Stockpiles Finish, page-3

Many thanks to infomine for the following article

Zinc

China imported just under 70,000 tonnes of refined zinc in January.

That was slightly off the pace of the preceding quarter but, as with copper, marked a continuation of a strong underlying trend, which saw refined zinc imports hit a record 713,355 tonnes in 2018.

China has turned to the international market-place to compensate for its own falling production.

The country's national output of refined zinc slid 4.6 percent last year, according to state research house Antaike.

Chinese smelters have been caught between a tight concentrates market and an escalation of environmental regulations.

Raw materials tightness should ease this year as mine supply surges, although January's concentrates import figure of 301,400 tonnes was still 11 percent off last year's pace.

The key question is whether Chinese zinc smelters can actually process more concentrates, given many are scrambling to comply with new solid-waste emissions regulations.

Analysts at Citi expect domestic production to rise due to smelter restarts after the Lunar New Year holidays but the flow-through to refined metal availability will take time, meaning the bank is looking for refined imports to remain robust through the first half of 2019. ("China Commodities Trade Data", Feb. 27, 2019)

Everything, however, hinges on whether the environmental crackdown on zinc smelting in China intensifies further.