China's 10 Nonferrous Metal Output down 1.9% in Nov

BEIJING, Dec. 27 -- The combined output of the ten nonferrous metals was 2.69 million metric tons in October this year, down 1.9% year on year, according to the latest statistic released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The value-added output of the nonferrous metal industry rose 8.3% year on year last month. The growth was 2.3 percentage points higher than in October.

The output of electrolytic aluminum fell 14.1% year on year to 1.18 million metric tons in November and that of electrolytic copper rose 4.5% year on year to 443,000 metric tons.

In the period from January to November, the combined output of the ten nonferrous metals jumped 18.9% year on year to 28.92 million metric tons. There was a year-on-year increase of 12.6% in the output of electrolytic copper, 22.6% increase in the output of electrolytic aluminum and a 24.8% increase in the output of alumina.

In November, average prices of spot copper and aluminum stood at RMB 63,747 and RMB 16,221 per metric tons, up RMB 1,040 and RMB 153 per metric ton from the previous month.

Prices of nonferrous metal futures on Nov. 11 hit the highest level since April 2008 and then retreated. As of the Nov. 30, the price of three-month copper futures rose RMB 200 from the previous month to RMB 62,660 per metric ton, while the prices of three-month aluminum and zinc futures dropped RMB 190 and RMB 2,045 from a month earlier to RMB 16,375 and RMB 17,515 per metric ton, respectively.