Japan Finishes Import Zinc Stock Adjustment

Japanese imported electrolytic zinc inventory adjustment is completing. The import ingot was piled up when the importers secured around 40,000 tonnes just after the major earthquake but some of the users couldn’t use the ingot.

Japanese zinc production capacity decreased to one third just after the earthquake. Japanese trading firms and smelters imported zinc to keep stable supply. The ingot import was more than 44,000 tonnes in March-May, which represent around one month of domestic consumption.

The import ingot is mainly 25 kilogram unit compared with domestic 20-22 kg unit. Some of alloy makers and plating processors complained about different melting time and plating accuracy compared with domestic ingot. When domestic smelters resumed the operation around June, the users avoid using the import ingot.

The dealers try to liquidate the import ingot but the liquidation took longer time. A domestic smelter source said the inventory adjustment finally finished by end of 2011.

However, domestic demand is slow. Japanese smelters increase the export. Japanese zinc ingot export increased by 31% to 6,636 tonnes for products with 99.99% or more purity in November from a year earlier.