Huge amounts of zinc ingots from Spain, both new and old stock, continue to enter the Chinese market after a significant inflow last year, which is leading to inventory build-up and depressed premiums, market participants have told Metal Bulletin.
For the first month this year, Spain remained the biggest supplier of refined zinc to China, providing one-quarter of the total of 67,111 tonnes imported in January, according to Chinese customs data.This means that the inflows into China have not stopped after a 15-fold jump in annual import volumes of Spain-origin refined zinc in 2017. This material was mainly produced by Glencore to fill the gap created by cuts in its zinc output in 2015.In 2017, a total of 160,715 tonnes of zinc produced in Spain was brought into the East Asian country. While trading was normal in the first half of the year, an unprecedented rise was seen in imports from August to December. Around 150,000 tonnes of zinc ingots surged into the world's top copper-consuming country in an attempt to capture arbitrage profits."There is substantial stock in Spain being shipped to New Orleans [in the United States, and]...