China's bauxite imports fell for 3rd month as Guinea in wet season

SHANGHAI, Dec 4 (SMM) – China’s imports of bauxite declined in October for a third straight month, as imports from the major supplier, the Republic of Guinea, continued to shrank after it entered wet season in July.

Customs data under HS code 26060000 showed that China imported 6.48 million mt of bauxite in October, down 3.97% month on month and 6.01% year on year.

This brought imports in the first 10 months of 2019 to 84.62 million mt, up 18.4% from the same period a year earlier.

In October, Australia, Guinea and Indonesia remained the top three bauxite exporters to China, with their combined volume accounting for 96.3% of the total.

Australia exported 3.5 million mt of bauxite to China, up 5.03% from a month ago and 30.53% from a year ago, while imports from Guinea declined 7.09% month on month and 34.38% year on year to 1.66 million mt.

A decline of 11.01% in bauxite imported from Indonesia also contributed to the decrease in overall imports in October. About 1.08 million mt of Indonesian bauxite entered China in that month, up 145% from October 2018.

In October 2019, China imported 118,700 mt of bauxite from Solomon Islands, 65,500 mt from Malaysia, 46,700 mt from the Republic of Montenegro, 8,200 mt from Jamaica and 1,100 mt from Turkey.

With the wet season in Guinea drawing to a close, bauxite imports from the West African country are likely to recover in November and December.