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Aluminum April 20, 2018 11:30:07 AM

Primary Aluminum Market Recorded Deficit During First Two Months of 2018

Paul Ploumis
ScrapMonster Author
The global demand for primary aluminum has dropped by 210 kt to total 9.9 million tonnes during Jan-Feb ’18, upon comparison with the previous year.

Primary Aluminum Market Recorded Deficit During First Two Months of 2018

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The world primary aluminum market recorded a deficit of 223 kt during the initial two-month period of 2018. The Metals Balances Report published by the World Bureau of Metal Statistics (WBMS) suggests that demand as well as production of primary aluminum dropped during this period. It must be noted that the global market had reported a deficit of 1.103 million t deficit during the whole of the previous year.

The primary aluminum production has declined by 139 kt in Jan-Feb ‘18, compared with the corresponding two-month period in 2017. The total reported aluminum stock levels rose by 18 kt during Jan ’18 and by further 313 kt in February.  The total stocks at the end of February this year were 2,633 kt. The combined stocks held in London, Shanghai, USA and Tokyo exchanges totaled 2.200 million tonnes at the end of 2017, marginally higher by 257 kt when matched with the end-December 2017 stock levels.

ALSO READ: Aluminum Association Calls for Joint Efforts to Address Overcapacity

The overall global aluminum production has dropped slightly by 1.4% during the first two months of 2018. WBMS estimated the Chinese aluminum output at 5.331 million t, accounting for nearly 55% share of the entire global output. The production by the EU-28 region edged higher slightly by 1.3% from the previous year whereas the output from NAFTA region fell sharply by nearly 5.3% from the year-ago level. The primary aluminum output during the month of February 2018 alone totaled 4,803.0 kt, whereas the monthly consumption totaled 4,866.1 kt during the month.

According to WBMS, the net exports of aluminum semi manufacturers in China totaled 664 kt during the first two months of 2018, rising sharply from 527 kt in Jan-Feb ’17.

The global demand for primary aluminum has dropped by 210 kt to total 9.9 million tonnes during Jan-Feb ’18, upon comparison with the previous year. The Chinese apparent demand was down by 3.5% when compared with 2017. Also, EU-28 demand stood higher by 66 kt during the opening two months of 2018.

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