Copper Demand
Copper is the second commodity that I will be focusing on after Natural Gas. I have written 2 articles on Natural Gas, Natural Gas Prices and Natural Gas Futures. I will be writing 2 more articles on Natural Gas, one of them being Natural Gas Supply, and another one being Natural Gas Demand. This article will detail copper consumption in United States and the world. The article is the follow up of another copper article I wrote - Copper Prices. The timeline for the copper consumption data* that will be presented in the article will range from 1988 to 2009. I will briefly go over the recent price changes is copper including Copper price trend over the years.
Copper Consumption: 1988
The total copper consumed in United States was 3,480 thousands of short tons. Of this, refined copper consumed consisted of 2432 thousands of short tons, while scrap copper consumed stood at 1,048 thousands short tons. Largest consumers of copper were Wire Rod Mills, who consumed about 1,838K Short Tons, with Brass Mills following at 1,190K Short Tons.
Please look at the graph below for US Copper Consumption, Global Mine Production, US Mine Production, and Copper Recover from Scrap (US). I realize that Global Copper Demand data is missing, and I hope to add that data soon.
1988 Copper Consumption Break Down
In Wide Rod Mills, refined copper consumption stood at 1,838 and scrap copper consumption stood at 24. The largest consumers of scrap copper were the Brass Mills whose consumption of the scrap copper stood at 647K Short tons, greater than the refined copper which stood 544K Short tons. As you can see, refined copper formed a greater part of wide rod mills usage, while copper recovered from scrap formed a greater part of usage in Brass Mills.
Copper Consumption Peak & Decline
Copper Consumption saw its highest usage peek in 2000, where copper consumption stood at 4,552. Copper demand rose from 1995 (3,863) to 2000 (4,552), and then declined from 2001 to 2003, and another decline from 2005 to 2008.
Copper Consumption from 2003 - 2008
Copper consumption in 2003 stood at 3,514K Short Tons with Refined Copper contributing to a majority of copper consumption. Refined Copper consumed for 2003 stood at 2,524 while scrap copper consumed stood at 990. Going forward, copper consumption increased in the year 2004 to 3,678, and declined for the next 4 years. Copper consumption for 2005 was 3,512, 2,354 for 2006, and 3,069 for 2008. For the Year 2008, refined copper consumption stood at 2,170 and scrap copper stood at 899. As in 1988, the largest consumers of copper were wire rod mills whose total copper consumption for 2008 was 1,637. Following second to Wire Rod Mills were Mills whose copper consumption stood at 1,161.
*Data taken from ICSG and CDA
Copper Consumption
