Zinc smelters in Sichuan and surrounding provinces have shut down as much as 510,000 tonnes of zinc smelting capacity following the earthquake that devastated the southwestern province on Monday, analysts told Interfax today.

Zinc production has completely halted at more than 10 zinc smelters in Sichuan Province's Deyang, Hanyuan and Ganzi regions, as well as in nearby southern regions of Shaanxi Province and Gansu Province, due to damaged facilities and power supply failures, a senior analyst with Beijing Antaike Information, named Feng Juncong, said.

"We can only give a rough estimate at the moment, due to communication breakdowns in some earthquake-hit areas. However, it appears that Sichuan's entire 250,000-tonne zinc smelting capacity has been affected, due to power supply disruptions at and around the epicenter in Wenchuan county," another Antaike analyst, named Liu Fan, said today.

"Moreover, if we add in the probable disruptions in the surrounding provinces of Gansu and Shaanxi, it's likely that about 510,000 tonnes of zinc smelting capacity has been knocked out," Liu said.

"Zinc miners in affected areas are also out of reach, which makes it difficult to calculate the earthquake's impact. However, any disruption to zinc mines in Sichuan will support zinc prices, on top of the existing upside sentiment from metal supply disruptions."

Feng predicted that the smelters' production halt will last for at least two weeks, and though dependent on whether zinc miners are in a worse situation than smelters, zinc prices may remain high for as long as one month.

Sichuan Province's annual zinc concentrate output accounts for 7% of China's national total.

"Approximately 46% of the country's zinc smelting capacity lies in tremor-stricken regions, but we won't know the extent of the damage until a detailed assessment is carried out," a Capital Futures analyst, named Zhang Lianggui, told Interfax today.

"Concern over zinc supply disruptions from the quake sent zinc prices soaring yesterday. However, this temporary upside will hardly be able to reverse China's long-term zinc oversupply," Zhang said.

The most-traded July zinc contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchanged closed at RMB 18,375 ($2,625.49) yesterday, up 2.60% from the previous trading day. The uptrend continued today, with the contract up 3.57% at RMB 18,845 ($2,692.64) today.

The three-month zinc contract on the London Metal Exchange rose 6.52% from the previous trading day to close at $2,320 yesterday.

Spot zinc prices in the Shanghai market fluctuated between RMB18,400 ($2,629.06) per tonne and RMB 18,600 ($2657.64) per tonne today, up RMB 600 ($85.73) per tonne from yesterday.

Shenzhen-listed Sichuan Hongda Chemical Industry Co. Ltd. suspended trading yesterday, and announced today that it is still evaluating the impact of the earthquake on the company's 200,000-tonne plus annual zinc capacity.

According to the disaster relief center under the State Council, the death toll from Monday's earthquake reached 12,012 as of 19:00 CST yesterday, while another 9,404 people are still buried in debris, 7,841 are missing and 26,206 people injured.