Aluminum demand recorded 1% rise in the US, Canada in 2015

By Paul Ploumis (ScrapMonster Author)

February 25, 2016 02:30:11 AM

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The preliminary statistics released by the Aluminum Association indicates marginal rise in aluminum demand in the US, Canada during 2015. The producer inventories in Dec ’15 were up slightly when matched with the previous month. Also, aluminum scrap purchases by the industry during Dec ’15 dropped marginally year-on-year.

The aluminum demand in the US and Canada totaled 25.74 billion lb during entire year 2015, marginally higher by less than 1% when compared with the demand in 2014. The above figure includes shipments by domestic producers and imports.

The demand for semi-fabricated products was up by 3.7% in 2015 over the previous year to 18.303 billion lb. Meanwhile, the demand totaled 1.343 billion lb during the month of Dec ’15 alone, dropping marginally by 2.2% when matched with the demand of 1.373 billion lb reported during December 2014.

The apparent aluminum consumption by the US and Canada during entire year 2015 totaled 22.814 billion. This is 3.8% higher when matched with the yearly consumption of 21.979 billion lb in 2014. The apparent consumption during Dec ’15 has dropped by 2.2% from 1.715 billion lb in Dec ’14 to 1.676 billion lb in December 2015.

The producer inventory levels totaled 2.984 billion lb in December last year, recording marginal improvement from the levels of 2.976 billion lb in November. When compared with the same month a year before, the Dec ’15 producer inventories were up significantly by nearly 5.4%.

Meantime, the figures published by the US Geological Survey suggests that purchase of aluminum scrap by the US Aluminum industry dropped marginally by nearly 1% to approximately 744 million lb in December last year. The industry had purchased nearly 750 million lb of aluminum scrap during the month of December in 2014.