Zinc smelters hail the surplus

摘要

Several zinc miners acknowledged in their July-September reports that the spot market has eased, and that spot TCs toward the end of the quarter were greater than prevailing realised TCs for this year's contracts. Zinifex noted this, and claimed that the global zinc concentrate market was broadly balanced, surplus Western concentrate being imported by the deficit market in China. And Lundin Mining reported that spot TCs ended the third quarter at 325 dollars/t (flat). But Zinifex also looked forward to 2008 and cited "the tendency evident in recent years for new mines to be delayed and/or deliver lower than expected tonnage". Whilst it was commenting more on its view on next year's metal market surplus, this assertion is also one that miners will use in their negotiations of next year's concentrate supply contracts.