Jun operating rate at galvanising plants down on seasonal lull

Operating rates at secondary aluminium producers gained 4.9 percentage points on the month but dipped 0.1 percentage point on the year to 62.4% in November.

According to the latest air quality forecast results, the atmospheric diffusion conditions across the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and surrounding areas has deteriorated as the temperature rises.

An SMM survey showed that the average operating rate across Chinese galvanising plants fell 6.36 percentage points from a month ago to 93.57% in September. Nearly 31 galvanising plants were investigated, and the sample capacity of the survey stood at 10.8 million mt.

Operating rates across primary lead smelters in Henan, Hunan and Yunnan provinces remained unchanged from a week ago at 59.3% in the week ended September 18, showed an SMM survey.

Operating rates of blast furnaces (BFs) at Chinese steelmakers extended declines as decreased profits prompted steel mills to conduct maintenance.

The galvanised iron tower sector is expected to give a significant boost to zinc consumption in 2020 as the construction of “new infrastructure” drives the commencement of a large number of ultra-high voltage power grid projects in the second half of the year.

It has been more than 3 months after China is hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, and restrictions on industrial activities and transportation were the harshest in February. During this period, SMM is continuously tracking market recovery on the metals market. Please see our detailed findings for the nonferrous metals sector below. We will keep you posted on the latest happenings via our website www.metal.com and our social media channels on Linkedin and Twitter. Please register for our webinars in March as we continue to connect you with the latest happening in the China ferrous and nonferrous metals market. The next session is happening on Wednesday March 18, 5pm CST, where we present to you a macro update of the resumption of metals industry as China recovers gradually from COVID-19 , with a deep-dive in the ferrous metals markets.

Most of major galvanising plants in China have reopened this week, and the operating rates increased sharply from last week.

The average rate lost 4.22 percentage points on-month to stand at 86.83% in Apr

The rate fell 25.41 percentage points from a month ago to stand at 52.99% in Jan