In 2015 Armenia increased export of copper ore and molybdenum concentrate reducing export of zinc

ArmInfo. In 2015 Armenia sharply increased export of copper ore by 67% versus 6.9% last year.  Export of molybdenum concentrate also grew by 6.6% (versus 15.4% growth in 2014). Export of zinc concentrate declined by 1.4% versus 20.1% drop in 2014, the Customs Service of Armenia reports.

According to the data, export of copper ore totaled 309.2 thousand tons versus 185 thousand tons in 2014 in monetary terms its increased by 34.2% to $316.7 mln (versus $ 236 mln a year ago).  The copper ore was mainly exported to China, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Georgia and Romania. To note for comparison that in 2014 Armenia increased export of copper ore only by 6.9% amid drop of customs cost by 15.7%.

According to the data, in 2015 Armenia increased export of molybdenum ore by 6.6% to 959.7 tons versus 900 tons a year ago. The ore was exported to Netherlands. To note for comparison that in 2014 Armenia increased export of molybdenum both in numerical and monetary terms- by 15.4% and 31.4% respectively. 

Import of molybdenum concentrate declined by 28.8% to 39.6 tons versus 55.6 tons in 2014, which sharply influenced the dynamics in monetary terms. Thus, the customs cost of the imported product dropped by 92.5% to $59.3 thousand versus $786 thousand last year. Iran was the main importer.

Within the reported year Armenia reduced export of zinc by 1.4% to 14.1 thousand tons versus 14.3 thousand tons last year, repeating the trend of 2014. At the same time the customs cost dropped by 13% to $12 mln versus $13.8 mln in 2014. Zinc was exported to Belgium (70%), China (18%), Netherlands (8%) and Kazakhstan (4%). To note for comparison that in 2014 Armenia reduced export of zinc both in numerical and monetary terms- by 20.1% and 18.3% respectively.

Meanwhile, according to the data of the National Statistical Service of Armenia, total amount of production of copper concentrate in 2015 made 315.6 thousand tons with 64.1% y-o-y growth, molybdenum concentrate-10.4 thousand tons with 11.6% y-o-y drop and production of zinc concentrate totaled 11.3 thousand tons with 23% y-o-y decline. 

According to the National Statistical Service of Armenia amount of production of metallurgy grew by 50.4% to 221.2 bln AMD in 2015, which was manly determined by the growth of output of metallic ores by 51.4% to 216 bln AMD. To note for comparison that in 2014 downward trend was registered in production of mining industry the amount reduced by 7.4% to 193.2 bln AMD, which was mainly determined by drop of output of metallic ore by 7.3% to 188.2 bln AMD. In Jan-March 2016 the mining industry increased amounts of production by 27.7% y-o-y to 57.5 bln AMD due to growth of output of metallic ore by 27.7% to 56.8 bln AMD.