World primary aluminium production sees M-o-M fall of 8.83% to 5.203MT in February 2021; Y-o-Y output grows 1.25%

In February 2021, world primary aluminium production plunged by 8.83 per cent month-on-month to stand at 5.203 million tonnes, bringing the total output in the first two months of the year to 10.930 million tonnes, found the International Aluminium Institute. In January 2021, world primary aluminium production saw a marginal rise of 0.23 per cent from 5.694 million tonnes in December 2020 to 5.707 million tonnes.

On a year-on-year calculation, world primary aluminium production in February 2021 stood 1.25 per cent higher than 5.139 million tonnes, while the output during January-February stood up by 3.01 per cent from 10.611 million tonnes.

In China, primary aluminium production in February 2021 stood at 3.017 million tonnes versus 3.320 million tonnes in January 2021 and 2.9 million tonnes in February 2020. This reflects a month-on-month decline of 9.13 per cent but a rise of 4.03 per cent on year. In two months of 2021, China produced 6.337 million tonnes of primary aluminium, up by 5.85 per cent from 5.987 million tonnes during the same period last year.

In the GCC countries, primary aluminium production in February 2021 came in at 454,000 tonnes, down by 8.10 per cent from 494,000 tonnes in January 2021 but up by 4.01 per cent from 473,000 tonnes in February 2020. During January-February 2021, primary aluminium output in the GCC countries totalled 948,000 tonnes, down by 2.37 per cent from 971,000 tonnes a year ago.

In Asia (ex-China), primary aluminium output amounted to 339,000 tonnes, down by 9.84 per cent month-on-month from 376,000 tonnes but up by 0.90 per cent year-on-year from 336,000 tonnes. In two months of 2021, primary aluminium output in Asia (ex-China) came in at 715,000 tonnes, down by 3.77 per cent from 689,000 tonnes during the same period last year.