China's zinc price in June fell 37.3 percent from a year ago, and is expected to remain low for quite a long period of time, affected by the weak market demand and oversupply, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

     No. 1 zinc price in June dropped 37.3 percent on year and 8.34 percent on month to 16,780 yuan/ton.

     China's output of refined zinc for the first five months increased 4.1 percent on year to 1.55 million tons.

     Along with weak consumption, zinc inventory keeps at a high level, which was 677,000 tons at Shanghai Futures Exchange by the end of June, up 50.3 percent year on year. The LME zinc inventory on July 4 was also detected to jump 71 percent year on year to 152,500 tons.

     Affected by the weak demand, the output of zinc-coated plates and pipes in China are expected to go down.