Korea Zinc to become world's largest lead smelter

By Choi Sung-jin

Korea Zinc will hold a ceremony in Onsan, North Gyeongsang Province, Friday to expand its lead smelter, company officials said.

According to Wood Mackenzie, a British energy-commodity consultancy, Korea Zinc’s lead-smelting capacity is the world’s second largest with 5.2-percent market share, following China’s Yuguang Smelting (5.8 percent).

The latest capacity expansion of nearly 40 percent, at a cost of 390 billion won ($327 million), will increase Korea Zinc’s lead-smelting capacity from 300,000 tons to 430,000 tons a year, surpassing its Chinese rival, the officials said. The Korean company already has the largest share, 4.1 percent, of zinc-smelting capacity in the world.

Since its founding in 1974, Korea Zinc has steadfastly focused on nonferrous metals with a sales portfolio comprised of zinc (36 percent), silver (28 percent), lead (17 percent) and gold (9 percent). Zinc is used as materials for alloying and gilding, such as zinc-gilded plates for automobiles, while 80 percent of lead is used in batteries.

The company’s earned surplus has increased by up to 500 billion won a year for an accumulated total of 4.8 trillion won as of the Sept. 30 last year, with the debt ratio falling below 15 percent, the officials said.