COLUMN-High-flying zinc shrugs off European smelter restarts : Andy Home

LONDON, – Belgium’s Nyrstar is reactivating the Budel zinc smelter in the Netherlands after a four-month period of care and maintenance. The company, controlled by global trade house Trafigura, said improved market conditions and the reinstatement of a Dutch energy cost assistance scheme will allow the plant to restart later this month, albeit not at full annual capacity of 315,000 metric tons. It is the second European smelter to come out of care and maintenance this year after Glencore re-fired its 165,000-ton-per year Nordenham smelter in Germany in February. The zinc market seems to have taken the news in its…