iluka resources said wednesday that it increased production of mineral sands zircon rutile and synthetic rutile quarteronquarter and that sales rose by 74 here are some remarks from the companys secondquarter production report chinas recovery was relatively muted in q2 2023 ongoing softness in the real estate market impacted the ceramic market and industrial activity slowed contributing to uncertainty in other zircon segments the government has started to ease some restrictions including lowering interest rates and introducing other measures that could support the domestic economy european demand remained stable in q2 2023 however activity is expected to ease during the typically quieter summer quarter indias ceramic industry continues to outperform notwithstanding a production hiatus caused by cyclone biparjoy which affected ceramic production in the morbi area despite the disruption the indian property market is expected to continue to grow strongly consumers through the supply chain appear unwilling to hold or build inventory citing the broader macroeconomic uncertainties q3 2023 zircon prices to remain flat on q2 2023 pricing demand from the pigment market remains soft as paints and coatings producers experience lower demand from customers following a two year period of elevated levels of doityourself diy projects and home building in north america and europe despite lower levels of demand pigment prices have been resilient with pigment producers demonstrating their ability to reduce operating rates to meet demand in past soft demand environments it has been typical for a number of pigment producers to maintain production at elevated levels building excess stocks in the current environment however the majority of producers across the pigment industry have curtailed rates to match production to demand higher chlorine prices in north america continue to support selection of high grade feedstocks as this minimises chlorine consumption pricing in h2 2023 is expected to remain stable mining at jacinthambrosia in south australia produced 59000 metric tons of heavy mineral concentrate hmc down from 95 thousand tonnes in q1 2023 lower hmc production was the result of lower ore grade in comparison to q1 2023 however production was in line with the planned mining sequence in western australia the cataby operation produced 144000 tons of hmc up from 118000 tons in q1 2023 higher hmc production was due to higher ore treatment volumes and ore grade the narngulu mineral separation plan processed both cataby and jacinthambrosia hmc producing 107000 tons of zircon including zircon in concentrate and 23000 tons of rutile higher zircon production was due to higher zic zirconinconcentrate sales compared to q1 2023 with zic production recognised on sale total synthetic rutile production from capel was 87000 tons with both sr1 and sr2 operating at full capacity sr1 is offline for two weeks in july for a planned maintenance event and sr2 will be offline for approximately two months in h2 2023 due to a planned major maintenance outage currently planned to commence in november