On Thursday, copper producer Aurubis said it had discovered large discrepancies in inventory levels at its Hamburg recycling centre, which strips out used copper and precious metals from discarded computer circuit boards.
The 3 billion euro company’s initial assessment of the incident, which comes after a separate theft case in June, suggests missing metals may lead to a hit of at least 100 million euros.
That’s about one-fifth of its previously projected annual pre-tax profit of 450 million euros to 550 million euros for the financial year ending in September.
And it will expand to roughly 30.1 million tons by 2031, according to McKinsey.
But the consultancy reckons global demand will reach 36.6 million tons at the start of the next decade, leaving a gap of more than 6 million tons per year.
Persons:
Trafigura, Aurubis, Liam Proud, Streisand Neto, Oliver Taslic
Organizations:
Reuters, International Energy Agency, McKinsey, Thomson
Locations:
Hamburg, European