Recycled-content copper output up 6 percent

The Lisbon-based International Copper Study Group (ICSG) reports that global primary and recycled-content secondary refined copper production both increased by about 6 percent in the first five months of 2024.

As it has been throughout this century, China was a leading factor in the global figures.

“Chinese refined production is estimated to have risen by about 7 percent due to the startup and expansion of a number of primary and secondary (from scrap) smelters and refineries,” the ICSG writes.

That nation’s copper consumers also have been boosting mined and smelting output in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the group.

Refined copper output has risen by 17 percent in the United States year on year in the first five months of 2024, though U.S. output slowed this May because of a maintenance shutdown at Kennecott smelter in Utah.

The ICSG estimates slightly less than 1.93 million metric tons of recycled-content secondary copper were made in the first five months of this year, a 6 percent and 109,000-metric-ton increase from what was produced in the first five months of last year.

So far this year, secondary copper represents 16.7 percent of the total global refined market share, down slightly from secondary copper’s 16.9 percent total market share in 2023.

Despite copper’s soaring price throughout 2024, the ICSG estimates a global surplus of the red metal of 496,000 metric tons at the end of this May. That figure is more than double the estimated 222,000 metric tons in warehouses at the end of May 2023.

“China’s bonded stocks are thought to have increased by about 80,000 metric tons in the first five months of 2024 compared to the year-end 2023 level,” ICSG says.