Generally, the per capita consumption trend of refined zinc, lead, and copper has been increasing in 2002-22. The refined lead and zinc per capita consumption decreased by 1.1% and 5.3% respectively in 2009 due to the 2008 financial crisis beginning.
Refined copper per capita consumption faced a 0.9% drop in 2009. Although, zinc consumption decreased in the USA in view of the financial crisis, the increase in China’s consumption compensated for this drop. Also, the per capita consumption of copper decreased along with the higher growth of population than copper consumption growth. Because of the EU Debt Crisis, lead and zinc per capita consumption decreased, but copper per capita consumption was not affected vastly by it due to the fact that the largest copper producers and consumers are in America and Asia.
