US zinc sellers low on material, demand sluggish

摘要

The US zinc market plodded along this weeknwith no spring business surge in evidence,nbut zinc producers said they’re not overlynconcerned about the sluggish demand,nas they don’t have much material to sell.n“From my perspective, nothing’s changed,nbut we’re not anxious sellers anyway,” anzinc producer told Platts. “Our productionnwas [down] in March, which is going to limitnthe availability of metal we have to sell.”nThus, regarding premiums on special highgradenzinc, he added, “We’re sticking to ournbottom end being 7 cents and our top endnbeing 9 cents.” The producer said ordersnfrom customers like alloyers have slackednoff in recent weeks. “Business is not reallynout there very much right now, but that’snsuiting us; with our situation.” Another zincnproducer also had mixed feelings about thencurrent demand crunch.”We’re kind of neutralnbecause we don’t have anything to offernexcept for truckloads,” he told Platts. “Wensold on the annual contracts most of ournproduction, so we don’t really have any spotnmaterial to offer.” Also, a zinc trader said,n“We’re selling at 7; we’re not really goingndown, we’re not really going up, that’s thennumber. If [LME] prices come down a littlenbit as they’re doing now, the producers getnunder a little pressure to keep their premiumnhigher just to make a little extra money, sonI don’t see any weakness from that side.”nStill, other buyers of SHG this week confirmednspot deals south of 7 cents, such asnanother alloyer who said he bought 200 mtnof the material at 6.75 cents