Surplus seen in global Copper market during Q1

UNITED KINGDOM June 21 2017 2:18 PM
 
LONDON (Scrap register): During the first quarter of 2017, the global refined Copper market saw an excess of about 165000 tons, as per International Copper Study Group (ICSG). Factoring in changes to private, unreported copper stocks in China, the first-quarter surplus rose to about 310,000 mt.

In the first quarter of this year, the world mine production is estimated to decline by around 3.5 percent to 4.63 million tons when compared to the same period last year, and the concentrate production declining by around 3 percent and solvent extraction-electrowinning (SX-EW) declining by 6 percent.

The decline was mainly related to a 14 percent year on year decline in Chilean production, which was affected by a strike at the Escondida mine. The production of the first quarter was also badly affected by the decrease in production of Canada by about 18 percent and Mongolia by about 23 percent.

The overall decline was partially offset by 17% and 9% year-on-year increases in Mexican and Peruvian concentrate output, respectively, with both countries benefitting from new and expanded capacity that was not fully available a year ago, ICSG reported to Platts.