Some enterprises began maintenance, zinc oxide operation rates declined [SMM Zinc Oxide Weekly Review]

This week, the operating rate of zinc oxide enterprises was recorded at 55.71%, down 1.39 percentage points WoW. Inventory side, some zinc oxide enterprises this week, driven by low prices, slightly increased raw material procurement, pushing raw material inventories higher; finished product inventories continued to edge up slightly due to the slowdown in shipment pace at some enterprises recently. The decline in the operating rate of the zinc oxide industry this week was mainly because some enterprises had their equipment under maintenance last week. End-use demand side, there were no obvious bright spots in demand for zinc oxide end-use sectors this week: overall order demand for electronic-grade zinc oxide was relatively stable; however, orders for rubber-grade and feed-grade zinc oxide were affected by higher raw material prices of end-use products and mediocre market demand, resulting in ordinary market demand. Looking ahead to next week, the zinc oxide operating rate is expected to fluctuate around 55.68%, with little improvement likely.