WBMS Reported Copper Market Surplus of 496kt in 2018

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The worldwide copper market recorded marginal surplus during the entire year 2018. The global copper market surplus totaled 496kt during the previous year, in accordance with the latest statistics published by the World Bureau of Metal Statistics (WBMS). It must be noted that the world copper market had recorded a surplus of 138kt during the whole of 2017. The surplus more than tripled over the prior year.

The world copper mine production totaled 20.71 million tonnes during Jan-Dec ’18. This was marginally higher by 2.1% when compared with 2017. The refined copper production too edged higher marginally by 1.1% during the previous year to total 23.66 million tonnes. The production recorded significant increases in Zambia, Chile and Iran. The Zambian production was up by 97 kt over the previous year. The output by Chile and Iran surged higher by 31kt and 71kt respectively. Meantime, the EU-28 production has declined marginally by 1.5% over the prior year.

The global consumption declined marginally from 23.26 million tonnes in 2017 to 23.17 million tonnes during 2018. The Chinese apparent demand during the previous year surged higher significantly by 5.9% to total 12.482 million tonnes. The EU demand at 3.413 million tonnes too was up slightly by 2.3% over the previous year.

The reported copper stocks declined in Dec ’18 to close at a level lower than end-2017 by 201kt. LME warehouses reported net deliveries of 2kt during the year.

The monthly refined copper production totaled 2,107.4kt in Dec ’18, whereas the consumption was 2,088.8kt.