The world's alumina production once again crossed the 12 million tonnes level in May 2024 (31 calendar days), close to the output in March 2024, reflecting a month-on-month increase of 2.43 per cent. During the same period last year, the world's alumina output was also above 12 million tonnes but slightly less than this year, showing a marginal difference of 0.19 per cent.
However, it is to be noted here that although the output in May 2024 nearly matches the production of last year but the overall trend of this year through the five months demonstrated much positive than in the previous year. Thus, the year-to-date world's alumina production of 2024 totalled 58.974 million tonnes, up by 2.52 per cent from 57.522 million tonnes in the earlier year, found the International Aluminium Institute's data.
According to IAI, world's alumina production in May 2024 was 12.040 million tonnes versus 11.754 million tonnes in April and 12.097 million tonnes in March. The daily average output in May was 388,400 tonnes, which was however, down by 0.87 per cent from 391,800 tonnes a month ago but marginally up by 21 per cent from 387,600 tonnes.
Production across countries/regions
China, the world's leading producer of alumina, churned out 7.15 million tonnes of ore in May 2024, which stood as the highest volume of production year-to-date. On a month-on-month basis, the output demonstrated an increase of 3.32 per cent from 6.92 million tonnes. In May 2023, China's alumina production had just touched the mark of 7 million tonnes, growing by 2.79 per cent M-o-M from 6.81 million tonnes. Thus, on an annual basis, China's alumina output in May 2024 witnessed an increase of 2.14 per cent.
In China, although the alumina output grew in May 2024 but it could not meet the demand posed by the soaring production of primary aluminium, which reached a two-year high of 3.65 million tonnes. The disparity between China's alumina and primary aluminium production thus resulted in the country's domestic alumina price surge, bringing it as high as RMB 3,908 per tonne on May 28.
From January to May, China's alumina production totalled 34.1 million tonnes, up by 3 per cent from 33.11 million tonnes during the corresponding period of the previous year.
In the Oceania region, alumina production in May stood at 1.425 million tonnes, reflecting a continued decrease since March. On a month-on-month basis, Oceania's May alumina output edged a decline of 3.85 per cent from 1.482 million tonnes, and on a year-on-year calculation, registered a sharp fall of 12.09 per cent from 1.621 million tonnes.
The Oceania region's alumina production is primarily affected by Alcoa's Kwinana refinery shutdown in Western Australia due to several adverse situations, such as soaring operation costs, poor bauxite grades, and poor market conditions. In 2023, the Kwinana refinery reported a net loss of about $130 million (pre-tax and noncontrolling interest). The refinery's closure resulted in employee layoffs from around 800 at the start of 2024 to 250 by Q3.
As a result, Oceania's total alumina production during January-May also decreased over a year from 7.846 million tonnes to 7.541 million tonnes, down by 4 per cent.
