World refined lead metal supply and demand balanced during Jan-Nov '14

SPOKANE (Scrap Monster): The latest statistics published by the International Lead and Zinc Study Group (ILZSG) indicates that global refined lead market was in surplus of 1,000 tons during the initial eleven-month period in 2014. The total reported lead inventories declined by 40,000 tons during the same period.

The lead mine production in Australia, Peru and the United States increased during the eleven-month period. But they were enough to partially cover the decline in production in other countries such as Bolivia, South Africa and China. The overall global lead mine production reduced by 2.8% when compared with the corresponding eleven-month period in 2013.

The world lead mine output during the ten-month period totaled 4.836 million tons as against 5.435 million tons during 2013.

The refined lead metal production during the eleven-month period totaled 10.300 million tons, 1.24% higher when compared with the 10.174 million tons output during corresponding eleven-month period in 2013. The refined lead metal production surged higher in China, India, Italy, Kazakhstan and the Republic of Korea, whereas it declined sharply in Japan and the US.

The global demand for refined lead metal increased by 1% to 10.299 million tons during the initial eleven-month period in 2014. The European apparent usage increased by 2.3%. China reported a demand rise of 1.2%. The apparent consumption in the US dropped by 0.6%.