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World Copper Mine Output Surged 5% in First Half of 2018

The September 2018 Copper Bulletin published by the International Copper Study Group (ICSG) provides preliminary copper supply and demand data for the initial six months of 2018.

The world copper mine production surged higher by 5% in H1 2018, registering a rise of around 485,000t. The Chilean production reported significant growth by 12%. Also, Indonesian output skyrocketed by 40% over the previous year. The rise in output in these regions were partially offset by lower mine production from Canada and the U.S., which reported 7% and 8% decline in year-on-year output in Jan-June ’18. The concentrate output was up by 5%, whereas the SX-EW production reported 6% jump over the previous year.

The world copper refined production increased 2% in H1 2018. The primary production increased marginally by 0.3%, whereas the copper production from scrap was notably higher by 9%. China was the major contributor to the world refined production growth. The production in Chile was up by 6.5%. Indonesia and Japan too reported higher production levels. On the contrary, production declines were reported in India, Poland and the U.S.

During the first half of 2018, the world apparent copper usage increased by around 1%. The Chinese apparent demand surged higher by 4%, whereas the ex-China usage declined by 1.5%. The demand increased in India and the EU, dropped in the U.S. and remained more or less flat in Japan.