China increases its aluminium import volume by 27.1% in April’23 on higher use for EVs

According to the China customs data on May 18, China's aluminium imports, including unwrought aluminium and products, recorded a rise of 27.1 per cent year-on-year during April 2023, reaching 222,851 tonnes. A year ago, the import volume stood at 175,289 tonnes.

On a month-on-month calculation, China's imports grew 11.14 per cent from 200,508 tonnes, found the customs data.

In the first four months of 2023, China imported 797,602 tonnes of aluminium, up 12.6 per cent year-on-year.

The consumption of aluminium for electric passenger vehicles increased in April, with a 54 per cent year-on-year jump in sales, while domestic output grew marginally by 0.8 per cent from a year earlier; hence, was the need for higher aluminium imports.

The negligible rise in China's domestic aluminium production could be attributed to the output drop in the southwestern province of Yunnan, China's fourth-biggest producing province accounting for about 12 per cent of the country's total capacity.

"Rainfall...is still lower than levels in previous years," analysts at Zijin Tianfeng Futures said in a report this week.

"Even if the situation improves to some degree, we do not expect to see a large-scale production resumption in the region in the short run."

Customs data also showed China's bauxite imports totalled 12 million tonnes in April - 0.4 per cent less than 12.05 million tonnes in March but 7.7 per cent higher than 11.13 million tonnes in April 2022.

Total bauxite imports in four months of the year increased by 8.8 per cent Y-o-Y to 47.64 million tonnes.