Copper market’s biggest whale fuels speculation of a major shift
The world’s single biggest buyer of copper, State Grid Corp. of China, has slowed its purchases of copper wire this year.
Commodity Online reports that copper markets were in surplus of 118,000 tonnes during January — March 2011 according to the World Bureau of Metal Statistics. The market was in surplus 43,000 tonnes for the whole year in 2010.
Stocks of Copper by end of March 2011 were 138,000 tonnes higher than by the end of 2010. Refined Copper production was 4.76 million tonnes in Jan-March 2011, up 1.8% as against 4.67 million tonnes in Jan — March 2010.
World mine production for Copper was 3.89 million tonnes in Jan — Mar 2011, up 3.4% as against 3.76 million tonnes in Jan — Mar 2010.
Copper major producer Chile showed a decline in output of 28,000 tonnes or 3.85% to 754,000 tonnes in the three-month period. Another Copper major China showed output increase by 110,000 tonnes during this period.
