Primary Aluminum market ends in minor deficit during Jan - Feb '15

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The latest report published by the World Bureau of Metal Statistics (WBMS) indicates that global primary aluminum market has recorded a deficit during the initial two months of the year. As per the report, the market turned into a deficit of 29,000 tons when matched with the deficit of 692,000 reported during entire year 2014.

The production of primary aluminum was up by 973 kt during the two-month period from January to February this year. The total reported stock of metal has declined further by 228,000 tonnes during the month of February. The stocks at the end of the initial two-month period stood at 4,792 kt. It must be noted that the stock levels at the end of 2014 had stood at 5,020 kt. The combined stocks held in London, Shanghai, USA and Tokyo exchanges totaled 4,177 kt at the end of February.

Global production increased by 12.4% during the period from January to February this year. China, with estimated production of 4,642.4 kt, accounted for nearly 52.5% of the world production. Production in the EU region rose 2.3%, whereas the output by NAFTA region fell by 3.9% year-on-year. The primary aluminum production for the month of February alone was 4,587.3 kt, whereas the consumption totaled 4,620.9 kt.

The Chinese net exports totaled 64.5 kt during the first two months of the year.

The WBMS report also states that the global aluminum demand rose by 11.6% during January to February this year, when compared with the corresponding period last year. The Chinese apparent demand went higher by almost 20% when compared with 2014. On the other hand, EU-28 dropped by 6 kt when compared with the previous year.