AM Statistics: China's zinc smelters' operating rate down to 72.38% in February

BEIJING (Asian Metal) 5 Mar 14 - According to the statistics of China’s 36 major zinc smelters each with the annual capacity of above 40,000t by Asian Metal, the average operating rate of the sample smelters was 72.38% in February 2014, down from 74.01% in January. The total output was 304,600t in February based on the total capacity of 5,050,000tpy.

The following table shows the output changes of some zinc smelters in February 2014.

(Unite: ton)

Company Name	Output in Feb	Up/Down	Annual Capacity
Chihong Zinc & Germanium	13,000	+4,000	200,000
Luoping Zinc & Electricity	1,000	-4,000	120,000
Sihuan Electrolytic Zinc	0	-4,500	60,000
Gansu Baohui	0	-4,000	60,000

Chihong Zinc & Germanium’s zinc smelter in Huize increased output by 4,000t to 7,000t in February, and the total output of zinc ingot in Huize and Qujing increased to 13,000t based on the total capacity of 200,000tpy. However, an arsine poisoning accident happened in the zinc oxide powder sector of a comprehensive workshop in Luoping Zinc & Electricity’s subsidiary on February 7th, so the zinc smelter stopped production and the output dropped by 4,000t to 1,000t in February. Furthermore, Sichuan Sihuan Electrlytic Zinc and Gansu Baohui stopped zinc ingot production in February for maintenance.

Some zinc smelters will resume the normal production when they finish the maintenance in March but some other smelters will reduce production for maintenance in the near term, so the operating rates of zinc smelters may not change obviously in March.

The following chart shows the operating rates of Chinese major zinc smelters from 2012 to 2014.