Feb aluminium foil exports grow 0.7% YoY

The average weighted operating rate of Chinese aluminium foil producers was 87.08% in May, down 1.21 percentage points month on month, but up 3.22 percentage points year on year.

Operating rates across major aluminium processors rose slightly last week as they had to accept high aluminium prices to deliver orders. End-users find it difficult to accept current high aluminium prices. As some end-users adopt quarterly or semi-annual pricing, high aluminium prices will not pass through to end-users until they complete Q2 pricing.

SMM has surveyed 41 aluminium processing enterprises across 12 provinces. Operating rates across major aluminium processors increased 19 percentage points from a week ago to 60.1% last week.

China's imports of cobalt raw materials, including ore and intermediate products, came in at 8,000 mt in January, down 25% from December, showed the latest customs data. Imports in 2019 were 24%...

The imports in December exceeded that in November to the highest monthly level since September 2018

On a monthly basis, however, aluminium foil exports edged up 1.87% last month

The monthly decline grew from a 2.39% drop in Jul, to 13.32% in Aug

This followed after shipment recovery from typhoon boosted the arrivals two weeks ago

However, H1 exports hit a record high of 670,300 mt, up 8% from Jan-Jun of 2018

Exports in H1 expanded 10% from a year ago and stood at 2.98 million mt