BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s aluminium imports in June fell 36.3% from the same month a year earlier, government data showed on Monday, as domestic production ramp-up and persistently weak demand continued to weigh on import appetite.
The country brought in 187,362 tonnes of unwrought aluminium and products -including primary metal and unwrought, alloyed aluminium – last month, according to data from the General Administration of Customs.
Aluminium imports into China, the world’s biggest producer and consumer of the metal, totalled 1.08 million tonnes in the first six months this year, down 25.9% from the same period a year ago.
Relaxed power restrictions this year have eased aluminium supply tensions that had been the key driving force behind price surges and cargo inflows in the previous year.
China produced 3.39 million tonnes of primary aluminium in June, down from a record high of 3.42 million tonnes in May, and up 3.2% from the same period last year.
Coupled with the rising supply was the weak demand of the light metal with its key end-user sectors, real estate and auto industries, grappling with slow consumption in a pandemic-hit economy.
The world’s second largest economy saw a sharp slowdown in its economic growth in the second quarter, with an expansion of just 0.4% year-on-year..
Outside of China, aluminium production has been constrained by the ongoing energy crisis.
“Unlike the widening arbitrage window between Shanghai and London prices last year, the tightened supply and relatively higher prices in Europe could mean continuing limited imports of aluminium into the Chinese market,” said Xiong Hui, chief aluminium analyst at State-backed research house Antaike.
June’s aluminium imports were little changed from the prior month, with a decline 0.6%.
Imports of bauxite, the main aluminium ore source, were 9.42 million tonnes last month, down 21.3% from May’s 11.97 million tonnes, and compared with 10.14 million tonnes in June a year earlier, according to the data.
(Reporting by Siyi Liu and Dominique Patton; Editing by Amy Caren Daniel)
