World of Metallurgy ERZMETALL 68 2015 No 3 169 Frank E Goodwin The Zinc Industry New Developments a decrease of 2 4 Whereas 40 of Latin American zinc is consumed in Brazil and follows the global distribution of uses difficult economic conditions have reduced zinc de mand Reduction in oil prices is also affecting oil produc ing Latin American economies and therefore construction activity upon which general galvanizing demand depends Only Mexico which is closely tied to the USA economy is expected to increase in consumption during the next few years 7 3 4 Russia Zinc consumption in Russia is strongly dependent upon galvanizing There has been strong growth in the manu facturing consumption of galvanized sheet in Russia from 1 4 million tons in 2005 to 3 3 million tons consumed and 3 1 million tons produced in 2014 In the Russian market 62 of all zinc is used for galvanizing whereas only 7 is consumed by die casting Other uses are more similar to the international pattern There has been a strong growth in the general galvanizing industry in Russia In 2001 there were ten hot dip galvanizing plants in Russia whereas to day there are more than 60 In 2004 there were two general galvanizing plants in Ukraine this has increased to ten in 2014 General galvanizing plants are also being constructed in Kazakhstan and Belorussia however the pace of new general galvanizing consumption will be largest in the Rus sian republic where it is expected that between four and five new galvanizing plants will be started during the next few years The plants are geographically distributed across the country with several plants in each region 8 4 Zinc development activities The International Zinc Association sponsors technology and market development programs to support the prin cipal uses of zinc and develop new applications As not ed above one of the largest uses of galvanized sheet is in construction of automobiles This usage began in the mid 1980 s in Europe and North America and Japan to provide anti corrosion guarantees Increased fuel economy and emissions regulations have exerted pressure on auto makers to produce lighter weight vehicles The Galvanized Autobody Partnership is a cooperative research program between the steel and zinc industries to continuously im prove automotive galvanized sheet and its processing to allow steel based automobiles to meet fuel economy and emissions regulations Another large use of steel is for reinforcing bar in concrete structures In many cases these structures fail prematurely because of rusting of the rebar that can cause concrete cracking and unsightly staining The use of galvanized rebar has been shown to greatly pro long the service life of reinforced concrete structures such as bridges seaport facilities and buildings A new continu ous rebar galvanizing process has greatly reduced costs and is helping to develop demand for this new product Zinc thermal spraying is a technique for applying liquid zinc by melting zinc wire that is fed into a spray gun This is used for zinc metallic coating of structures that are too large to be hot dipped galvanized A rapidly growing market for ther mal sprayed steel structures is offshore wind energy where a lifetime of more than 20 years before major maintenance is required IZA is also developing the zinc market for mi cronutrients Zinc sulfate is added to fertilizer to increase crop productivity and also nutrition of both the animals and humans that consume grain vegetable and other crops The Zinc Saves Kids cooperative program between the zinc industry and UNICEF has distributed zinc nutrients in counties where childhood nutrition needs are greatest IZA also supports regional development of zinc markets including in China India Brazil and Russia whose market details were described earlier 5 Environmental and regulatory issues affecting supply and demand Zinc was the first element to complete the European Risk Assessment requirement in 2007 Since then IZA has also submitted the EU REACH Registration Evaluation Au thorization and Restriction of Chemical Substances dos sier These efforts have succeeded in keeping zinc markets free from regulatory threats Most recently the Interna tional Maritime Organization has imposed regulations for maritime pollution on ships carrying bulk cargos such as zinc concentrates IZA developed a testing technique that showed in general that zinc concentrates carried by bulk marine carriers are not hazardous to the marine environ ment IZA has also engaged with the United Nations Glob al Harmonized System GHS2001 for classification and labeling of chemicals These classifications are monitored globally to be sure that they are consistent As an essential element zinc is needed by all organisms to grow and devel op however at excessively high concentrations zinc ions can be toxic The EU Water Framework directive has yet to include zinc in its listing of targeted substances Compli cating the water regulation issue is the natural background levels of zinc that are found in waters versus anthropo genic levels introduced by other sources Toxics reduction strategies in other countries focus on runoff from roofing and the wearing of tires In all such cases up to date scien tific methods are urged to be used to protect zinc industry market access to environmentally sound applications 9 6 Summary During the last 15 years the zinc industry has grown by more than 30 mainly because of strong growth in Chi nese demand Chinese demand growth has mainly depend ed upon growth of zinc coatings usage for infrastructure and other construction applications At the same time Chinese mining and smelter production also increased at the same rate Growth in western world demand has mainly come from the use of zinc coated steel sheet in automobiles that began widespread use in 1987 together with more intensive use of general galvanized products The Chinese zinc industry is continuously modernizing with its structure changing from smaller pyrometallurgical smelters to large electrolytic smelters with much improved environmental performance Industry consolidation has also continued in other regions in Europe eight smelters

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