Zinc market reports 110 kt surplus during Jan-Feb 2016

By Carolina Curiel (ScrapMonster Author)

April 22, 2016 02:38:57 AM

BRUSSELS (Scrap Monster): According to the recently published metals balances report by the World Bureau of Metal Statistics (WBMS), the worldwide zinc market has recorded a marginal surplus during January to February this year. This is after recording a surplus during the whole year 2015.

As per WBMS data, the global zinc market recorded small surplus of 110 kt during the initial two months of the year from January to February. It should be noted that the worldwide zinc market had reported a surplus of 121 kt during the entire year 2015.

Global refined zinc production witnessed decline of 2.8% during the initial two-month period of 2016. The Chinese production of locally refined zinc surged higher by nearly 1.3% when compared with 2015.

The global demand for the metal has dropped by 19 kt when matched with January to February in 2015. The Chinese apparent demand rose sharply by 6.9% over the previous year. The Japanese demand for the metal increased marginally by 0.7% when matched with the levels recorded during Jan-Feb ’15. The demand during the two-month period totaled 82.2 kt.

The reported stock of the metal has increased slightly by 12,000 tonnes during the two-month period. The LME zinc stocks rose by 3,000 tonnes during the month of February and accounted for 41% of the global stock of the metal.

The Chinese zinc metal imports increased during Jan-Feb ’16 to 104 kt when compared with the imports of 41 kt during the same period last year. The imports of special high grade zinc metal by China totaled 45 kt during the month of February this year.

The zinc slab production during Feb ’15 totaled 1,095.2 kt and the consumption totaled 1,052.6 kt.