Zinc concentrate treatment charges (TCs) have climbed to their highest level in two and a half years, with spot parcels trading at terms well above $100 per tonne in September.
Fastmarkets MB assessed spot zinc concentrate TCs on a cif Asia Pacific basis at $115-135 per tonne at end of September, up from $80-95 per tonne a month earlier and the highest since May 2016. Terms for spot zinc concentrate have risen sharply in the second half of this year; in July Fastmarkets MB assessed TCs at $20-40 per tonne. The increase correlates with Teck Resources shipping its annual tonnes to smelter customers and a shrinking of spot demand amongst Chinese smelters."The TCs for overseas concentrates have gone wild," a southern Chinese smelting source said."This year, Chinese smelters have cut capacity aggressively and now unwanted zinc concentrate is everywhere," the smelter source added, while reporting purchases of zinc concentrate at up to $140 per tonne during September.Chinese zinc smelters earlier campaigned to cut one tenth of zinc production to raise flagging metal prices and boost concentrate TCs. Other than the...