ILZSG: World Lead Market Deficit at 110,000 Tonnes

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The latest edition of the monthly ‘Lead and Zinc Statistics Bulletin’ published by the International Lead and Zinc Study Group (ILZSG) suggests that global market for refined zinc metal ended in deficit during the first nine months of the year, when compared with the year before.

According to provisional data released by ILZSG, world lead metal demand exceeded supply, thereby pushing the market to a deficit of 110,000 tonnes during the initial nine-month period of the current year. Over this period, the total reported lead stock levels declined modestly by 49,000 tonnes.

The global lead mine production dropped marginally by 0.9% over this period. The drop in output was primarily due to lower output by various producing countries including Australia, Kazakhstan, Peru, South Africa and the United States. However, the production increased in Europe, India and Morocco. The lead mine output totaled 3.380 million tonnes during Jan-Sep ’18.

The refined lead metal production during this period held steady at 8.610 million tonnes. The production decline in Canada, China, Germany, Italy and Poland were balanced by rise in production in Australia, India and the United States. Meantime, the global lead usage declined by 0.6% to total 8.720 million tonnes.

The ILZSG data indicates that monthly global lead mine output totaled 400.8 kt in Sep ’18. The global refined lead metal production totaled 1,022.3 kt, whereas global lead metal usage totaled 1,043.7 kt during the month.