The continued closure of the import arbitrage window to China and the lingering absence of Nyrstar's Port Pirie from the market triggered a rise in treatment charges for lead concentrates over July, while TCs for zinc concentrates also rose.
Fastmarkets assessed low-silver spot lead concentrate TCs at $30-50 per tonne cif China on July 26, up from $20-30 per tonne a month earlier. Spot TCs for high-silver lead concentrates rose to $50-75 per tonne from $40-60 previously. Nyrstar expects to restart lead smelting at its Port Pirie works in Australia at the end of July, it said, adding that 30,000 tonnes of lead output had been lost because of an unplanned production outage there.China's customs agency reported...