WEEKLY: China's alumina output edges down, stocks continue to climb

During the December 26-January 1 week, the 44 Chinese alumina refiners under Mysteel's regular tracking produced 1.83 million tonnes of metallurgical-grade alumina, down marginally by 0.5 per cent from the previous week, according to Mysteel's weekly survey.

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The modest decline in output was largely the result of short-term maintenance stoppages at two refiners in Southwest China's Guizhou province, the survey found. One refiner began a week's maintenance on a calcinator from last Tuesday, while another launched routine maintenance early last week that is expected to last a fortnight.

However, the slight production drop did little to ease the oversupply situation in the spot alumina market, as downstream consumption showed no improvement, market watchers noted. Alumina demand from primary aluminium smelters remained flat last week, with the 89 smelters that Mysteel tracks consuming a total of 1.65 million tonnes of alumina during the week, ticking up by a tiny 0.006 per cent from the prior week.