Zinc Market Report February 2015

Contents
Introduction 1
1 Financial news 1
1.1 Chinese domestic financial overview 1
1.1.Asian Metal Copyright2 February PMI rebounds slightly 2 1.Asian Metal Copyright1 January CPI growth rate breaks 1% PPI drops 4.3% YOY 1
1.1.Asian Metal Copyright4.Asian Metal Copyright2 China’s December PMI drop 0.2% 2
1.1.2 February PMI rebounds slightly 2
1.2 International financial overview 3
1.2.1 Crude oil futures prices rebound from the bottom 3
1.2.2 US dollar to keep climbing up in February 4
2 International market overview 5
2.1 Zinc price on LME drops, zinc premium being stable in North America February 5
3 Chinese domestic market overview 7
3.1 The market activity of China’s zinc concentrate sluggish in February 7
3.2 Chinese zinc ingot market quiet during February 9
3.3 Operation rate of die-casting zinc plants remains at low level 10
3.4 Zinc oxide market 11
3.4.1 Market for zinc oxide produced from zinc ingots keeps weak 11
3.4.2 Market for zinc oxide produced from zinc scrap remains dim 12
3.4.3 Zinc oxide 90-99% market stagnant 13
3.5 Zinc powder market 13
3.5.1 Fine zinc powder market generally stable 13
3.5.2 Metal zinc powder plants left for holiday 14
3.6 Zinc sulfate demand strong producers stop production in mid-February 15
4 Production data 15
4.1 Operating rate of China’s zinc smelters down to 78.86% in February 2015 15
4.2 China’s zinc smelters’ zinc ingot inventories up by 73.66% in late February 16
4.3 Operating rate of China’s zinc oxide plants down to 29.50% in February 17
4.4 Operating rate of China’s die-casting zinc alloy plants declines sharply to 11.1% in February 2015 19
5 Import & export data analysis 20
5.1 China’s zinc import and export data by country in January 2015 20
5.2 China’s zinc ore/concentrate imports in January up by 29.39% YOY 23
5.3 China’s refined zinc imports up by 35.62% MOM in January 2015 24
5.6 Top ten Chinese zinc ore/concentrate importers in January 2015 25
6 Company news 26
6.1 Baiyinnuoer Lead-Zinc Mine resumes production in late January 26
6.2 Taifeng Group resumes zinc ingot production 26
6.3 OJSC Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant’s zinc output stable in February 2015 27
7 Related industry developments 27
7.1 China’s automobile sales up by 7.56% YOY in January 27
8 Outlook for March 27

Graph 1 China’s CPI and PPI YOY trend from 2014 to 2015 2
Graph 2 China’s PMI from 2014 to 2015 3
Graph 3 US crude oil futures prices trend on major transaction markets in February 4
Graph 4 US dollar index trend 5
Graph 5 Three-month seller zinc on the LME in February 2015 6
Graph 6 Zinc stocks on the LME in February 2015 6
Graph 7 Prices for zinc concentrate 50%min in South China in February 2015 8
Graph 8 Prices for zinc concentrate 55%min in North China in February 2015 9
Graph 9 Prices for SHG zinc ingots in February 2015 10
Graph 10 Price graph for Zamak-3 zinc alloy in February 2015 11
Graph 11 Prices for rubber grade zinc oxide 99.7%min from zinc ingots in February 2015 12
Graph 12 Prices for 325 mesh zinc powder 98%min in February 2015 14
Graph 13 operating rates of China’s zinc smelters 2013-2015 16
Graph 14 China’s zinc oxide plants’ stocks from January 2014 to Feb 2015 17
Graph 15 operating rates of zinc oxide plants from 2012 to 2015. 18
Graph 16 China’s zinc oxide plants’ zinc oxide inventories 19
Graph 17 China’s die-casting zinc alloy plants from 2012 to 2015. 20
Graph 18 China’s monthly zinc ore/concentrate/ore imports from January 2013 to January 2015: 23
Graph 19 China’s refined zinc imports from 2014 to 2015. 24
Graph 20 China’s main refined zinc import origins in January 2015. 25

Table 1 Prices for zinc oxide 99.7%min produced from zinc scrap 13
Table 3 Refined zinc, zinc alloy, zinc concentrate/ore imports and exports in January 2015 20
Table 4 China’s top 10 zinc ore/concentrate import companies in January 2015 25

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