WEEKLY: China's alumina inventory build persists despite output cuts
China's alumina output edged down last week as several producers in Henan and Guizhou provinces and in the Guangxi autonomous region scaled back production to carry out 10-14 days of maintenance, either to curb atmospheric pollution or to control operating costs.News of the production curtailments provided brief support to the alumina futures market late last week. The most-traded May 2026 alumina contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange jumped 1.8 per cent during Thursday's daytime trading session from the prior day's settlement price.
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In contrast, spot alumina prices continued to weaken over the same week, mainly weighed down by steady inventory accumulation. Mysteel assessed the national average spot price for smelter-grade alumina with a purity above 98.6 per cent at RMB 2,655 per tonne (USD 382 per tonne) on January 22, down 0.6 per cent from a week earlier.
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