Affected by Environmental Protection-Driven Production Restrictions, Zinc Oxide Operating Rates Declined This Week [SMM Zinc Oxide Weekly Review]

SMM December 12 News:

      The operating rate of zinc oxide enterprises recorded 55.67% this week, down 0.78 percentage points WoW. Raw material side, zinc prices rose significantly this week, purchase willingness of zinc oxide factories in the market was low. Large factories had relatively high stockpiling earlier, while small and medium-sized enterprises, affected by weak end-use demand, mainly made just-in-time procurement, thus raw material inventory basically remained at last week's level. Finished product inventories side, due to production halts at some enterprises during the week, finished product inventories saw a slight decrease WoW. End-use orders side, overall operating rates for semi-steel and all-steel tires were average, and the pace of orders from tire factories slowed down. Ceramic factories in some domestic regions successively entered phases of production reduction or halts, weakening demand for ceramic-grade zinc oxide. Demand for feed-grade zinc oxide and electronic-grade zinc oxide remained relatively stable. The decline in this week's operating rate was mainly due to production halts at some enterprises affected by environmental protection inspections, but production has now resumed to normal. Therefore, it is expected that the operating rate of zinc oxide enterprises will slightly rise to around 56.35% next week.