Commodity trader and miner Glencore last month started ramping up production at its Nordenham zinc smelter, which has been on care and maintenance for more than a year, a source with knowledge of the matter said.
Nordenham in Germany halted production in 2022 along with some other smelters in Europe producing energy-intensive zinc and aluminum because of surging power prices after Russia invaded Ukraine.
The source did not say how much was currently being produced or when the smelter would be at full capacity.
The smelter produces about 165,000 tonnes of zinc and zinc alloys per year, its website says.
Glencore bought the Nordenham smelter after it filed for insolvency in May 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic hit demand for the metal used to galvanize steel.
Prices of zinc on the London Metal Exchange (LME) at around $2,570 a metric ton are up more than 10% since hitting a seven-month low at $2,278 on February 12.
(By Pratima Desai; Editing by Jane Merriman)
