Lead, zinc in oversupply in 2010: ILZSG

The International Lead and Zinc Study Group (ILZSG) released preliminary data for world lead and zinc supply and demand during the first nine months of 2010. A brief summary is listed in the tables below. Full details are available in the November 2010 edition of the group’s 68-page Lead and Zinc Statistics bulletin.

Lead

• Preliminary information collected by the ILZSG for the first nine months of 2010 indicates that the world market for refined lead metal was in surplus by 41,000 tonnes and that, over the same period, total reported stock levels increased by 45,000 tonnes.

• Global lead mine output increased by 8.1% principally as a consequence of higher output in China and Mexico that more than balanced reductions in Ireland, Peru and the United States.

• A rise in world refined lead metal production of 4.4% was mainly a consequence of increases in China, Canada, Germany, Japan, Mexico and Poland.

• Growth in Chinese apparent demand of 4% together with increases in, Europe of 7%, India of 12%, Japan of 20%, the Republic of Korea of 10.9% and Thailand of 23.3% were the main factors behind an overall increase in global refined lead metal demand of 4.9%.

Zinc

• According to the most recent data available by the ILZSG, global refined zinc supply exceeded demand by 175,000 tonnes over the first three quarters of 2010. Inventories held in the London Metal Exchange and the

Shanghai Futures Exchange warehouses together with those reported by producers and consumers increased by 189,000 tonnes over the same period.

• World zinc mine production increased by 10.7%. This was largely due to higher output in Australia, China, India, Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation.

• Increases in several countries, most notably Canada, China, Belgium, India and the United States resulted in a significant rise in global refined zinc metal production of 15.4%.

• A rise in global demand for refined zinc metal of 17.1% was driven primarily by recoveries in Europe (31.4%), Japan (30.4%) and the Republic of Korea (40%) together with a further rise in Chinese apparent demand of 13.9%.

— Details about the ILZSG and a list of publications are available at www.ilzsg.org.