Zinc social inventories fell 17,000 mt on week

SHANGHAI, Aug 14 (SMM) – Zinc inventories in China continued to fall this week, primarily propelled by losses in Shanghai, Guangdong and Tianjin.

SMM data showed that social inventories of refined zinc ingots across Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong and Hebei decreased 17,000 mt in the week ended August 14 to 175,100 mt, after a decline of 2,700 mt in the previous week. The stocks dropped 7,600 mt from Monday August 10.

Stocks across the three major trading hubs (Shanghai, Tianjin and Guangdong) fell 15,700 mt this week, after a 3,400 mt decline in the week before.

In east China’s Shanghai, limited inflow of imported zinc and stable downstream demand depleted local inventories.

In south China’s Guangdong, some stocks were transferred to Tianjin and downstream users stockpiled when zinc prices fell, leading to a sharp fall in inventories.

Zinc inventories in north China’s Tianjin were little changed from Monday August 10 as cargoes shipped from Guangdong and Shanghai piled up at ports.