WBMS: Primary Aluminum market in deficit during Jan – June 2015

By Paul Ploumis 21 Aug 2015  Last updated at 07:49:24 GMT

The global primary aluminum market has ended in a deficit of 380,000 tons during the initial half of the current year.

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The latest report published by the World Bureau of Metal Statistics (WBMS) indicates that global primary aluminum market has recorded a deficit during the initial six months of the year. As per the report, the market turned into a deficit of 380,000 tons when matched with the deficit of 716,000 reported during entire year 2014.

The production of primary aluminum was up by 4,084 kt during the six-month period from January to June this year. The total reported stock of metal has declined further by 148,000 tonnes during the month of June. The stocks at the end of the initial six-month period stood at 4,549 kt, which is sufficient to meet 33 days demand. It must be noted that the stock levels at the end of 2014 had stood at 5,020 kt. The combined stocks held in London, Shanghai, USA and Tokyo exchanges totaled 3,888 kt at the end of June this year.

Global production increased by 16.8% during the period from January to Juen in 2015. China, with estimated production of 15,401 kt, accounted for nearly 55% of the world production. Production in the EU region rose 0.6%, whereas the output by NAFTA region fell by 3.1% year-on-year. The primary aluminum production for the month of June alone was 4,851.3 kt, whereas the consumption totaled 4,898.10 kt.

The Chinese net exports totaled 208 kt during the first six months of the year.

The WBMS report also states that the global aluminum demand rose by 16% during January to June this year to total 28.74 million tonnes, when compared with the corresponding period last year. The Chinese apparent demand went higher by almost 34% when compared with 2014. On the other hand, EU-28 dropped during January to June this year by 100 kt when compared with the previous year.