Exclusive: China's refined zinc output rose 5.44% on the month to 496,900 mt in March

SHANGHAI, Apr 8 (SMM) – China's refined zinc output stood at 496,900 mt in March, up 5.44% or 25,600 mt on the month and up 6.49% on the year. Output stood at 1.51 million mt in January-March, up 4.3% year on year. Smelters in the survey sample produced 75,100 mt of zinc alloy in March, up 5% from the previous month. Output of primary zinc stood at 390,000 mt in March, and secondary zinc output came in at 40,000 mt.

SMM survey showed the recovery of domestic refined zinc supply in March was less than expectations. The main reason was that the impact of "dual energy consumption control" in Inner Mongolia spread to the refined zinc industry. Many refined zinc smelters in Inner Mongolia controlled production and reduced energy consumption for the month. In addition, the supply of domestic zinc ore was still tight, and TCs for domestic zinc ore were low, which led to production losses in some smelters. Therefore, they continued to reduce planned output in March and the final reduction was due to the regular maintenance of the refinery.

SMM expects domestic refined zinc output to rise 6,500 mt month on month to 503,400 in April. The overall recovery is still not as good as expectations. The main reason was that the environmental protection inspection team in Hunan Province settled in, and the secondary zinc enterprises in some areas reduced and suspended production in response. In addition, the regular maintenance of some refineries in Yunnan and Xinjiang in April further led to a month-on-month decline in domestic refined zinc production.