Rising Chinese semis exports adding downward pressure on global primary aluminium market: Rusal

According to China’s General Customs data published on August 24, exports of aluminium semis during January to June period declined 9.1 per cent to stand at 2.02 million metric tonnes (mt) from 2.22 million mt from the corresponding period previous year. Nevertheless, the export volumes have been significant enough to add a downward pressure on the global primary aluminium market, observed Russian aluminium giant Rusal in its Q2 FY2016 financial report.

Rusal said a strong headwind in aluminium prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange put a constraint on China’s export arbitrage.

According to the Customs data, the country exported 690,845 mt aluminium bars, rods and extrusion profiles during January-July period, netting a 9.5 per cent increase from the corresponding period previous year.

Rusal noted in its Q2 earnings report that primary aluminium production globally (excluding China) totalled 13.3 million mt during the first half of 2016, a rise of 1.5 per cent from the same period last year. The growth, the aluminium producer said, was mostly driven by the Asian countries, especially India and Malaysia where they recorded enhanced output during the period under review.



During H1 2016, China’s total primary aluminium output rose 1.1 per cent year on year to 15.4 million mt.

Among the regions which saw their primary aluminium industries getting badly hit by China’s rising production and exports, North America stood first. A number of smelters including those owned by Century Aluminum and Noranda were closed and significant production cuts were recorded that resulted in many once-powerful primary producers shifting their focus to downstream manufacturing.  A number of smelters in the US and Europe also managed to re-negotiate power contracts that somewhat enabled them to remain operational during the first half of 2016.