Zinc concentrate treatment charges continued to slide in October, falling to a 26-month low with near-term demand continuing to outweigh immediate supplies of material, Fastmarkets has heard.
Fastmarkets' latest monthly assessment for
zinc spot concentrate TC, cif China, was $85-105 per tonne on Friday October 30, down by 13.6% from $100-120 per tonne on September 25.
The market for zinc concentrates continued to be subject to strong competition for spot parcels in early November, with traders and smelters paying lower and lower terms to get access to concentrates.
Several deals, both with traders buying and smelters making purchases, have been done at prices of less than $100 per tonne, a sign that shorts needed to cover near-term positions despite expected mine production increases next year.
"Traders are expecting a tighter market than the smelters, so you have this discrepancy between the tenders and the current market in terms of sales to smelters," a trading source told Fastmarkets.
October saw large quantities of zinc and lead concentrates tendered to the market, both spot lots and longer-term 2021...