Aluminum exports from China slide to 14-month low as prices drop

China’s aluminum exports fell to the lowest level since June last year after a drop in domestic production and a plunge in global prices. Shipments of the metal used in everything from cars to window frames shrank 5 percent to 340,000 tons in August from the previous month and were down 12 percent from a year earlier, according to customs data.

Production in China, the world’s biggest supplier, fell 1.3 percent in July from a record in June in a sign the lowest prices in six years were forcing some smelters to curb output. Global prices have lost about 13 percent this year and premiums, the amount customers have to pay on top of exchange prices, dropped to a three-year low in the U.S. last week.

Smelters in China have proposed cuts by closing outdated, loss-making capacity and delaying new facilities, according to a statement from the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association last month. The group didn’t provide a timeframe or the amount of reductions.

Shipments from China still rose 22 percent to 3.21 million tons in the first eight months from a year earlier, the customs data showed.

The country’s smelters have been increasing output as lower-cost producers build new capacity. China Hongqiao Group Ltd. became the world’s largest producer in the first half. About 3.9 million tons of new aluminum capacity will start production this year, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.