China Customs data showed a drop in China’s exports of unwrought aluminium and aluminium products in the first two months of the year, primarily attributing to the production shut amid the outbreak of the COVID-19.

The exports by China in January and February totalled at 669,000 tonnes after plunging by 25.2 per cent from the same period last year, showed the data.

Due to the Coronavirus outbreak, aluminium processors in China mostly delayed their resumption of production by up to 20 days in February, while some small plants remained closed until early March. That caused the slowdown in China’s exports of unwrought aluminium and aluminium products in February.

China’s exports also fell in late January this year, as aluminium processors suspended deliveries about two weeks ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday.

In January 2019, China’s exports of unwrought aluminium and aluminium products had hit the monthly highest level in nearly 20 years, hovering at 496,700 tonnes, as fears of heavier US tariffs amid the trade war with Washington boosted the export rush.

China in the entire 2019 exported around 5.17 million tonnes of aluminium flat-rolled products, extrusions, and wire and cable in total, accounting for more than 90 per cent of the country’s total exports of unwrought aluminium and aluminium products.