Indonesian bauxite exports to China rise in Sep to 288,593 mt

Indonesian bauxite exports to China totaled 288,593 mt in September, which reflected a surge of 196% when compared with the 97,658 mt exported in the previous month, figures from the General Administration of Customs of China showed Wednesday.

The Southeast Asian country's exports have been rising since July, which saw its first shipment of bauxite since mid-2014, following its ban on mineral exports beginning that year. The July shipment stood at 50,295 mt.

Indonesia eased the ban earlier this year. It had previously exported around 3-4 million mt/month of bauxite to China before the ban.

Meanwhile, in September, China's total bauxite imports stood at 6.54 million mt, which was up a sharp 46.5% compared with the 4.47 million mt imported a year ago. The current imported amount was also up a marginal 0.2% from August.

In January-September, bauxite imports totaled 51.28 million mt, which was a gain of 35.1% year on year.

Australia was the top exporter to China in September with 2.83 million mt recorded, and Guinea a close second with 2.46 million mt. Brazil was in third place with 369,223 mt.