CHINA, the world's biggest producer and consumer of zinc, may slash exports of the metal this quarter, supporting near-record prices, traders and analysts, including Feng Juncong of Beijing Antaike Information Development Co, said.

Net exports of refined zinc may drop as much as 45 percent to between 50,000 and 60,000 metric tons in the three months ending in June, as domestic demand is growing and the government is discouraging overseas sales, Feng said by phone yesterday. Net zinc exports were 90,260 tons in the first quarter.

A decline in record overseas sales by China, which consumes a third of the world's zinc, may drive global prices toward last November's record of US$4,580 a ton or even higher, said Yang Yinghui, a trader at Cofco Futures Co from Beijing. China is trying to curb metal exports to reduce its trade surplus and rein in capacity growth in energy-intensive and polluting industries, Bloomberg News said.

"The sharp increase in zinc exports is a concern, and the government will probably remove the tax rebate to slow export growth," Zhou Guobao, head of the zinc and lead department of China's Nonferrous Metals Industry Association, said by phone on Tuesday. He didn't say when the tax rebate might be scrapped.

China, the world's fastest-growing major economy, was a net exporter of zinc in 2006 for the first time in three years.