World primary aluminium production slightly down in 2019; December production drops 1.11% YoY

Global primary aluminium production totalled 5.435 million tonnes in December, with a year-on-year drop of 1.11%, according to the latest data showed by the International Aluminium Institute (IAI) on Monday, 20 January 2020. The output rose by 3.35% from 5.259 million tonnes in November and 1.61% from 5.349 million tonnes in October.

For the full year, primary aluminium came in at 63.690 million tonnes, slightly down by 1% from 64.336 million tonnes in 2018.

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In Asia ex-China, aluminium production declined by 3.41% year-on-year, but up 2.97% month-on-month to 368,000 tonnes in December. Output in January-December amounted to 4.395 million tonnes, a decrease of 0.45% from January-December 2018’s production.

In the Middle East, primary aluminium production stood at 499,000 tonnes and 5.644 million tonnes in December and January-December, up by 11.63% YoY and 5.87% YoY. Europe’s primary aluminium production totalled 651,000 tonnes in December, unchanged from last year. In 2019, total production stood at 7.606 million tonnes, a decrease of 2.26% YoY.

China’s estimated primary aluminium production stood at 35.797 million tonnes in 2019 IAI data showed.