China’s aluminium alloy wheel export drops 9.6% MoM; This trend likely to extend ahead

According to Shanghai Metals Market, China’s aluminium alloy wheel export in April dropped 9.6 per cent month on month. In March 2019, the country’s aluminium alloy wheel export was around 63,642 tonnes, while in the last month it pegged at 70,400 tonnes. On the yearly basis, the export amount is down by 11.6 per cent.

As per the SMM research, overseas demand and trade tensions were the two primary factors that extended weakness in China’s aluminium alloy wheel export for the month of April 2019.

In January 2019, China’s aluminium alloy wheel export had come in 90,200 tonnes after rising 11.63 per cent from December 2018. In February, the export amount dropped to the lowest monthly exports in the last five years amounting at 53,700 tonnes, down 40.5 per cent month-on-month. Compared to this data, the export amount in April recorded a decline by 22 per cent from January, but 31 per cent rise from February.

The graph below shows China’s aluminium alloy wheel export status month-on-month.

The latest data from China Customs showed the exports in January-April lost 4.4% from a year ago to 292,200 tonnes.

The United States that received 31,000 tonnes of aluminium alloy wheels from China accounted for about 44 per cent of the Chinese aluminium alloy wheel exports, down 16.2 per cent from the previous month. Exports to the US in the first four months of the year amounted to 135,000 tonnes. 

As China is the top aluminium alloy wheel exporter to the US, the latter started imposing an additional tariff of 25 per cent on Chinese aluminium alloy wheel hub from May 1. This, together with the slowdown in the auto market, is expected to further depress China’s alloy wheel export in the coming months.