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The growing demand for enamelled wire along with the fall in its trade

Global trade of enamelled wire

Germany, China, and Italy are among the main exporters of enamelled wire in the world. On the other hand, with the exports reduction over the recent years, the US has started to import higher volume and hit a peak compared to other countries in 2021, which could be due to its growing demand.

July 23, 2022 Copper

Global alumina production fueled the war between Ukraine and Russia

Alumina production in different regions

The war between Ukraine and Russia and the subsequent lack of natural gas supply in Europe caused a sharp growth in the price of energy carriers, thus, led to a global drop in alumina production, especially in Europe and South America. Under these circumstance, the market is expected to face risks in near future.

China is the largest producer and consumer of alumina in the world, and the smallest changes in the country will have a significant impact on the production and supply of global alumina. On this basis, there is a great reduction in global alumina production in February, because of Chinese New Year, which decreased around 1Mt in 2021.

June 22, 2022 Aluminum

The prominent role of lithium in the electric vehicle industry

Global production and trade of lithium

Following the growth of lithium batteries that are consumed in the electric vehicle industry, the production and trade of lithium metal has undergone significant changes and the largest share of the production of this metal in the world belongs to Australia; while most lithium reserves are found in Bolivia.

The global volume of lithium reserves is reported to be around 22Mt in 2021, and the largest reserves of this element are located in the countries known as the lithium triangle. It is worth mentioning that, South Korea and China are the largest global importer and exporter of lithium, respectively. The application of this metal, which is light and has superconducting properties, is mostly in the field of rechargeable batteries. Due to the market growth of electric and consumer vehicles in which lithium is used in the batteries of these vehicles, the production volume and its demand is expected to increase over the coming years.

June 15, 2022 Lithium

Global lead production returns to pre-Covid-19 levels, with China’s production growth

Investigating lead mining and recycling production

Global lead production will increase by around 2% y/y in 2021, which is the result of production growth in China and India. Global production of mineral lead is estimated to increase by 2.9% to 4.71Mt in 2022, with the participation of China, India, and Kazakhstan.

China, Australia, and the US accounted for the highest volume of lead mineral production in 2021, with about 2Mt, 500kt, and 300kt, respectively. Global lead production is increasing with higher demand for lead-acid batteries from the automotive and electric bicycle sectors, especially from China and the US.

April 5, 2022 Lead & Zinc

South Africa, the superior chromium producer in the world

Global chromium market analysis

Global chromium production has gone through an upward trend during the last 5 years. The average of its global production was around 38,4mt in 2017-21 and has increased by 7% annually. Chromium is an important element for stainless steel production. Most of this kind of steel contains 18% of chromium.

The largest chromium producers were South Africa producing 18mt, Turkiye and Kazakhstan with 7mt chromium production, and Finland with 2,3mt in 2021, and China, as the largest consumer, has imported the highest amount of chromium from South Africa.

March 5, 2022 Ferroalloys

The US lost part of its share in the aluminum scrap trade

The relationship between aluminum prices and scrap trade

Aluminum scrap trade had an upward trend from 2011 to 2020, up by 0.1% every year. The trade volume of scrap is directly related to the aluminum price in the LME. With the growth of aluminum prices, downstream companies are more likely to use secondary ingots produced from scrap.

When the price of aluminum ingots is low, the downstream companies are able to purchase primary ingots, and the scrap trade is reduced in this regard. The largest exports volume of aluminum scrap was from the US, which had a 16.9% share of the market. The scrap price is provided by applying a discount to the aluminum ingot. The biggest discount is related to casting scraps. Due to the export of casting scrap, France exports its aluminum scrap with the biggest discount.

June 13, 2021 Aluminum

China is superior in wire rod export and Germany is the largest wire rod applicant

The wire rod global trade

The wire rod is the lot used steel product which is traded in different kinds of alloys. This product’s global trade has gone through a stable trend recently and its trade was 8,690mt in 2020 and this trade was concentrated in Asia and Europe.

China has been the largest wire rod exporter over the course of 2011-20 and it had 23% share in the global wire rod trade. Also, the industrial country, Germany, was the largest wire rod importer during this period and this country’s import share of the wire rod global trade was 8% in 2020. The second place after Germany is belonged to the USA. Due to the various industries growth, it’s expected that the global market of the wire rod accompanied by increase.

January 9, 2021 Steel Longs

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