China's exports of alumina including metallurgical-grade totalled 170,981 tonnes in June, down by 17.7 per cent from May but up by 8.9 per cent from the same month in 2024, according to the latest data released by the country's General Administration of Customs (GACC). Last month's decline marked the third consecutive on-month decrease in alumina exports, Mysteel Global noted.
The June figure brought China's total alumina exports over the first half of 2025 to 1.34 million tonnes, representing a sharp 65.7 per cent increase from the January-June period last year, the GACC data showed.
Russia remained the largest buyer of China's alumina, accounting for 86.7 per cent of June's total exports. However, shipments to Russia fell by 19.1 per cent from May to 148,326 tonnes, according to the GACC.
By contrast to the decline in volume, the average unit price paid by Russian importers for their Chinese alumina rose by 7.4 per cent on month to RMB 3,207.56 per tonne (USD 421.9 per tonne), Mysteel Global calculated based on the GACC data.
The United Arab Emirates was the second largest international buyer last month, importing 8,053 tonnes or 4.7 per cent of China's total exports, a significant jump from less than one tonne in May, the data showed.
Taiwan and Japan followed as the third and fourth largest destinations, accounting for 1.3 per cent and 1.2 per cent of China's alumina exports in June, respectively.
In contrast to the export decline, China's alumina imports surged by 50 per cent on month and by 168.4 per cent on year to 101,259 tonnes in June, the highest monthly volume since May 2024, according to the GACC data.
Market insiders noted that most of these imports consisted of high-purity alumina from international producers and standard-grade alumina produced by China-invested refiners overseas and shipped back last month for internal use.
Indonesia was the largest supplier of China's alumina imports in June, shipping 62,986 tonnes or 62.2 per cent of the total, significantly higher from just 267 tonnes in May.
Australia and Brazil ranked as the second and third largest supplying countries during the same month, accounting for 31.1 per cent and 1.7 per cent of the total imports, respectively.
For the first half of 2025, China imported 268,300 tonnes of alumina in total, down by 77.4 per cent from the same period last year.
Note: This news is published under content collaboration with MySteel.
_md.webp)
