Weekly Copper Review: COMEX Futures See Heavy Losses, Equities Under Stress

18 Jun 2022 , 12:25 PM

COMEX Copper futures slumped, falling near August 2021 lows amid a modest rise in the LME inventories and heavy selling pressure in global equities. Markets remained worries about the Russia-Ukraine war though recent global demand trends showed a decent pick up in consumption. According to a latest update from World Bureau Of Metal Statistics or WBMS, the copper market recorded a deficit of 409 kt in January to April 2022 which follows a deficit of 473 kt in the whole of 2021. Reported stocks (including LME off warrant stocks) at the end of April 2022 were 115.5 kt higher than at the end of December 2021. World mine production in January to April 2022 was 6.88 million tonnes which was 0.7 per cent lower than the first four months of 2021. Global refined production for January to April 2022 was 8.1 million tonnes up 1.1 per cent compared with the previous year with significant increase recorded in China of 161 kt. Global Copper demand in January to April 2022 was 8.54 million tonnes which was 5.7 per cent higher than the total recorded for January to April 2021. Chinese apparent demand for the period January to April 2022 was 4.6 million tonnes which was 4.4 per cent higher than the comparable period in 2021. Reported output of semi manufactures in China fell by 0.9 per cent. US refined copper production was 305.8kt which was 22 kt lower than the comparable months of 2021. April metal balances for refined copper recorded production at 2069.6 kt and demand at 2187.3 kt.Powered by Commodity Insights