SMM News: on Wednesday, Norwegian aluminum company Hydro said in its third-quarter results that due to lower-than-expected supply growth, there will be a shortage in the global aluminum market in 2018, and the shortage will be higher than previously expected. "
Global demand for primary aluminium grew 5.7 per cent in 2017 and is expected to grow by about 3 per cent to 4 per cent in 2018, according to Hydro. Chinese demand is expected to grow by 4% to 6% in 2018, down from 8% in 2017.
The company noted that global primary aluminum consumption increased in the third quarter from a year earlier, mainly due to improved global market sentiment and continued strong growth in Chinese demand, but that the seasonal impact of China led to a decline in global demand compared with the second quarter of 2018.
At the end of the third quarter, global inventories were estimated at 11.2 million tons, about 300000 tons less than at the end of the second quarter, Hydro said. In the third quarter of 2018, Hydro produced 497000 tons of raw aluminum, down 6 per cent from 527000 tons in the third quarter of last year, as its Albras smelter, part of its holding company in Brazil, continued to operate at a capacity of 50 per cent.
In the first nine months of this year, the company produced 15.03 billion tons of raw aluminum, down from 1.566 million tons in the same period last year. Heidrut plans to sell 64 per cent of its primary aluminium production for about $2050 a tonne in the fourth quarter of this year.
