IC 8225 - State of Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral ...

SUPPLY AND DISTRIB~ION 251TABLE 64.-Cmumt stacks of coppe~-bme scmp at yeorend, gross Weight, short tons-1 1940 1 1941 1 1942 1 1943 1 1944 1 1945 1 1946Alloyed copper scrap .----- 56,283Low-grade scrap and read........... 23,733Unalloyed copper scrap-. . 15,606--Tot .......... 95,62257,22034,40215,981107,60375,11134,9249,235119,27056,97434,56710,234101,77553,45639,68610,660103,80257,10437,91316,145111,16262,62238,81823,034124,469--Alloyed copper scrap-. .... 72,780 59,924 46,011 33,518 39,192 59,470 84,065Low-grade scrap and reed........ 66,936 34 999 55,778 16,038 30,787 56,136Unalloyed copper scrap .... 15,830 12,937 16,521 10,735 16,448 17,580Total . .155,546 122,739 93,947 105,817 65,965 106,705 156,7811954 1955 1956 1958 1959 1980 1961 1962---- --Alloyed copper scrap -....- 67,047 78,328 65,367 62,077 71,264 74,315 60,602 58,257 65,841Low-grade sorap and residues---....-.-......-- 20,993 49,669 60,322 40,206 33,067 67,950 58,133 33,362 57,411Unalloyed copper scrap .... 19,551 23, 524 24,511 20,659 25,248 30,452 27,610 26,990 28,335--- -----Total ..-........... 107,591 151,521 150,200 122,942 129, 579 172,717 146,345 118,609 151,587however, did not materialize. Demand in 1946exceeded many expectations, and the supplyfrom domestic sources fell short of capacity asa result of serious strikes in the copper ind&tv.Consumption continued high through 1948. Areversal be an in 1949 due to an industrial recession,an f supply exceeded demand.Therecovery begun in thelate months of 1949continued into 1950 and was accelerated afterthe outbreak of war in Korea. Stocks of relinedwp er at the end of 1950 were the smallestthey ha 2' been since 1906. The industr~ wasfaced then with inadequate supplies unt 1954when consumption declined, and more thanenough copper was available for all needs.Four new properties came into production in1954 but t h new capacity was more than offsetby labor strikes from August to October.Refined-wpper stocks fell 49 percent to legsthan the 1950 uantity. In 1957 an oversupplydeveloped, !n! stock were higher than theyhad been sice 1938. Voluntary cutbacks inoutput were begun in 1957 and continued in1958. As a result of the 1959 strike, stocks ofrefined wpper at earend were 63 percent legsthan those at the geginning of the year and thelowest since before 1900. Settlement of thestrike and the return to near capacity output atrimary relineries caused inventones to risefrom April through December 1960.Fahncators stock of refined metals (mclud-ing in-process copper and primary fabricatedshapes) are shown m table 63 for 1934 to 1962.The data show that stocks were insufficient to6ll orders from 1941 through 1955; stocks failedto cover booked orders by a high of 403,000 tonsin 1942 and a low of nearly 23,000 tons in 1954.By May 1956 the deficit was reduced to 1,800tons and, thereafter fabricators reported stocksin exceas of orders booked. The excess was lessthan 2,000 tons at the end of 1959 but rose to45,000 tons at the end of 1961.Consumers also maintain stocks of copperbasescrap which include unalloyed copper,copper-base all0 scrap, and low-grade scrapand residues. dtal data for all. consumers bythese main categories are given m table 64 for1940 to 1962.During World War 11, the Metals ReserveCompany (MRC), a Reconstruction FianceCorporation subsidiary, maintained a stocof copper for emergency use (table 65). 9%copper remained in the MRC stockpile atthe end of 1948, having been sold to industryor shipped to the stragetic stockpile.Inventories of refined co per in the UnitedKingdom are shown in tabje 66. Stock datafor other countries are not available by individualcountries, but total refined stockeoutside the United States, published in Yearbooksof the American Bureau of Metal Statistics,are shown in table 67.