Chinese Spot Alumina Price Slips Yuan 20/mt to Yuan 2,630/mt

The China ex-works Shanxi daily spot alumina assessment closed the week Friday at Yuan 2,630/mt ($387/mt) full cash terms, down Yuan 20/mt from Thursday and down Yuan 50/mt on the week.

The current price, however, still reflected a sharp increase of Yuan 300/mt from a month ago.

A Northwest China smelter and a Henan refiner confirmed having traded 50,000 mt this week at Yuan 2,630-2,650/mt ex-works Henan, partial credit terms.

Both parties, however, declined to provide details on the amount of credit settled.

Three refiners, a trader and a smelter all put ex-works Shanxi tradable levels at Yuan 2,600-2,650/mt cash on Friday, with short-term expectations prices may even break below Yuan 2,600/mt on continued weak market sentiment.

Pressure on alumina prices stemmed mainly from several refinery restarts in Shanxi, following scheduled turnaround cutbacks in May, the sources said.

Lower domestic aluminum metal prices recently also added pressure, they added.

"But as there's no smelter cuts yet, demand is steady and that will support alumina from falling too much...maybe ranging at Yuan 2,550-2,600/mt cash in the near term," a Henan refiner said.

"Refiners' stocks are not high, so there's no rush for them to lower offers.

Some traders are willing to sell lower, as they bought at Yuan 2,200-2,300/mt earlier, so there's still profits to be made at the current levels.

But these traders don't have much stocks, so let's see if it'll last," the refiner added.

On Friday, the front-month aluminum contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed at Yuan 13,530/mt, marginally down from Yuan 13,540/mt last week, and also from Yuan 13,915/mt a month ago.