China’s primary aluminium output declines 9% to 3.02 million tonnes M-o-M but grows 5% Y-o-Y in February 2021

According to the Shanghai Metals Market, China’s primary aluminium production stood at 3.02 million tonnes in February 2021, reflecting a downfall of 9.04 per cent from 3.32 million tonnes in January 2021. However, on a year-on-year calculation, the output improved by 5.23 per cent from 2.87 million tonnes.

China’s aluminium production in the first two months of 2021 totalled 6.34 million tonnes, up 6.73 per cent from 5.94 million tonnes during the same period last year.

Daily output, however, gained a few hundred tonnes in February 2021 to stand at 107,700 tonnes, driven by continued production at Yunnan Shenhuo, Hongtai and Inner Mongolia Chuangyuan Phase II. In January 2021, China’s daily primary aluminium output stood at 107,100 tonnes, registering a rise of 1,400 tonnes from 105,800 tonnes in December 2020.

SMM found that as of early March, China had 39.68 million tonnes of primary aluminium capacity in operation among the existing capacity of 43.54 million tonnes per year. Operating rates across the smelters stood at 91.1 per cent.

SMM expects China’s primary aluminium output to expand by 10.60 per cent in March to come in at 3.34 million tonnes, as new aluminium projects will continue to release output. Import is expected to stand at 150,000 tonnes as the import arbitrage window opened at the end of February.

Domestic aluminium social inventories are likely to stand at about 1.35 million tonnes at the end of March, buoyed by the increased demand among the downstream sector.