[DantesPeak]

Today, for the first time in memory, some companies stated that there will be no commercial stockplies of zinc at some point next year. None, as is in zero, ziltch.

No, we are not 'running out of zinc', but getting close to the point to where the all extracted zinc is consumed fairly quickly.

If this comes to pass, it may be an important test as to how natural resources - such as oil - are allocated by price, or by some other manner in a time of shortages.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'Z')inc output in China is forecast to rise 12 per cent to 3m tonnes this year.

Zinifex, the leading zinc producer, said there was little evidence of consumer substitution and warned that LME inventories could run out next year at current rates of decline.

Tin rose 1 per cent to $10,250 a tonne. PT Timah, the world’s largest integrated tin miner, said output was expected to fall by 8.1 per cent to 38,407 tonnes this year.

It said production would be kept at 40,000 tonnes in 2007 as the company wanted to stop prices from dropping too far.

[perdition79]

Reality will finally catch up with TV fiction. No zinc? 'The Simpsons' did it, years ago. a classroom filmstrip where a man imagines a world without zinc.

from http://www.snpp.com/episodes/8F16.html

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he class is forced to watch one of those stupid educational films. Jimmy's car won't start because the battery is dead---one of the consequences of wishing for a world without zinc. Nor can he phone Betty to tell her he's going to be late. Distraught, Jimmy puts a gun to his head, but it doesn't fire---no zinc for the firing pin. Jimmy then wakes up from his zincless nightmare.

[Tanada]

Two common uses for Zinc are manufacturing Brass and glavanizing steel. Both of these uses can be easily substituted around at need but the current price of Zinc is low enough that like so many other things in the economy, it isn't worth the conversion yet. Once the price goes high enough more people will drop out of the marketplace for Zinc, just like they are doing now with energy in some places around the world.

For what its worth our main supplier at work switched from shipping us brass washers to stainless steel washers two years ago because they save so much money by doing so. I predict the threaded brass rods and brass nuts that go with the washers will be next. That kind of low level substitution has already been going on for quite some time, but once our suppliers stop using brass entirely the price of brass would have to fall extrodinarily lower to get them to switch back.

[DantesPeak]

Thanks for that information.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'F')inancial Times UK
November 24, 2006

Strong demand for zinc has been reflected in rising physical premiums over cash prices that consumers are willing to pay to secure metal. UBS said these premiums in the European market had risen from Dollars 120 a tonne at the start of the year to Dollars 320-Dollars 360. It said the shortage of zinc in Europe was so severe it was profitable to ship the metal from China.

[mmasters]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('DantesPeak', 'T')hanks for that information.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'F')inancial Times UK
November 24, 2006

Strong demand for zinc has been reflected in rising physical premiums over cash prices that consumers are willing to pay to secure metal. UBS said these premiums in the European market had risen from Dollars 120 a tonne at the start of the year to Dollars 320-Dollars 360. It said the shortage of zinc in Europe was so severe it was profitable to ship the metal from China.

[pup55]

Zinc Oxide

Zinc Oxide, derived from the metal or the ore, is a really important chemical for paints and some cosmetics. We will hate to see it go.

[strider3700]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tanada', ' ')I predict the threaded brass rods and brass nuts that go with the washers will be next. That kind of low level substitution has already been going on for quite some time, but once our suppliers stop using brass entirely the price of brass would have to fall extrodinarily lower to get them to switch back.

[Denny]

A major use of zinc is galvanized steel. If you go back twenty or thirty years ago, car bodies did not use galvanized steel. Maybe that would be a good plan for now to reduce zinc demand and stimulate auto sales and jobs at DCX, GM and Ford. I recall my first boss in the body shop at AMC in Brampton years ago said, when I asked first day on the job why they did not use galvanized steel, said, "What the hell, do you think we're dumb enough to put ourselves out of business?"

Ahhh, those good old days when your new car became an old car so quickly. Especially here in mid-Canada where a typical city buys salt by the boatload to dump on its streets.

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('strider3700', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tanada', ' ')I predict the threaded brass rods and brass nuts that go with the washers will be next. That kind of low level substitution has already been going on for quite some time, but once our suppliers stop using brass entirely the price of brass would have to fall extrodinarily lower to get them to switch back.

[dukey]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')oday, for the first time in memory, some companies stated that there will be no commercial stockplies of zinc at some point next year. None, as is in zero, ziltch.

[DantesPeak]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dukey', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')oday, for the first time in memory, some companies stated that there will be no commercial stockplies of zinc at some point next year. None, as is in zero, ziltch.

[perdition79]

Canadian uranium production has been in trouble for years. We'll have to push Australia to boost their output from Olympic Dam.

[DantesPeak]

Things are not looking much better for either:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'N')ickel Rises to a 19-Year High in London as Inventory Plunges

By Chanyaporn Chanjaroen

Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Nickel advanced to a 19-year high in London as inventory of the metal used in stainless steel dropped the most in seven weeks.

Stockpiles of nickel tracked by the London Metal Exchange fell 9.8 percent to 6,066 tons, the exchange said today. That's the largest one-day decline since Oct. 13. Supplies may not meet demand before the ``end'' of the decade, said Xstrata Plc, which bought Canadian nickel producer Falconbridge Ltd. in September.

``The challenge of nickel is, how much of this is already in the current price?'' said Jon Bergtheil, head of global metals strategy at JPMorgan Securities Ltd. in London.

[DantesPeak]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'Z')inc supplies are quietly running out

Blog Posts & ArticlesBy Myra P. Saefong, MarketWatch
Last Update: 7:49 AM ET Dec 15, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- It's zinc's turn to shine.
Spot prices for high-grade zinc have more than tripled on the London Metal Exchange in the last two years -- and the price rally won't likely end soon with demand for the industrial metal far outpacing supplies, analysts said.
After many years of languishing at low levels caused by abundant supplies, spot prices for high-grade zinc climbed to over $4,400 per metric ton as of Wednesday on the LME -- up almost 270% from 2004's levels.
That's quite a change for the metal that's mostly used to coat steel and to act as a rust inhibitor.
"Zinc has been perhaps the worst investment in major metals during the past several decades, which has resulted in significant underinvestment in exploration," said Dr. Harlan Meade, president and chief executive officer of both Pacifica Resources Ltd. (CA:PAX: news, chart, profile) and Yukon Zinc Corp. (CA:YZC: news, chart, profile).

...

In fact, at the current rate of supply declines, Coffin expects the LME warehouse to "be bare in about 3 months."