Zinc surges as miner Glencore slashes output

The price of zinc rebounded sharply this week after troubled Swiss mining giant Glencore slashed its output by a third, in a "significant" tightening of supplies, traders said.

The industrial metal rallied to a two-month pinnacle at $1,875 per tonne in Friday morning deals, up 12 percent from the closing level the previous day.

"Metal prices are surging ... with zinc leading the way," said Commerzbank analyst Daniel Briesemann.

Glencore, plagued by vast debts and crashing commodity prices, announced Friday it was lowering zinc output by 500,000 tonnes across its operations in Australia, South America and Kazakhstan.

The lost production equates to 3.8 percent of total global zinc production, according to Commerzbank.

Swiss-based Glencore, which employs around 181,000 people worldwide, added that around 1,540 people will lose their jobs as part of the restructuring.

"The main news ... was Glencore?s announcement of zinc production cuts," said analysts at the Sucden brokerage.

"Zinc prices spiked higher, taking the rest of the London Metal Exchange (LME) with it."

In addition, Glencore -- one of the world's largest miners and producers of zinc -- will lower its fourth-quarter production by approximately 100,000 tonnes.

Briesemann added: "This is likely to significantly tighten the global zinc market, which has been amply supplied so far this year according to data from the International Lead and Zinc Study Group (ILZSG)."

Glencore said its operations at Lady Loretta in Australia and Iscaycruz in Peru would be suspended and operations at George Fisher and McArthur River in Australia and various mine operations in Kazakhstan would reduce production levels.

The ILZSG, a Lisbon-based intergovernmental group which studies the lead and zinc markets, is due to publish an update on the situation on Monday.

Around 13.5 million tonnes of zinc is produced worldwide each year, according to the latest ILZSG data from 2013.

Zinc prices had fallen by nearly 30 percent since May on the back of abundant supplies and weaker demand arising from an economic slowdown in top consuming nation China.

The metal plumbed a five-year low point of $1,601.50 in September, but has since rebounded somewhat.

Zinc is used mostly for galvanizing steel to protect it from corrosion, especially in the automotive and construction sectors.

The industrial metal is also used in the die casting industry, and to produce alloys like brass and bronze.

Analysts meanwhile warned that Glencore's decision would have repercussions for other metals.

"The planned cutbacks in zinc production will also have an impact on lead and silver, as both metals are often mined together with zinc," Briesemann added.

"In recent weeks, Glencore had already announced plans to make sweeping cuts to its copper production which would account for 1.8 percent of last year?s global copper production."

By late Friday on the LME, zinc for delivery in three months spiked to $1,843 a tonne from $1,692 a week earlier.

Three-month copper rose to $5,298 a tonne from $5,122.

Three-month aluminium increased to $1,611.50 a tonne from $1,560.

Three-month lead advanced to $1,781 a tonne from $1,655.

Three-month tin climbed to $16,005 a tonne from $15,530.

Three-month nickel rebounded to $10,530 a tonne from $10,035.