Primary Aluminum Market at Hefty Deficit in Jan-Oct ‘17

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The January to October 2017 Metals Balances Report published by the World Bureau of Metal Statistics (WBMS) indicates that world primary aluminum market deficit has contracted marginally during the month of October this year. The market balance continued to remain in deficit during the first ten months of the current year.

According to WBMS Report, the calculated market balance of world primary aluminum market ended at deficit of 1,434 kt during the first ten months of 2017. The deficit has gone smaller nominally when compared with the deficit of 1,463 kt reported at the end of September this year. It must be noted that the global aluminum market had recorded a deficit of 770 kt during the whole of 2016.

The production of primary aluminum has surged higher by 947 kt during the first ten months through October this year. The total reported stock of metal edged dropped by 30,000 tonnes during the month of October this year. The stocks of the metal at the end of the ten-month period in 2017 stood at 2,249 kt, which is sufficient enough to meet global demand for 14 days. It must be noted that the stock levels had stood at 2,761 kt at the end of 2016. The combined stocks held in London, Shanghai, USA and Tokyo exchanges totaled 1.848 million tonnes at the end of October, significantly lower by 477 kt when matched with the December 2016 levels.

Overall global production increased marginally by nearly 2% during the period from January to October in 2017. China- the leading aluminum producer accounted for nearly 56% of the world production. The Chinese aluminum production totaled 27,230 kt during Jan-Oct ’17. The leading producer of the metal during this period was China. The production by the EU-28 region remained almost unchanged from the previous year whereas the output from NAFTA region declined by 2.1% from the year-ago level. The primary aluminum output during the month of October 2017 totaled 4,763.5 kt. Also, the monthly consumption of primary aluminum totaled 4,799.1 kt in October 2017.

The net exports of Chinese aluminum semi manufacturers totaled 3,194 kt during the first ten months of the year, recording marginal rise by 3.63% over the previous year. The exports had totaled 3,082 kt during January to October in 2016.

In accordance with the WBMS report, the global aluminum demand increased by 1.703 million tons during January to October in 2017 to total 50.22 million tonnes, when compared with the corresponding ten-month period in 2016. The Chinese apparent demand was modestly higher by 4.0% when compared with 2016. Also, EU-28 demand stood higher by 113 kt during January to October this year when matched with the comparable ten-month period in 2016.