
China’s aluminium producers will hold a meeting in Guangxi to discuss falling prices of aluminium and slow demand for the metal, a Reuter report says.
China being the world’s largest aluminium producer and consumer is concerned over the fact that aluminium smelters are struggling to turn a profit, even after significant output cuts
{alcircleadd}The source said that the meeting is being called by China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association (CNIA), the representing organization for the industry. The meeting will be held on Friday in Nanning, the capital of Guangxi, to discuss the current market situation, the Reuter sources said.
China Hongqiao Group, the world’s biggest aluminium producer is expected to be represented by the general manager of its sales unit. A second source, an executive at Aluminum Corp of China Ltd or Chalco would also be present in the meeting.
China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association or Hongqiao did not make any official announcement regarding the meeting.
Aluminum 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.
Prices stood at RMB 13,690($1,985) per tonne on Wednesday after it dropped to its lowest since September 2016 in December beginning.

“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.
She also added that all the major producers gathering there would be discussing what they can do to support the market and if any further curtailments are needed.
According to CRU China producers have already shut 2 million tonnes of annual aluminium capacity on lower prices. SHFE aluminium stocks almost topped 1 million tonnes this spring and later declined to below 700,000 tonnes but that is still almost seven times of the inventory in the beginning of 2017.
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