Singapore 01/07/2016 - China’s year-on-year refined zinc production grew 2.1 percent in May, reversing the 2.5-percent decline in April, according to data published by China’s National Development & Reform Commission (NDRC) this week.
The May output growth is, however, 10.6 percentage points lower than production growth in the same month last year.
NDRC did not provide single-month production volumes.
Chinese zinc metal production increased 0.5 percent year-on-year to 2.49 million tonnes in the first five months of the year, down 12.9 percentage points from production growth in the same period last year.
The year-to-date growth improves from the 1.1-percent decline registered in the first four months of the year.
The NDRC figures differed from those tabulated and published by Shanghai Metals Market in June.
Chinese refined zinc production fell 6.2 percent year-on-year to 442,000 tonnes in May, taking year-to-date production to 2.174 million tonnes - this was down 5.2 percent from the same period of last year, according to the Chinese metals research firm.
Meanwhile, NDRC data showed Chinese lead output falling 3.6 percent year-on-year to 1.6 million tonnes in January-May - the decline had expanded 2.3 percentage points from the same period last year.
Lead production growth fell 4.9 percent in May as opposed to a 0.3-percent growth in May last year.