China aluminium producers to cut another 800,000 tonnes of capacity: Source says

According to a report by Reuters, China’s aluminium producers are set to cut more than 800,000 tonnes per year of smelting capacity. The news came after analysts from Antaike attending a key smelter meeting in the southern region of Guangxi today said this.

However, the analysts attending the meeting did not say over what time period that capacity cuts would be made.

In 2018, smelters by now have closed more than 3.2 million tonnes of capacity; about 80 per cent of it in the second half of the year amid a slump in aluminium prices, said Antaike analysts.

 The incessant fall of aluminium prices and slow demand for the metal this year has brought together the major aluminium producers of China in Guangxi on December 21.

Aluminium futures on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) are down 13.5 per cent in 2018, probably the worst performance since 2015, driven by surplus supply and falling domestic demand.

Reuters said the meeting was called by China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association (CNIA), the representing organization for the industry.

“This gathering together is more like the one that happened at the end of 2015, when the SHFE prices went down to below 10,000 yuan,” said Jackie Wang, a CRU analyst in Beijing.