Chinese Alumina Prices Still in Inter-area Oscillations

China's spot alumina prices were firm last Thursday, and the bidding level is also in inter-area oscillations, though it is reported that a refinery plans to restart in southern China.

The ex-factory price of Platts alumina spot is abut 1890 RMB per ton (cash payment) in Shanxi, and in Henan, the spot alumina is between 1920 and 1930 RMB per ton.

Sellers’ offers of the above two provinces are mostly held steady about at 1950 RMB per ton.

In Guangxi province, refineries’ offers are also kept at 1850 RMB per ton, and 1800 RMB per ton can be traded.

An aluminum Group in Guangdong whose annual output is about 800000 tons of smelting alumina completely shut down in December 2015. Because of poor market conditions, it has to overhaul.

A source from a company said that the company plans to restart 400000 tons of annual production capacity in April.

"The news about the refinery restarting temporarily stops the spot alumina price to rise further, but there is still no any sign of prices all the way down". A smelter in southern China said " We have to wait and see its impact on the market in the near future."

A dealer in Beijing expressed that this restart will have little influence because there is only a few in number. Earlier closed refineries are mostly concentrated in the north, whose production can reach millions of tons, and there is still no news of any restart there, so the price can still edge up."

A refining manufacturer in Shanxi said on Thursday that their spot alumina has been sold out in March, and they will only supply some spot alumina of April at the end of this month. By then, he predicts that the offer could reach 2000-2100 RMB per ton.

A refinery in Henan also agrees with this statement, saying that the price is stable, and the market participants need to see some signs of stabilisation before more refineries to restart and more buyers to emerge.

The aluminum futures contracts from Shanghai Futures Exchange in recent months was 11200 RMB per ton last Thursday, lower than 11240 RMB of previous week, but higher than 10570 RMB in early February.