Zinc social inventories stable despite imports, sluggish consumption

SHANGHAI, Sep 17 (SMM) – Social inventories of refined zinc across Shanghai, Tianjin and Guangdong stood at 116,900 mt as of Monday September 17, up 1,700 mt from last Monday September 10 but down 900 mt from Friday September 14, SMM data showed.

While Shanghai-bonded stocks shrank for consecutive weeks in an open import arbitrage window, social inventories across the three regions changed little as some imported materials moved to downstream consumers instead of social warehouses.

There was limited growth in output across domestic smelters and few domestic resources entered social warehouses, this limited growth in social stocks of zinc.