China's refined zinc output rose on a month-on-month basis in October

SHANGHAI, Nov 5 (SMM) – China's refined zinc output stood at 569,200 mt in October, rising 19,700 mt or up 3.59% on month and up 7.56% on year. For January-October, output totalled 4.99 million mt, up 4.42% from the same period last year. Zinc smelters produced 81,800 mt of zinc alloy in September, up 0.79% from the previous month.

According to an SMM survey, the increase of domestic refined zinc output in October basically meets the expectation of September. The market is worried about the supply of zinc concentrates, and news of smelters' production reduction is frequent due to the recent low TCs of domestic and imported zinc concentrates. However, SMM data showed that the smelters' production in other areas is relatively stable in October, except for refineries in Shaanxi, where the COVID-19 in the first two quarters of this year affected some refineries' output.

In order to complete the annual production plan, some refineries also started to rush work at the end of the year. Some smelters are concerned about the shortage of long-term ore supply, so they take the initiative to pile up raw material inventories. However, the raw material inventories of some refineries in Shaanxi and Hunan are still at a low level, and the overall zinc concentrate raw material inventories are 25.21 days, down 1.2 days from the previous month.

Some refineries in Shaanxi and Yunnan have planned to turn into maintenance and reduce production in November. In addition, Xinjiang Zijin started trial production on November 1. However, it will take time for product precipitation, and SMM will keep tracking.

The domestic refined zinc output in November is expected to decrease more than 10,000 mt to 559,200 mt.