World aluminium production declines in January 2016

LME Aluminium prices averaged at $ 1535 per tonne by the end of February 2016, up 3.7 per cent from month ending January 2016. The release of the Union Budget in India at the end of February brought a hike in the custom duty to support the ailing industry. Considering the plea from the Aluminium manufacturers due to rising imports the Finance Minister proposed increase in custom duties of Aluminium to 7.5 per cent from 5 per cent currently.

In global markets, International Aluminium Institute (IAI) that measures the production trend in the world came out with its latest numbers. IAI has mentioned that the trend of Aluminium production declined during the month of January 2016 away from the record highs that were registered in August 2015. Data estimates from International Aluminium Institute (IAI) showed that the total primary Aluminium production reached 4.72 million tonnes in January 2016 compared to 4.78 million tonnes in December 2015. This marks a decline of 1.85 per cent on a monthly basis. The production of Aluminium in January 2015 was 4.80 million tonnes. This means that Aluminium production increased by 1.67 per cent on a yearly basis.

China remained the major contributor to the production along with the GCC nations and it did impact the production of World Aluminium on a yearly basis. The total reported production in China was 2.48 million tonnes in January 2016 against 2.53 million tonnes in December 2015, down 2 per cent.

However on a yearly basis the production of Chinese Aluminium was up 4.24 per cent from January 2015. This indicates that China produces 52.5 per cent share of the world primary production. Production of China in January 2015 was 2.59 million tonnes. Asian production excluding China was at 276000 tonnes in December 2015 compared to 273000 tonnes in December 2015, up 1 per cent. Meanwhile, total production of GCC was 430000 tonnes in January 2016, up 1.80 per cent compared to 438000 tonnes in the month of December 2015.