China’s production of primary aluminium slips 0.3% YoY in August: NBS

According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday, September 16, production of primary aluminium in China stood at 2.97 million tonnes in August, a drop of 0.3 per cent year-on-year.

Production in August dropped 0.5 per cent month-on-month on outages at China Hongqiao Group and Xinfa Group. Xinfa Group in August closed an aluminium production line after an explosion at a plant in the north-western region of Xinjiang. The accident led to the shutdown of around 500,000 tonnes of annual smelting capacity. Hongqiao slashed its 2019 production guidance by up to 300,000 tonnes, or about 5 per cent after recent flood caused by a Typhoon hit its premises.

According to Reuters calculations based on NBS data, production averaged around 95,800 tonnes per day in August, down from about 96,260 tonnes per day in July.

China’s production of primary aluminium in January-August stood 1.4 per cent higher than the same period last year. Production in the first eight months of 2019 came in at 23.47 million tonnes.

China's production of 10 nonferrous metals, including copper, aluminium, lead, zinc and nickel, increased 4.4 per cent from a year ago to 4.91 million tonnes last month. In January-August, production of the 10 nonferrous metals stood at 38.63 million tonnes, up 4.6 per cent year-on-year.