Noranda Income Fund Unit T.NIF.UN

RE:RE:Boliden investing 700M euro in zinc smelter. WOW!!

[galvanized]

I haven't looked at Boliden very closely but my guess it that the difference in concentrate costs may be that Boliden operates some mines or has some long term supply contracts in place, whereas NIF has been operating on spot in recent history.

There is lots of zinc in the crust of the earth, and higher prices are incentivising greater mine production, and forecasts suggest that concentrate supply will improve over the next few years to the advantage of smelters.

On the other hand, the electric car mania is going to put a lot of electricity cost pressure on smelters that don't have access to cheap hydro power.  In fact, recently smelters in china were forced to shut down or reduce production  due to lack of power.

So I think the results are going to be ho hum,for the rest of this year, but starting next year and for several years thereafter, things should start to get much better and the completion of the plant upgrade in Q1 will also help.