GACC: China's bauxite imports jump 26% YoY in 2025

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China's bauxite imports climbed by a marked 26.4 per cent on year to total 200.5 million tonnes in 2025, according to the latest data released by the country's General Administration of Customs (GACC).

Guinea and Australia remained the top two bauxite suppliers to China last year, contributing to 74.3 per cent and 18.6 per cent of the total imports, respectively, Mysteel Global calculated based on the GACC statistics.

Shipments from Guinea, China's largest bauxite supplier, surged by 35.3 per cent on year to 149 million tonnes in 2025, according to the GACC. This sharp growth indicated that the revocation of mining licenses in May 2025 in the West African country had a limited impact on its overall bauxite production and exports to China, where demand for the aluminum raw material was booming.

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In contrast, China's bauxite imports from Australia declined by 6.4 per cent from the prior year to 37.35 million tonnes last year. The decline was largely due to weaker cost competitiveness of Australian bauxite amid declining alumina prices in China throughout the year, which squeezed profit margins among Chinese alumina producers and prompted them to seek lower-priced supplies, Mysteel Global noted.

During the full year of 2025, the combined volume of imported bauxite from non-mainstream supplying countries soared by 63.8 per cent on year to 14.2 million tonnes. The improved infrastructure development in recent years has boosted mining capacity in these countries, which has enabled higher bauxite output and exports to China, market analysts said.

Among the non-mainstream suppliers, Turkey, Sierra Leone, Guyana, and Malaysia ranked as the top four last year, with shipment volumes of 3.14 million tonnes, 2.23 million tonnes, 1.83 million tonnes, and 1.58 million tonnes, respectively.

Despite robust full-year imports, China's intake of the aluminum ore dropped slightly in December. China imported 14.67 million tonnes of bauxite last month, down by 2.9 per cent from November and 1.7 per cent from December 2024, respectively, GACC data showed.

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Note: This article has been issued by MYSTEEL and has been published by AL Circle with its original information without any modifications or edits to the core subject/data.

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