Steel Products Prices North America
August 19, 2018
Zinc’s Price Limps into 2019 Despite Refined Market Tightness
Written by John Packard
By CRU Group’s Zinc Analysis Team
Despite lower-than-expected smelter output in China last year, which contributed to record refined deficits, 2018 marked the turning point for zinc’s price, reports CRU Group’s Zinc Analysis Team. Despite a still-tight refined market with stocks at critical levels, zinc’s price has had a shaky start to 2019, trading at almost $1,200/t below its 2018 high in the mid-$3,500s. A significant increase in concentrate TCs goes some way to explain the demise of zinc’s price, signalling a return to more plentiful mine supply, some of which has already begun to feed through to higher refined output. This certainly played its part in the switch to risk-off investor sentiment and zinc’s price slump.
