WBMS: Primary aluminium market records deficit

The World Bureau of Metal Statistics (WBMS) has published the Metals Balances Report for the first four months of the current year. The global primary aluminium recorded marginal deficit during Jan-Apr ’16.

The latest report published by the World Bureau of Metal Statistics (WBMS) indicates that global primary aluminium market has recorded a marginal deficit during the initial four months of the year. As per the report, the market reported a deficit of 298,000 tons when matched with the deficit of 308,000 reported for the entire year 2015.

The production of primary aluminium has dropped by 61,000 tonnes during the four-month period from January to April this year. The total reported stock of metal dropped by 183,000 tonnes during the month of April. The stocks at the end of the initial four-month period stood at 3,470 kt, which is sufficient to meet 22 days demand. It must be noted that the stock levels at the end of 2015 had stood at 3,787 kt. The combined stocks held in London, Shanghai, USA and Tokyo exchanges totaled 2,984 kt at the end of April, down by 248 kt when matched with end-2015 levels.

Global production fell modestly by 1.1 per cent during the period from January to April in 2016. China, with estimated production of 9,905 kt, accounted for more than 53 per cent of the world production. Production in the EU-28 region rose by 2.7 per cent and the output by NAFTA region fell by 7.7 per cent year-on-year. The primary aluminium production for the month of April alone was 4,708.9 kt, whereas the consumption totaled 4,972.4 kt.

The Chinese net exports of aluminium semis totaled 1,190 kt during the first four months of the year, when compared with 1,326 kt during Jan-Apr ’15.

The WBMS report also states that the global aluminium demand increased by 61,000 tonnes during January to April this year to total 18.84 million tonnes, when compared with the corresponding period last year. The Chinese apparent demand was marginally higher by 0.2 per cent when compared with 2015. Also, EU-28 demand dropped during January to April this year by 26 kt when compared with the previous year.

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