SHANGHAI, Jul 8 (SMM) – China’s primary aluminium output rose 2.42% year on year to 3 million mt in June (30 days), showed an SMM survey. As of the end of June, there was 36.76 million mt among 41.23 million mt per year of existing primary aluminium capacity in operation, up 180,000 mt from a month ago, while operating rates across Chinese primary aluminium producers inched up 0.3 percentage point to 89% as high margins encouraged newly-commissioned and resumed capacities to ramp up.
During the first six months of 2020, China’s primary aluminium output increased 2.93% year on year to 18.01 million mt, while consumption dipped 0.18% to 17.69 million mt. The decline in consumption was much smaller than a drop of 2.39% seen in the January-to-May period as inventories maintained their steep fall amid mild supply increases and robust downstream demand.
China’s production of primary aluminium is expected to increase 1.79% to 3.12 million mt in July (31 days) from a year earlier. The month-on-month increase in actual consumption is likely to slow to 6.15% in July as supply grows while demand weakens.
New capacities in Yunnan, Inner Mongolia and other regions will continue to ramp up in July, while net imports are expected to increase slightly from June.
