World Nickel Market at Marginal Deficit During Q1 2018

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The Metals Balances Report published by the World Bureau of Metal Statistics (WBMS) indicates that global Nickel market ended in modest deficit during the first three-month period of the current year. The market had reported modest deficit in Jan-Feb '18 too. Also, Lead and Tin markets recorded deficits in January to March 2018.

Nickel

Global Nickel market ended in deficit, with apparent demand exceeding production by 32 kt during the opening three months of 2018. The calculated full year deficit had totaled 96.0 kt during the whole of 2017, according to WBMS. The reported metal stockpiles maintained by LME at the end of Q1 this year were 46.0 kt lower, when compared with the closing levels of 2017.

The World Nickel mine production has increased by 43 kt over the previous year to total 438.8 kt in Jan-March ’18. Refined Nickel production totaled 422.7 kt. The Chinese smelter/refinery production during the first three months of 2018 surged higher by 16.0 kt upon comparison with 2017. Meantime, apparent demand edged higher by 29 kt in comparison with the previous year, mainly on account of reduced imports of ferro nickel from Indonesia.

The monthly Nickel Smelter/refinery production totaled 148.9 kt, whereas the consumption totaled 156.2 kt during the month of March alone.

Tin

The worldwide Tin market recorded a marginal deficit of 2.5 kt during January to March in 2018.

Global refined Tin production dropped by 4 kt during the first quarter of 2018. The Asian production declined by 3.7 kt. The global demand for the metal has declined modestly by over 6% to 91.3 kt when matched with January to March in 2017.

The global refined Tin production totaled 31.1 kt in March ‘18, as against the demand of 31.3 kt.

Lead

The Q1 ’18 Lead market deficit totaled 60 kt. This follows a deficit of 421 kt in the whole of 2017. The world refined production surged higher by 3.8% over the year to 2,915 kt. China accounted for nearly 43% of the worldwide Lead consumption. Meantime, the US apparent demand has declined by 6 kt during the quarter. The refined lead production and consumption in March this year alone totaled 975.9 kt and 1.014 million tonnes respectively.

ALSO READ: Primary Aluminum Market Still in Deficit, Says WBMS