Chinese aluminium and aluminium products export slightly drops M-o-M to 517K tonnes in August

China Customs data revealed on Saturday, September 8, that the country’s total aluminium export recorded a slight drop in August. Including both unwrought aluminium and aluminium products, China exported a total amount of 517,000 tonnes in August, slightly down from 520,000 tonnes in July, which was the highest in more than three years. In June, China’s exports of unwrought aluminium and aluminium products had come in at 510,000 tonnes, 1.9 per cent down from July and 1.3 per cent down from August.

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Thus, the above data shows shipments exceeded 1.5 million tonnes in June through August, a record for a three-month period, and were up 15 per cent in the first eight months of the year.

Aluminium prices jumped in April after the United States’ sanctions on Rusal, the top supplier outside of China, upending global supply chains that were already under pressure from the lower output at Alunorte in Brazil. The aluminium giant Oleg Deripaska is, however, negotiating with US authorities on a plan to lift the sanctions before an October deadline. Buyers have been jockeying for supplies in the meantime in case his measures don’t satisfy the US.

Besides aluminium, the alumina exports also registered a rise in China over the last three months and likely to expand more in the coming time, attributing to supply disruptions such as industrial action at Alcoa Corp’s plants in Australia, Aluminum Corp of China Ltd said this month. Outbound cargoes totalled more than 300,000 tonnes in the three months to July from about 11,000 tonnes in the corresponding period last year.