ICSG Copper Bulletin Points to Deficit Refined Copper Market

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The International Copper Study Group (ICSG) has published December 2019 Copper Bulletin, which provides preliminary data for September 2019.

In accordance with the data provided by ICSG, the world copper mine production dropped marginally by almost 0.4% in the initial nine-month period of 2019. The concentrate production remained essentially unchanged, whereas the SX-EW output declined by almost 1%.

Chile-the world’s largest copper mine producer saw its output decline marginally by 0.3%, due to lower copper head grades and production disruptions at mines. The Indonesian output has plunged heavily by almost 50%. The aggregated output by the DRC and Zambia were down by 3% each. Meantime, several countries including Australia, China, Mexico, Peru and the U.S. recorded increased copper mine output.

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The world refined copper production remained essentially unchanged in the first nine months of 2019. The primary production declined by 0.4%, whereas the secondary production edged higher by 1.6%. The refined production recorded huge declines by 35% and 115 in Zambia and Chile respectively. Japan, Peru and the U.S. too recorded reduced output.

Meantime, the world apparent refined copper usage was up by 0.3% until September this year. The Chinese apparent usage grew by almost 2.8%. The demand increased in the U.S., India and Taiwan, but fell in the EU and Japan.

The ICSG report suggests that the world refined copper market ended in a deficit of around 390,000 tonnes in the first nine months of the current year.