Summary
- The benchmark peaked in 2022. The World Bank's annual average LME zinc price rose from $2,090 per tonne in 2016 to $3,481 in 2022, fell to $2,653 in 2023 and was $2,868 in 2025.
- Refined zinc is imported close to the LME price. Eight large importers declared between 92% and 112% of the annual LME average in every year from 2017 to 2025 except 2023, when they ran from 99% to 121%.
- China's concentrate imports more than doubled, from 2.43 million tonnes in 2017 to 5.33 million tonnes in 2025, while South Korea fell from 2.16 million tonnes in 2018 to 1.34 million and Japan from 0.82 to 0.57.
- Concentrate is not a zinc price. China, South Korea and Japan declared 30% to 45% of the LME price per tonne of concentrate in 2017 to 2025.
- China's concentrate value as a share of LME was 39% in 2025 against 30% at its lowest, while the benchmark treatment charge fell from $274 per tonne for 2023 to $80 for 2025. It is an association over a few annual points, not a measurement of payable terms.
- Australia and Peru lead China's supply: 1.1 and 1.0 million tonnes in 2025, followed by Russia, South Africa and Kazakhstan.
Concentrate is sold on payable zinc net of treatment charges, so a customs price per tonne of concentrate is not a zinc price. The report explains this and the other limits.
What is in the full report
5 pages, as a PDF.
- The LME benchmark for 2016 to 2025 and the annual benchmark treatment charge, with year-on-year changes and a chart
- Refined zinc import prices for eight importers, each as a share of LME, and import quantities
- Concentrate import prices and quantities for China, South Korea, Japan, Finland, Norway and Belgium
- China's concentrate price by supplier: Australia, Peru, Russia, South Africa, Kazakhstan and Mexico
- Declared concentrate value per tonne as a share of the LME price
- The data limits and which figures were excluded, and why