Exclusive: China's refined zinc output rose 0.49% on the month to 499,300 mt in March

SHANGHAI, May 10 (SMM) – China's refined zinc output stood at 499,300 mt in April, up 0.49% or 2,500 mt on the month and up 4.11% on the year. Output stood at 2.01 million mt in January-April, up 4.25% year on year. Smelters in the survey sample produced 77,400 mt of zinc alloy in April, up 3.06% from the previous month. Output of primary zinc stood at 400,000 mt in April, and secondary zinc output came in at 44,000 mt.

SMM survey showed that the increase in domestic refined zinc supply in April was less than expected. The main reason was that the impact of "dual energy consumption control" continued, requiring that the energy consumption of the refinery should not exceed the same period of last year, leading to the maintenance and shutdown of some refineries. Secondly, Hunan was affected by the presence of the environmental protection inspection team, and some local secondary zinc companies reduced and suspended production. In addition, due to the tight supply of domestic zinc ore in April, TCs for domestic zinc ore were still at a low level, resulting in production losses in some refineries, and refineries continued to control production in response. Some companies in maintenance resumed production in April and contributed to the main increase in production.

SMM expects domestic refined zinc output to rise 9,000 mt month on month to 508,300 in May, and the overall recovery is roughly in line with expectations. The main reason was that under the influence of Inner Mongolia's "dual energy consumption control", some local refineries stopped production for maintenance and some refineries in Henan and Qinghai took routine maintenance in May. Some companies resumed production from maintenance in May, contributing to the main increase. In addition, due to the continuous arrival of imported zinc at port, some refineries increased production.