Chinese Alumina Export Volumes Down 76% In October

The commodity lost three-quarters of its export volumes in October compared with the previous year.

China’s export volumes of non-metallurgical alumina fell by almost 76% in October 2017 compared with the corresponding month last year, with trade flows affected by low availability of material amid widespread production shutdowns.

Alumina exports in the month totaled 4,698 tonnes compared with more than 19,200 tonnes in October last year, Chinese customs data shows.

In value terms, the year-on-year decline showed a lower figure of 27%, down to $6.35 million this year from $8.71 million in October 2016. This was the result of consistently higher product prices in 2017 to date.

Statistics point also to a year-on-year decline in September, when alumina exports from China fell by 83% year-on-year to 4,676 tonnes, with a value of $4.68 million. Turnover dropped by 60% from the previous year’s level.

Availability of non-metallurgical alumina has declined drastically in China because of the continuing environmental inspections at production facilities and strict limitations imposed on industrial operations.

While the East Asian country exported a total 104,200 tonnes of the commodity in the full year of 2016, generating $65.19 million, export volumes in 2017 have shown double-digit declines in six of the 10 months in the January-October period.

Due to reduced output, prices of alumina products increased sharply this year.

Prices for brown-fused alumina (BFA) have been rising since July, and hit $750-800 per tonne fob China in early December.