China Idles 41% of Its Aluminum Capacity in March

BEIJING, May 13 -- China's key lead and zinc enterprises posted a fall in their losses in the first quarter from the first two months thanks to rising prices, revealed Hu Deyong, an official with the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association (CNIA), at a recent forum.
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The domestic 15 key lead and zinc firms incurred losses of 80 million yuan in the first quarter, down 310 million yuan from the figure for the January-February period, and achieved profits of 310 million yuan in March.
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Official data showed that China produced 737,000 tons of refined lead in the first quarter, up 24 percent year on year. Its refined zinc output went down 3.48 percent to 851,200 tons in the same period, with the output in March up almost 30 percent over the previous month.
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Hu said that the government's stimulus policy and ample monetary fluidity pushed up the lead and zinc prices by 40 percent and 30 percent, respectively, in the first quarter.
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; China's zinc and lead mines had operational rate of less than 50 percent in the first two months, but the figure rose to 65 percent in March.
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Hu meanwhile said that zinc and lead prices lack rising momentum as the market is still under oversupply pressure amid lackluster demand from both home and abroad.
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; (Source: chinamining.org)