Chinese spot alumina prices weakened further last week, though the pace of decline slowed compared with the previous week. During the week of September 12-18, the national average price of spot alumina with purity above 98.6 per cent slipped by 1.5 per cent on week to RMB 3,065 per tonne (USD 431 per tonne), according to Mysteel's price assessment. The fall was milder than the previous week's 2.4 per cent drop, Mysteel Global noted.
Image: Shandong Renwa Abrasive Tech. Co.,Ltd
Despite weaker prices, alumina supplies in the domestic market climbed further, reinforcing the wait-and-see attitude of buyers. Most primary aluminium smelters held back from purchasing spot goods, except for a few that restocked raw material inventories at relatively stable prices via tender.
On the supply side, alumina output kept rising. The 44 producers regularly tracked by Mysteel produced 1.86 million tonnes of metallurgical-grade alumina last week, up by 1.2 per cent from the prior week and slightly higher than the 1 per cent increase recorded during the week earlier, the results of Mysteel's latest survey showed.
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