23 APRIL 2026My steel

GACC: China Q1 aluminium scrap imports increase 4 per cent y-o-y

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GACC: China Q1 aluminium scrap imports increase 4 per cent y-o-y

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Notably, in March alone, the import volume jumped 7.5 per cent on year and surged 44.8 per cent from February to reach 197,331 tonnes, the highest level since December 2017, the GACC data showed.

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Aluminium scrap demand among Chinese secondary aluminium producers rose in March as the smelters ramped up output after February's Chinese New Year holiday. In parallel, domestic scrap availability was persistently tight, which prompted scrap users to purchase more materials from overseas suppliers, Mysteel Global noted.

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For example, in March, the total production of secondary aluminium alloys by the 158 Chinese smelters under Mysteel's tracking surged 111 per cent on month to 479,000 tonnes, though the output was 9.5 per cent lower on year.

The rising demand also pushed up import prices for aluminium scrap, with the average price for imported 6063 high-grade scrap material in South China's Guangdong province last month being assessed by Mysteel at RMB 9,450/tonne ($2,851/t), higher by 3.8 per cent compared with the average price for February.

In March, Thailand remained the top aluminium scrap supplier to China, with its shipments jumping 35.9 per cent on month to 44,148 tonnes, accounting for 22.4 per cent of China's total imports, the GACC data showed. The volume was lower by 17 per cent on the year, however.

Indeed, over January-March China's imports of Thai aluminium scrap had slumped 16.7 per cent from the same period last year, according to the data.

Meanwhile, ali scrap imports from the UK, the second-largest source of aluminium scrap for China, continued to increase last month, with the total volume reaching a historical high of 26,981 tonnes in March, surging 56.1 per cent from February and rising 35.8 per cent on year, the GACC data showed.