China’s primary aluminium output rose 1%YoY in May

SHANGHAI, Jun 8 (SMM) – China’s primary aluminium output rose nearly 1% year on year to 3.07 million mt in May (31 days), showed SMM data.

As of the end of May, there was 36.58 million mt among 41.23 million mt per year of existing primary aluminium capacity in operation, up 700,000 mt from a month ago, while operating rates across Chinese primary aluminium producers inched up 0.2 percentage point to 88.7% as new and resumed capacities in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Sichuan and other areas ramped up.

During the first five months of 2020, China’s primary aluminium output increased more than 3% year on year to 15.01 million mt, while consumption shrank 2.39% to 14.27 million mt. The decline in consumption was smaller than a drop of 5.5% seen in the January-to-April period as inventories continued to fall.

China’s production of primary aluminium is expected to increase 1.6% to 2.98 million mt in June (30 days) from a year earlier, in view of the ramp-up of new capacities in Yunnan, Sichuan and other regions.