SHANGHAI, Sep 24 (SMM) – China’s imports of bauxite declined from a month ago in August as rainy season deterred shipments from Guinea, according to the latest customs data. 

Customs data under HS code 2606000000 showed that China imported 9.04 million mt of bauxite in August, down 6.41% from July but up 14.56% from August 2018.

This brought imports in January-August to 75.06 million mt, with a year-over-year increase of 30.5%.

The Republic of Guinea, Australia and Indonesia remained the top three bauxite suppliers to China in August, and volumes from them accounted for close to 93% of the total.

About 3.64 million mt of Guinean bauxite entered China in August, down 19.86% from a month ago, while imports of Australian materials continued to rise 7.92% to 3.63 million mt.

Imports of Indonesia bauxite fell 13.73% month on month to 1.13 million mt.

In August, China took some 150,000 mt of bauxite from Malaysia, but SMM expects more Malaysian bauxite to enter China half a year later as the South-east Asian country standardises its export operating procedures. 

Malaysia announced in early September that it has finalised new operating procedures for bauxite mining and export and will keep monthly bauxite exports within 600,000 mt in its eastern state of Pahang. It also planned to expand the new procedure to the whole country. 

Customs data showed that Malaysia was once the top bauxite supplier to China, with shipments peaking at nearly 3.5 million mt in December 2015. This accounted for some 49% of China’s total imports that month.