Zinc Market in Small Surplus for H1 2015

Shanghai Metals Market reported that the global zinc market saw a small surplus of 257 kilotonnes during the first half of 2015. That’s in contrast to 2014, when it was in deficit. The publication cites statistics from the World Bureau of Metal Statistics.
As quoted in the market news:

Global refined zinc production witnessed rise of 7.7% during the six-month period. The Chinese production of locally refined zinc surged higher by nearly 14.2% when compared with the corresponding six-month period in 2014.
The global demand for the metal has improved by 74 kt when matched with January to June in 2014. The Chinese apparent demand fell by 0.3% over the previous year to 3,101 kt. It accounted for just under 46% of the global refined zinc demand. The Japanese demand for the metal dropped 3.3% when matched with the levels recorded during Jan-June ’14. The Japanese demand during the six-month period totaled 243.1 kt.
The reported stock of the metal has declined by 67,000 tonnes during the six-month period. The LME zinc stocks increased by 13.1 kt during the month of June and accounted for 41% of the global stock of the metal.
The Chinese zinc metal imports reduced significantly during Jan-June ’15 to 197.5 kt when compared with the imports of 379.5 kt during the same period last year.

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