SHANGHAI, Jun. 20 (SMM) – China has executed strict environmental protection inspections in the first half of this year. How did this bolster zinc prices?

China’s environmental protection checks affected zinc supplies by preventing zinc mines from restarts, SMM said.

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Safety and environmental protection checks in Sichuan, Hunan and Inner Mongolia restricted output release in the first half of the year. Hence, SMM revised forecast of annual zinc concentrate output growth from 200,000 tonnes (zinc content) in early this year to 150,000 tonnes (zinc content).

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Galvanizers and zinc oxide plants in north China weathered environmental protection checks in April. But such influence only lasted for two months. End-user orders shifted to other regions, SMM noted.

On the heels of such checks, demand recovered rapidly in mid-to-late May, and this helped deplete zinc inventories, SMM said.

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