Zinc market surplus amounted to 81 thousand tons in 2015 - WBMS

According to a recently released metal balance report by the World Bureau of Metals Statistics (WBMS), the global zinc market posted surplus in January-December last year after recording a deficit during 2014.

According to the WBMS, the global zinc market recorded a slight surplus of 81 kt throughout 2015. It should be noted that in 2014 the deficit of the global zinc market amounted to 209 thousand tons

Global production of refined zinc grew by 3.1 percent in 2015. At the same time, Chinese production of refined zinc locally grew by almost 5.6 percent during 2015 compared to the previous year.

Global metal demand rose 133 kt on an annualized basis. Demand in China increased slightly by 1.0 percent over the previous year by 64.87 thousand tons. Chinese demand accounted for over 47 percent of global metal demand during this period. In Japan, demand for the metal fell 9.2 percent compared to levels recorded in January-December 2014.
Metal stock declined slightly over the year. At the LME, zinc reserves decreased by 80 thousand tons during the month of December last year and accounted for 42 percent of the world's metal reserves. LME inventories are down 228 kt from 2014 ending levels.

China's zinc imports in 2015 fell to 5,434 kt compared to 5,704 kt in the same period in 2014. The country imported mainly special high quality zinc within a month. The production of zinc in slabs in December 2015 amounted to 1130.0 thousand tons, and consumption - 1142.9 thousand tons.