China aluminium smelters cut output
Seventeen Chinese aluminium smelters have announced capacity and production cuts amounting to 335,000 tonnes annually
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Twenty-three aluminium smelters agreed late last year to cut production by 10 per cent to reduce demand and dampen prices for the raw material alumina.
The latest announcement by the China Non-ferrous Metals Industry Association is the implementation of the first phase of that plan.
“The losses for smelters as a result of the production cuts will be insignificant compared with the expected losses from importing aluminium at current high prices,” said a statement from the industry association, a government body co-ordinating the cuts.
China, the world’s biggest aluminium producer, imports half its requirements of alumina, a white powder refined from bauxite and used to make aluminium. Alumina prices rose to a record US$585 a tonne (US$1 = RM3.75) last Friday, according to London-based Metal Bulletin plc.
BEIJING, Tues: Seventeen Chinese aluminium smelters have announced capacity and production cuts amounting to 335,000 tonnes annually as part of a plan to rein in excessive expansion in the sector and cool raw material prices.
Twenty-three aluminium smelters agreed late last year to cut production by 10 per cent to reduce demand and dampen prices for the raw material alumina.
The latest announcement by the China Non-ferrous Metals Industry Association is the implementation of the first phase of that plan.
“The losses for smelters as a result of the production cuts will be insignificant compared with the expected losses from importing aluminium at current high prices,” said a statement from the industry association, a government body co-ordinating the cuts.
China, the world’s biggest aluminium producer, imports half its requirements of alumina, a white powder refined from bauxite and used to make aluminium. Alumina prices rose to a record US$585 a tonne (US$1 = RM3.75) last Friday, according to London-based Metal Bulletin plc.
