Zinc Market Overview
Zinc (Zn) is a transition metal classified as a chemical element from the Group 12 of the periodic table. It is a low-melting metal with a respective melting and boiling point of 420 °C (788 °F) and 907 °C (1,665 °F). It looks like a blue-white lustrous metal that has several properties, like high strength, toughness, ductility, and conductivity. It is present in the crust of the Earth and can also be found in air, water, soil etc. It is mainly used for carrying out industrial activities such as coal and waste combustion, mining, and steel processing.
The zinc industry is propelling forward owing to its use in steel galvanising as a base metal that helps prevent corrosion in steel products. The galvanised steel has further applications in automobile parts, streetlamp posts, safety barriers, and suspension bridges. Furthermore, zinc in huge quantities is used for making die-castings that have extensive employment in electrical, automobile, and hardware end-uses. In addition, zinc oxide gets employed in the manufacturing of many products, such as pharmaceuticals, plastics, rubber, cosmetics, batteries, paints, inks, textiles, soaps, and electrical equipment, which boosts the industry’s expansion. Also, as a white pigment, it is widely used in paints and watercolours along with other products, including photocopier paper, cosmetics, printing inks, and wallpaper, which further pushes the industry.
Zinc Production Process from Mining
Zinc production revolves around several steps, including mining, roasting, leaching & purification, electrolysis, and melting & casting.
Mining: The Earth’s crust has tiny amounts of zinc which is extracted and sent to several ports; Nyrstar then accumulates, and transports zinc concentrate from mines worldwide. Trainloads of zinc concentrate are brought in to undergo a four-stage roasting process, electrolysis, casting, leaching, and purifying. These are explained below:
Roasting: At first, raw materials like the steel industry’s recycled zinc oxides and zinc concentrates are fed in a fluid bed roaster which leads to the formation of calcine via the burning of raw zinc minerals with air. Calcine forms a sand-like appearance at a temperature of 950 degrees Celsius. Throughout the roasting process, full automation is carried out, and operators are continuously monitored in a control room.
Leaching & Purification: The Leaching technique is used for dissolving the calcine formed in sulfuric acid. During this stage, other separated metals like lead, silver, gold, copper, cadmium, and cobalt produce a pure zine sulphate solution which later goes through the electrolysis process.
Electrolysis: In this method, electrowinning is used for depositing zinc which is part of the solution, onto aluminium cathodes. In order to accomplish this, an electric current is used. From the cathodes, zinc sheets are separated and transferred to casting once the cathodes are separated from the cells. During casting, cathode zine gets turned into blocks and ingots after they have been melted in furnaces. This process lasts for up to 22 hours. Now, using a lot of voltage, pure zinc gets placed on aluminium plates which are removed from the cells and contain solely pure zinc. The zinc is extracted by machines, and the empty plates are returned to the cells for repeating the process again.
Melting & Casting: This is the last step of the process, where zinc is remelted and cast into blocks, slabs, and ingots weighing between 25 and 2500 kg. Additionally, different alloying ingredients are added while casting some alloys.
Zinc Market Players
- American Elements
- The Doe Run Resources Corporation
- Korea Zinc Co., Ltd.
- Hindustan Zinc Limited
- Glencore plc
- Nexa Resources
The key industry players dominating the market are mainly large-scale multinational firms that have a robust and well-planned distribution network that has already been established. Key players are growing their R&D investments to create more opportunities in the industry.
Zinc Price Trend Study
North America
Recently, the zinc market witnessed growth because of sustained demand from end-user industries in the US. China’s Golden Week vacation led to restricted imports in the beginning. Experts in the market claimed that in the time frame, ongoing supply interruptions, high inflation, and the zero-COVID policy in China all played a role in stoking overall recession fears and lowering expectations of recovery in the United States. Zinc prices rose as China eased a few of its COVID rules, which gave rise to expectations for a demand revival later in the period. Further, as risk assets grew and inflation in the US slowed because of easing Chinese controls, Wall Street saw an increase. But as the economy began to develop and the ports witnessed a significant drop in ship backlogs after the long port backlog, the US supply chain went through stable improvement in the end.
Asia Pacific
The regional zinc market in China displayed an upward trajectory in recent months. Because of the shutdown of industrial facilities during the Golden Week, China’s export orders for zinc lowered slowly. The complete pricing trend was mainly attributed to constant demand from the end-user industry. Regional producers and suppliers could fulfil the entire regional demand since they have adequate stock available. Metal prices, especially zinc, increased as China relaxed a few of its COVID regulations, boosting the hopes of demand recovery in the world’s second-largest economy.
Europe
The zinc market in Europe persisted to incline in the present months. Though growing costs of energy and raw materials made it harder for the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries to deliberate, demand stayed on the favourable end. Industrial production in Germany grew slightly in spite of growing prices of energy and supply-chain constraints. But, COVID-related concerns, along with the persisting situations in Russia and Ukraine, all consistently impacted output adversely.
According to the blog, zinc is a vital commodity that has various applications across several industries giving rise to its procurement and sourcing among the key players. The growing usage and interest in the commodity are expected across the globe. This write-up gives an insight into the market, which will help the readers and industry experts understand the overall market and help them with their business needs.