Secondary Aluminum Firms' Operating Rates Drop Amid Weak Demand and Rising Costs

The US auto assembly annual rate fell from 10.4 million units in February to 9.98 million units in March.arch.

According to China News Service, on April 16, at the plant of Jiuquan Iron and Steel (Group) Co., Ltd. in Jiayuguan City, Gansu Province, automated equipment was producing a new generation of zinc-aluminum-magnesium products. It was reported that the group assembled a specialized team to tackle zinc-aluminum-magnesium technology. Against the backdrop of formidable external technical barriers and the absence of batch production track records in China, the team spent six years of intensive efforts to produce China's first coil of zinc-aluminum-magnesium products with proprietary intellectual property rights. At the end of 2025, JISCO's new generation of zinc-aluminum-magnesium products was unveiled. This product category represents the most technically challenging variety in the hot-dip galvanizing industry. JISCO is the only company in China to have achieved large-scale batch production, filling the technological gap in related fields in China. The products have been successfully applied in highly corrosive environments such as cooling towers, motor housings, energy storage, and offshore PV, and have been exported to multiple countries including Thailand, the Philippines, and Argentina.

Futures: In terms of futures performance, the most-traded alumina futures 2605 contract was in the doldrums during the overnight session. After the opening, it surged to 2,694 but failed to break through effectively. With insufficient upward momentum, it subsequently pulled back to close at 2,668, displaying an overall pattern of retreat after rapid rise. Decreased trading volume indicated declining market participation, while open interest edged up, reflecting intensifying divergence between bulls and bears. From a technical perspective, the current price is running above MA5 (2,658.68) and MA10 (2,656.3), still providing some short-term support, but is clearly under pressure from MA20 (2,690.04) and MA40 (2,755.38), with strong resistance from medium-term moving averages, and the overall trend remains weak. In the short term, futures are likely to move sideways, with attention on resistance near the 2,690 level above and support around 2,650 below.