[SMM Analysis] Zinc prices are rising strongly, but we should be on guard against the risks brought by the price increases.

Published: May 10, 2020 15:37
SMM5 month 10: after May 1 this week, Shanghai zinc out of the unilateral rise, during the main 2007 contract broke through the ten thousand seven levels, as of Friday closed at 16940 yuan / ton, a one-week rise of 620 yuan / ton, up 3.80%, and this round of rising market accompanied by 37000 hands of positions, long positions led to a strong rise. In the second quarter, due to the influence of imported mines, superimposed domestic resumption of production and overseas relaxation of blockade, the trend of zinc prices will still be on the strong side.

SMM5 March 10:

After May Day this week, Shanghai zinc rose unilaterally, during which the main force 2007 contract broke through the ten thousand seven mark, closing at 16940 yuan / ton as of Friday, up 620 yuan / ton, up 3.80%. And this round of rising market accompanied by 37000 hands of positions, long positions led to a strong rise.

Judging from the epidemic situation, as of 16:32 on 9 May, the cumulative number of confirmed troops worldwide reached 4004224 and the number of deaths was 277860. At present, the development stage of the epidemic situation in various countries in the world is different, and the epidemic situation in China and South Korea has been controlled and has fully entered the stage of resumption of work and production, while Europe, the United States and Japan all entered the inflection point in April, but there is a long tail effect. It is expected that it will take at least one month to get under control, and some European and American countries have also issued economic recovery plans one after another, and the blockade will be relaxed one after another in May. The epidemic situation in the United States and the United Kingdom has not yet seen an obvious inflection point, and new cases are fluctuating at a high level. It is estimated that it will take at least two months to basically control the epidemic, among which the economic recovery in the United States is still full of uncertainties. At this stage, more than 40 states have relaxed the blockade. While the epidemic in India, Brazil and Russia continues to worsen and has not yet reached the inflection point, the epidemic is expected to last for a long time, and it is still necessary to pay attention to the trend of the epidemic in developing countries in the future, which may become the hardest hit areas. Among many countries, Peru, which has the greatest impact on mines, has once again extended its state of emergency until May 24, and according to SMM, some of the Peruvian mining enterprises have applied to the location for recovery, but the recovery is more difficult, and the impact of the mine is still not optimistic.

The rally is mainly due to the long response to the increase in positions to drive prices out of the unilateral market, the market is expected to be the most difficult period from May to June will be the most difficult period of domestic imports of mines superimposed overseas one after another to resume production plans, boosting market sentiment. In terms of zinc mines, due to the epidemic situation in Peru, Canada, Mexico and other countries, mineral resources have been significantly reduced. Under the influence of the superimposed epidemic situation and crude oil incidents, cargo ships are relatively tight, resulting in a shortage of short-term global mineral supply. Some smelters around the world have a shortage of raw material stocks. If the supply and transportation can not be recovered quickly, it will affect the output of refined zinc. On the domestic side, the zinc price rose sharply and the superposition processing fee was reduced. Calculated by the 90-quartile cost line of mining enterprises, the profits of mining enterprises have recovered considerably at present. According to SMM research, some of the mining enterprises that delayed or reduced shipments in the early stage have better improvement in their willingness to ship at present, or will suppress the zinc price in the future to a certain extent.

As for zinc ingots, SMM China's refined zinc production increased by 13000 tons to 479600 tons in April, an increase of 4.02 percent over the same period last year. In May, due to the narrowing of profits and other problems such as superimposed raw materials, some refineries chose to enter the overhaul ahead of time, and the output of refined zinc is expected to drop by 4500 tons in May compared with the previous month. June will still have an impact on smelters as imports are expected to fall sharply.

To sum up, due to the impact of imported mines in the second quarter, superimposed domestic resumption of production and overseas relaxation of the blockade, the trend of zinc prices will still be on the strong side. However, it is still necessary to be vigilant that due to the recovery of profits, the willingness of domestic mining enterprises to ship goods will improve; and after the rise in zinc prices, the willingness to receive goods downstream will weaken, or lead to the weakening of the extent of social banking, limiting the room for zinc prices to rise.

"Click to sign up for SMM" 2020 (15th) lead and Zinc Summit

Scan the QR code to sign up for the lead and zinc summit and fill in the personal information at the end of the page, and the conference staff will contact you later!

Data Source Statement: Except for publicly available information, all other data are processed by SMM based on publicly available information, market communication, and relying on SMM's internal database model. They are for reference only and do not constitute decision-making recommendations.

For any inquiries or for more information, please contact: lemonzhao@smm.cn
For more information on how to access our research reports, please contact:service.en@smm.cn
Related News
Fatal accident at Korea Zinc's Onsan smelter involved the roasting-system area; output impact remains to be seen
4 hours ago
Fatal accident at Korea Zinc's Onsan smelter involved the roasting-system area; output impact remains to be seen
Read More
Fatal accident at Korea Zinc's Onsan smelter involved the roasting-system area; output impact remains to be seen
Fatal accident at Korea Zinc's Onsan smelter involved the roasting-system area; output impact remains to be seen
On Sept 16, a fatal fall took the life of a subcontractor worker during roof work at Plant 2 of Korea Zinc's Onsan smelter in Ulsan, South Korea. The incident occurred on the roof of the condenser room, part of the roasting and sulphuric-acid system at the front end of the zinc flowsheet, while a ventilation fan was being installed. The accident arose from exterior construction work and did not damage the main smelting equipment. However, if the roasting-acid system is taken offline, the zinc roasters cannot sustain normal operation. No production cut, maintenance shutdown or suspension notice has been issued, and investigations are under way. Whether a work-stoppage order will be issued — and how broad its scope would be — and whether the company voluntarily halts the affected system for inspection remain unknown; the output impact is therefore uncertain. As a very rough sensitivity reference based on the smelter's nameplate capacity of roughly 640,000 t/y, a 3-7 day shutdown would imply a volume impact on the order of several thousand tonnes — but this is an order-of-magnitude estimate only, and the actual impact depends on the scope and duration of any inspection-related halt. Coming in a year when several overseas smelters (Nexa's Cajamarquilla, Glencore's Kazzinc and Young Poong's Seokpo) have already been disrupted amid a tight global refined-zinc market, the incident may lend short-term bullish sentiment to zinc, while the actual impact on output requires continued monitoring.
4 hours ago
Rate Hike Lands, Macro Pressure Persists; China Destocking Supports SHFE Zinc to Rebound from Lows [SMM Zinc Futures Commentary]
6 hours ago
Rate Hike Lands, Macro Pressure Persists; China Destocking Supports SHFE Zinc to Rebound from Lows [SMM Zinc Futures Commentary]
Read More
Rate Hike Lands, Macro Pressure Persists; China Destocking Supports SHFE Zinc to Rebound from Lows [SMM Zinc Futures Commentary]
Rate Hike Lands, Macro Pressure Persists; China Destocking Supports SHFE Zinc to Rebound from Lows [SMM Zinc Futures Commentary]
[Rate Hike Lands, Macro Pressure Persists; China Destocking Supports SHFE Zinc's Rebound from Lows] In the daytime session, the SHFE zinc 2611 contract opened at 26,080 yuan/mt, dipped to 25,970 yuan/mt in early trading, then consolidated and rebounded, reaching a high of 26,335 yuan/mt near the close before settling at 26,280 yuan/mt, up 95 yuan/mt, or 0.36%. Trading volume increased to 64,810 lots, while open interest decreased by 1,860 lots to 124,000 lots......
6 hours ago
Data: SHFE, DCE market movement (Sep 17)
6 hours ago
Data: SHFE, DCE market movement (Sep 17)
Read More
Data: SHFE, DCE market movement (Sep 17)
Data: SHFE, DCE market movement (Sep 17)
The following table shows the ferrous and nonferrous metals movement on the SHFE and DCE on 17 Sep , 2026
6 hours ago