Aluminium prices lift further in China despite slow demand, pre-baked anode market to remain tight

While SHFE aluminium is performing well in the Chinese market, aluminium stocks in China continues growing week on week as downstream producers are unwilling to buy at higher price.

Stocks in China’s seven major markets grew further compared with a week ago, SMM statistics showed, with details in the table below:

SHFE 1709 aluminium has been performing well last week and on Monday it ended at RMB 16,380 /t before lunchtime.  Growing aluminium prices have fuelled more activities in the market. Traders were active in south China aluminium market. Downstream producers showed low interest in buying metal. Mainstream traded prices for aluminium were within the range of RMB 16,180-16,200/t in Guangdong this morning, with premiums over Shanghai narrowing to RMB 50 /t.    

Shanghai Metals Market expects trading in this week to be better than last week as new orders have shown signs of improvement at downstream producers. 

Due to environmental crackdowns, carbon industry in China has seen a drop in production in carbon industry, which is one of the most polluting industries in the country. This has caused commercial-use prebaked anode output to drop in H1 2017. China’s prebaked anode output for H1 2017 totalled 4.39 million tonnes, down 7.3% year-on-year. The tightness in prebaked anode market is expected to lift aluminium prices further.