Exclusive: China's refined zinc output rose 2.69% on the month to 508,000 mt in June

SHANGHAI, Jul 8 (SMM) – China's refined zinc output stood at 508,000 mt in June, up 2.69% or 13,300 mt on the month and up 9.15% on the year. Output stood at 3.01 million mt in January-June, up 4.51% year on year. Smelters in the survey sample produced 78,600 mt of zinc alloy in June, down 500 mt from the previous month.

SMM survey showed that the increase in domestic refined zinc supply in June was higher than expected. Power curtailments in Yunnan area ended around June 10, and enterprises basically returned to normal production. In addition, the regular maintenance of refineries in Gansu also accounted for the decrease in output. The increase in output was mainly due to the resumption of production after the maintenance of the refineries, and the unexpected increase was due to the faster production increase of the refineries in Shaanxi.

Except for the regular maintenance of some refineries in Yunnan, all other refineries have basically returned to normal production in July. Other increments still come from the resumption of production after the maintenance. In terms of production reduction, the maintenance of refineries in Inner Mongolia and Anhui is the main focus. However, the reduction is relatively small, so it is expected that domestic refined zinc output in July will increase 22,400 mt from the previous month to 534,000 mt. Domestic refined zinc output is expected to decrease 4,000 mt from July to 526,400 mt in August.