MUMBAI (Commodity Online): India and China are emerging as major copper producers with their production in the last decade tripled.

According to International Copper Study Group (ICSG), the world copper mine production rose by 21% from 12.8 million tonnes to 15.5 million tonnes. On a regional basis, Africa, Latin America and Asia experienced the highest rise of 89%, 35% and 29% respectively.

The annual world refined copper production increased by 25% in the decade, with an average growth rate of 2.6%. China’s production increased by 2.6 million tonnes to 3.8 million tonnes and India by 470,000 tonnes to 675,000 tonne. While countries like Chile, Australia, Japan and South Korea also witnessed significant increase, the US experienced a declined of 41% in refined copper production.

During the period, world refined copper usage increased by 26% from 14.3 Mt to 18 Mt. Growth was largely driven by China, given that the global usage growth rate excluding China was only 0.1% during the period.

China’s usage during the decade increased by around 3.7 million tonnes or 245% while that of Asia, excluding China, increased by 680,000 tonnes or 18%. Against this, usage decreased in the US by 1.2 million tonnes or 28% and in the EU-15 countries by 440,000 tonne or 11%.

According to ICSG, the world refined copper market indicated a deficit of around 120,000 t for April 2009. The deficit was caused by high net Chinese imports and the consequent rise in their monthly apparent usage (which does not include unreported stocks).

For the first four months of 2009, the world copper usage declined by 2.9% compared with the same period in 2008. The pace of decline was supported by a nearly 38% rise in Chinese apparent usage against a decline of 18.5% in the remaining countries.

In developed markets, the usage remained sluggish as it experienced a decline of 23%, 42% and 23% in US, Japan and EU-15 countries.

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