During 2003 the market for lead concentrates was extremely tight. Western world mine production fell by 0.6 percent to 2.045 M tonnes, its lowest level since the mid 1990s. However while smelter closures reduced Western demand for concentrates, capacity expansions and increasing production in China resulted in a sharp increase in import requirements. Chinese smelters are prepared to accept far lower TCs than their Western counterparts in order to secure material, and so increasing tonnages of Western concentrates were, and are still being, shipped to China. This is reflected in the patterns of trade, which also indicate who has lost out to the Chinese. This is the subject of this month's focus.
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