Hindustan Zinc raises prices

Hindustan Zinc, the country's largest zinc and lead producer, has raised zinc prices by 0.76 per cent or Rs 1100 a tonne effective immediately to bring the metal in line with the London Metal Exchange (LME).

With the current revision, the high grade zinc price perked up to Rs 146,100 a tonne at Udaipur smelter, while special high grade price ex-Chanderia basis shot up to Rs 147,100 a tonne.

Similarly, prime western also surged to Rs 144,100 a tonne compared to Rs 143,000 a tonne in its last revision on August 23.

Lead prices, however, remained unchanged at Rs 137,000 a tonne. The prices of zinc, mainly used for steel galvanising, on the LME closed on Friday in late kerb trading at $3190, a rise of $90 from the daily settlement and $60 from August 20.

Experts believe that the metal could not rise to its full extent because of the additional 475 tonnes in its inventory, which propelled the stocks to 63,325 tonnes on Friday as against 62,850 tonnes on Monday.

Meanwhile, HZL's production (mined metal content) was up 2 per cent y-o-y to 1.34 lakh tonnes in April-June 2007, while its refined zinc output was higher by 13 per cent in the same period. It's 1,70,000-tonne smelter project is expected to be completed by December 2007.

According to the Portugal-based global industry body, International Lead and Zinc Study Group (ILZSG), the consumption of zinc in the Asian region remained strong from January to May 2007.

Especially, huge investments on infrastructure upgradation in India and China has raised the galvanised steel demand in the Asian region, which is pushing the prices up, a trader said.

According to ILZSG, consumption of zinc in Asia (including India) was 24.74 lakh tonnes between January and May 2007 compared with 23.55 lakh tonnes in the year-ago period.