Asia Alumina: Drifts sideways at $200/Mt FOB Australia

The price of Australian alumina continued to drift sideways Thursday, leaving Platts daily assessment unchanged at $200/mt FOB, despite a slight slippage of Yuan 15/mt ($2.30) in Chinese domestic prices in Shanxi province.

The Australian assessment has fallen $5.50/mt in the last week, and $40/mt in the past month, pressured by uncommitted material, a free-fall in Chinese domestic prices and a weaker yuan against the dollar, which made imports costlier for the Chinese.

In the last week, producer, consumer and trader market participants appeared to think the Chinese domestic and Australian alumina markets may be close to a floor.

While participants did not rule out price decreases to come, there was some anticipation that the Australian market may trade in a relatively tight range in the near term, possibly of $195-$200/mt FOB Australia, after more than five months of falls.

Chinese importers may have have managed to defer some term contract shipments from Australia until after the Lunar New Year in early February 2016, and thus no longer be under pressure to resell, sources said in recent days.

Alumina buying interest was seen at around $205/mt CIF China and $195/mt FOB Australia, for shipment in the second-half of January.

Platts Chinese domestic alumina assessment for Shanxi province was Yuan 1,565/mt ex-works in cash, compared with Yuan 1,580/mt on Wednesday.

The Shanxi market has weakened Yuan 185/mt since the start of the month, burdened by uncommitted material and stock builds at refiners.