% during the initial four-month period in 2015 when compared with the corresponding period last year.

The refined zinc metal production during the four-month period totaled 4.604 million tons, 8.97% higher when compared with the 4.225 million tons output during corresponding four-month period in 2014. The refined zinc metal production surged higher in Canada, China, India and the Republic of Korea.

The global demand for refined zinc metal witnessed rise of 1.8% to touch 4.423 million tons during January to April this year. The Chinese apparent usage increased by 3.4%. The US reported a demand decline of 13.3% during this period. The apparent consumption in the Europe region saw a dip of 3%.

Interestingly, Chinese net imports of refined zinc metal plunged 69% during Jan-Apr ’15 in comparison with the corresponding period in 2014. The Chinese net imports of refined zinc metal totaled 81,000 tons.

The ILZSG preliminary data indicates that global zinc mine output totaled 1.152 million tons during the month of April alone. The global refined zinc metal production totaled 1.175 million tonnes, whereas global zinc demand totaled 1.170 million tons.