China’s aluminium imports decline 34% Y-o-Y on weaker domestic demand for strict COVID curbs

In October 2022, China’s aluminium imports, including primary metal and unwrought, alloyed metal, fell 33.9 per cent year-on-year, amounting to 196,460 tonnes, found the General Administration of Customs. That could be attributed to persistently weak demand and increased domestic supply due to the ramp-up in production. Aluminium output in October grew for the eighth consecutive month to 3.45 million tonnes. 

For the first ten months of 2022, China produced 33.33 million tonnes of aluminium – 3.3 per cent higher than in the same period last year.

Weaker demand for aluminium in China’s transportation, construction, and packaging sectors due to strict COVID curbs also contributed to the decline in imports. Factory output in the world’s second largest economy grew slower than expected in October, and retail sales fell for the first time in five months, resulting in faltering demand.

Higher global prices, supported by concerns that the London Metal Exchange could block Russian metal for its trading systems, were also responsible for the fall in imports. In ten months of the year, China’s aluminium imports came in at 1.88 million tonnes, down 27 per cent from a year ago.

The customs data also showed that bauxite imports in October were down by 5.4 per cent year-on-year from 9.5 million tonnes to 8.98 million tonnes but stood 9.5 per cent higher than the previous month.