Chalco Raises Alumina Spot Price to RMB 3,000/mt

HONG KONG, Jan. 11 -- Aluminum Corp of China Ltd (Chalco) raised its alumina spot price by 7.1 percent to 3,000 yuan ($439) per tonne from Jan. 8, according to its website (www.chalco.com.cn).

The price change follows a 5.7 percent price increase that took effect on Dec 31.

Chalco (2600.HK: Quote)(601600.SS: Quote), the country's top aluminum company and the world's third-largest alumina producer, raised alumina prices steadily throughout 2009 from a low of 2,000 yuan. Prices had halved in the second half of 2008 from 4,200 yuan per tonne.

Chalco had shut 4.11 million tonnes of its 11 million tonne alumina capacity because of the economic downturn, which crippled demand for the metal, but it had since restarted all its plants, a company executive told Reuters on Dec. 14. [ID:nTOE5BD087]

Chinese aluminium smelters have already agreed to pay higher term prices for imported alumina in 2010. They will pay 14.5-15 percent of prices for aluminium on the London Metal Exchange MAL3, up from 13.5-14 percent last year. [ID:nTOE5BM037]

Chalco's prices for term alumina are set at 17 percent of Shanghai Futures Exchange aluminium prices <0#SAF:> in 2010, compared with 15-18 percent in the last three years, smelter officials have said.