China’s primary aluminium production grows 1.83% Y-o-Y to 3.12 million tonnes in July 2020

Shanghai Metals Market found China’s primary aluminium production rose by 1.83 per cent year-on-year to 3.12 million tonnes in July 2020. On a month-on-month basis, the output edged higher by 4 per cent from 3 million tonnes in June 2020.

Data shows there were 41.41 million tonnes among 41.23 million tonnes per year of existing primary aluminium capacity in operation at the end of July. This increased by 12.65 per cent from 36.76 million tonnes of capacity in operation in June-end. Operating rates hiked by 0.5 percentage point to 89.5 per cent as increase in primary aluminium ingot prices encouraged newly commissioned and resumed capacities to ramp up.

In the first seven months of the year, China’s primary aluminium output amounted to 21.13 million tonnes, up by 2.76 per cent from the same period last year. Consumption rose by 1.8 per cent to 21.18 million tonnes.

More new capacities in Yunnan and Inner Mongolia are expected to commission in August, increasing the annual operating capacity to about 36.97 million tonnes.

In August 2020, China’s primary aluminium output is expected to increase by 4.5 per cent to 3.14 million tonnes from a year earlier. The month-on-month increase in actual consumption is estimated to slow to 3.18 per cent.