Alongside being the world’s biggest aluminum consumer, China is also the world’s biggest producer, constituting 57% of global output at approximately 64 million tons based on data from 2018.
In light of news regarding production shutdowns at one of the country’s largest smelters, concerns were stirred about supplies from China, a top producer, causing aluminum prices to rise and remain high for a period of two weeks.
One of the largest aluminum smelters in China, Xinfa Group, is currently stopping and terminating all of its production lines on its 2.8 million tons per year alumina refinery (accounting for around a third of aluminum production costs) for an unknown amount of time as a result of the environmental debate that is lifting prices of aluminum by output cuts.
As consequence, prices of alumina have therefore risen to more than 10% of original prices compared to the past four weeks.
Aluminum prices climb for two weeks as concerns stir for China supply
17 May 2019 14:52 reported by Dani Wang
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