China’s metallurgical-grade alumina production reflects a hike of 7.12% Y-o-Y to 17.32MT during Q1 2021

Shanghai Metals Market data found a month-on-month surge of 7.17 per cent in China’s March alumina output to 6.28 million tonnes, following the two consecutive months of decline in January and February. In February 2021, China’s alumina production stood at 5.90 million tonnes, reflecting a decrease of 0.68 per cent month-on-month.

The alumina output in March included 6.07 million tonnes of metallurgical-grade alumina, up by 7.43 per cent from 5.65 million tonnes in February 2021. This brings China's total metallurgical-grade alumina production during January-March 2021 to 17.32 million tonnes - 7.12 per cent higher than in the same period last year.

However, daily alumina production in March inched down by 2.89 per cent month-on-month to 195,900 tonnes. In February, on the other hand, daily alumina output had grown by 9.89 per cent to 201,700 tonnes on month, despite lower production.

On a year-on-year calculation, China's daily alumina output in March stood up by 11.75 per cent.

As of early April, the operating capacity of metallurgical-grade alumina stood at 71.49 million tonnes per year. SMM forecasts metallurgical-grade alumina production to stand at 6.19 million tonnes in the month (30 days), with the daily output rising slightly on the month to about 206,400 tonnes, as the GAluminium Group will bring new capacity online.