Record domestic aluminium production in China led to a fall in July imports

In July 2022, China’s unwrought aluminium and aluminium products imports, including alloys, plunged by 38.3 per cent year-on-year to stand at 192,581 tonnes, showed the General Administration of Customs on Thursday, August 18. This shrink in imports could be attributed to the domestic production rise to a record high and overseas supply disruption.

Increase in domestic aluminium suppliers this year is also an important factor for the fall in China’s imports.

China, the world’s biggest aluminium producer and consumer, made a record output of 3.43 million tonnes as smelters did not have to face power restrictions as much as last year. This discouraged imports from overseas.

On the other hand, energy crisis was at its peak outside China, which contained the production of aluminium, an energy-intensive metal. Producers in Europe and America had to cut aluminium production capacities due to squeezed profit margins caused by the rapid growing prices of electricity. Hence, the exports from these countries to China saw a dip.

The closure of an arbitrage window between the markets in Shanghai and London was also a reason for the fall in China’s aluminium imports in July 2022.

Total aluminium imports into China amounted to 1.27 million tonnes in the first seven months of the year, reflecting a downfall of 28.1 per cent from the same period last year.