This is a very interesting article that supports my own theory...

This is a very interesting article that supports my own theory that economic cycles in general travel in circa 5 year cycles as does zinc.

N. America galvanizing to grow 2-3 pct in 2012

The slowdown in zinc started back in 2007, hit hard in 2008, 2009 down, 2010 flat, 2011 flat and has never really recovered.

Compare zinc to steel in this article..

- In the aftermath of 2008's global economic downturn...the North American galvanizing industry was hit hard, dropping 15 percent in 2009 and 5 percent in 2010.
- 2011 was a relatively good year in pretty much horrible economic condition
- Nearly four years removed from 2008's economic problems, the outlook for the U.S. economy in 2012 is looking better.
- The U.S. Federal Reserve estimated 2012 economic growth of roughly 2.5 percent, in line with the growth estimates for the North American galvanizing industry. "Hot Dip Galvanizing is a GDP-driven industry," Pendley said.

This last comment is very interesting...

"Hot Dip Galvanizing is a GDP-driven industry"

The fall in Chinese GDP growth + Global GDP growth almost matches the rise in zinc stocks.

It would seem to me that forecasting zinc demand is much closer to global GDP growth than I expected. I will put up a chart tomorrow and see if I can correlate global GDP growth vs the differential between zinc production and supply.