Reports from China suggest that the country's State Reserves Bureau (SRB) is to buy refined zinc from smelters, its second purchase in less than 2 months.
"The SRB is going to buy zinc on Wednesday," a sales manager at a large zinc smelter told Reuters news agency. The amount involved is expected to be about 100,000 tonnes though smelters are refusing to sell more because of an expectation of higher prices.
Chinese zinc prices have stayed firm after the SRB bought 59,000 tonnes of refined zinc from smelters in January as part of Beijing's plan to support local smelters due to weak demand.
Strong Chinese prices encouraged merchants to import spot refined zinc with imports up 306 percent from a year earlier.
"Smelters are willing to sell more to the SRB this time as imports are rising and prices may fall soon," a manager at another large zinc smelter said.
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