World Refined Copper Market Ended in Deficit

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The International Copper Study Group (ICSG) has published January 2021 Copper Bulletin, which provides preliminary data for October 2020.

In accordance with the data provided by ICSG, the world copper mine production dropped marginally by almost 0.5% in the initial ten-month period of 2020. The concentrate production remained essentially unchanged, whereas the SX-EW output declined by almost 2%.

Chile-the world’s largest copper mine producer saw its output remain essentially unchanged. The 2.5% surge in production during the initial half-yearly period was offset by 3% decline during July-October. The stoppages on account of pandemic coupled with operational issues and adverse weather conditions resulted in 14.5% decline in mine output over the first ten months of 2020. The aggregated output by the DRC and Panama increased significantly. In Indonesia too, production was up by 25%.

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The world refined copper production increased marginally by 1.5% in the first ten months of 2020. The primary production edged higher by 2.5%, whereas the secondary production dropped by 3.5%. The refined production recorded notable jumps by 5% and 25% in DRC and Zambia respectively. On the other hand, Indian refined output collapsed by 20% over the previous year.

The ICSG report suggests that the world refined copper market ended in an apparent deficit of around 480,000 tonnes in the first ten months of 2020.