WBMS Metal Balances: Copper Market Ended in Minor Deficit

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The trade statistics published by the World Bureau of Metal Statistics (WBMS) indicate that global copper market recorded tiny deficit during the initial four-month period of the current year. The global copper market recorded marginal deficit of 2.40kt during this period. This follows a deficit of 268kt recorded during the whole of year 2019.

The reported copper metal stock registered slight decline during April this year to close at a level 247kt higher than the year-end level in 2019. The LME warehouses reported net deliveries of nearly 106.8kt, The Comex and Shanghai stocks rose by 2.2kt and 135.4kt respectively until April in 2020.

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The world copper mine production during January to April this year totalled 6.62 million tonnes, higher by 1.9% when compared with the year-ago period. The global refined copper output too recorded modest increase over the previous year. The refined production totalled 7.90 million tonnes, higher by 6.2% when compared with January to April in 2019. The WBMS report notes that significant increase was recorded in China and Chile.

The global copper demand edged higher marginally from 7.74 million tonnes in Jan-Apr ’19 to 7.85 million tonnes during the first four months this year. The Chinese apparent demand surged higher by 3.6% to total 4.056 million tonnes. Meantime, the EU demand edged lower by 92 kt from the comparable total last year.

The monthly refined copper production totalled 1,952.0kt in April 2020, whereas the demand totalled 2,116.2kt.