China's Secondary Aluminum Alloy Ingot Inventory Down 547 MT, Foshan Sees 506 MT Decline

[SMM Aluminum Express News] Metro Mining shipped a record 1.8 million WMT of bauxite in Q2 2026, up 7% year-on-year, including 779,000 WMT in June despite operational disruptions from crane downtime. Waste stripping reached a record 745,000 BCM during the quarter, up 160% YoY, supported by productivity improvements and 24-hour operations. The company expects shipping rates to improve in Q3 as loading conditions become more favourable and has maintained its 2026 shipment guidance of 6.6–7.1 million WMT.

SHFE aluminum futures continued to rebound. In the central China market, downstream processing enterprises and trading firms engaging in both spot and futures markets remained strongly bearish. Spot-futures traders tended to continuously widen the premium - for large-volume purchasing to exploit price spreads. Downstream factories, constrained by end-user orders and finished product inventories, remained reluctant to purchase. Ultimately, the actual transaction price range in the central China market centered around a premium -110-140 yuan/mt against the SHFE aluminum July contract.

[SHFE and LME Aluminum Prices Stabilize and Rebound Synchronously; China Destocking Solidifies Price Bottom Support] Amid intertwined bullish and bearish factors, overseas bullishness from the US dollar and bearishness from supply and geopolitics offset each other. After an earlier excessive decline, LME aluminum’s downward momentum has slowed, and it will mainly consolidate at lows for repair in the short term. Supported by rapid destocking, China’s aluminum price is unlikely to underperform LME aluminum. The SHFE and LME markets may see slight divergence, making a unilaterally weak trend difficult to sustain.