SHANGHAI, Jul 8 (SMM) – China’s refined zinc output fell for a second straight month in June, showed an SMM survey, as smelters in Shaanxi, Hunan and Anhui conducted maintenance as planned and as Xiangyun Feilong in Yunnan scaled back output due to equipment failure.

The decline was limited by the recovery from maintenance at some smelters in Yunnan and Inner Mongolia and as Shaanxi Hanzhong smelter ramped up production.

SMM data showed that 465,400 mt of refined zinc was produced in China last month, down 1.85%, or 8,800 mt, from May and 5.77% lower than June 2019. That took the tally for the first six months of 2020 to 2.87 million mt, up 4.57% from the same period last year.

Surveyed smelters produced 66,129 mt of zinc alloy in June, down 5.53% from the previous month.

The recovery from maintenance in Yunnan, Anhui, Inner Mongolia and other regions is expected to lift China’s refined zinc output by 26,400 mt to 491,800 mt in July from June, according to SMM calculations, while there are smelters in Gansu and Inner Mongolia undertaking maintenance.

Inventories of raw materials at Chinese zinc smelters continue to climb in July, currently standing at around 28 days, as zinc concentrate supply tightness has eased, as evidenced by higher treatment charges (TC).