Global primary Aluminum demand bounces from 5 month low in Aug: Harbor

LONDON (Scrap Monster): Global apparent primary aluminum demand bounced from five-month lows in August, says Harbor Intelligence.

Using the formula of production plus/minus visible headline inventory movement, apparent demand rose by a seasonally-adjusted monthly rate of 9.7% to 44.6 million annualized metric tons, Harbor says.

China was responsible for roughly 90% of the monthly increase in global demand, posting 8.8% month-on-month growth (non-seasonally-adjusted) while rest-of-world demand was only marginally higher.

“In annual terms, global demand expanded by 0.9% after back-to-back contractions in June-July,” Harbor says.

“China’s apparent demand grew by a three-month-high pace of 4.6% (from contracting by 4.4% in July) while RoW demand was practically unchanged from a year ago.”

So far in 2012, demand has expanded by an average annual pace of 2.8%. Harbor says global primary output exceeded apparent demand during August by 1 million metric tons annualized; however, this was a much slower pace compared to 2.1 million in July mainly as China’s market was “practically balanced” after a surplus the prior month.

“In terms of demand coverage, global visible inventories in terms of weeks of consumption were little changed at 8.2 weeks from 8.5 in July,” Harbor adds.