Zinc social inventories fell 3,000 mt over weekend

SHANGHAI, Mar 22 (SMM) – Zinc inventories in China fell over the weekend.

SMM data showed that social inventories of refined zinc ingots across Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong and Hebei decreased 3,000 mt from last Friday March 19 to 256,500 mt as of Monday March 22. The stocks were down 8,900 mt from March 15.

Stocks in Shanghai increased due to continuous arrivals at smelters and the inflow of import zinc with high production in domestic smelters. In south China's Guangdong, zinc prices fell sharply and downstream restocked at low prices, while large arrivals led to the slight decrease in stocks. Stocks in Tianjin went down sharply as downstream purchase volume enlarged when zinc prices dropped.

Compared to last Thursday, social inventories of refined zinc across the three major trading hubs (Shanghai, Tianjin and Guangdong) decreased 2,200 mt.