China's alumina prices remain steady, trading thin

On March 3, the average prices for spot alumina with a more than 98.6% purity in China's five major alumina production bases comprising Shanxi, Henan, Shandong, Guizhou provinces and Guangxi autonomous region, were assessed by Mysteel unchanged from February 28 at Yuan 3,350-3,440/tonne ($460-472/t), remaining flat for the second straight trading day, according to the latest daily price assessment.

Buyers refrained from purchasing spot tonnage on Monday amid expectations that new refining capacity added in the last week of February would ensure an ample supply of alumina in the future, market analysts said. Mysteel's latest survey showed that metallurgical-grade alumina capacity owned by the 44 alumina producers under Mysteel's regular tracking totalled 105.7 million tonnes as of February 27, rising by 2 million tonnes on week. 

Contributing most to the newly added capacity was a new 1 million tonnes/year production line formally commissioned by an alumina producer in Southwest China's Guangxi last week, as reported. The 44 refiners in Mysteel's sample account for 100% of alumina production capacity nationwide.

In consequence, trading in the spot alumina market was quiet on March 3, with Mysteel not hearing of any deals being concluded in the Chinese market.

In the derivatives market meanwhile, prices of most alumina futures contracts on the Shanghai Futures Exchange ticked up slightly but remained generally stable on Monday, with the most-traded contract for May delivery closing the nighttime trading session at Yuan 3,370/t, higher by just Yuan 7/t or 0.21% from the settlement price of Monday's daytime trading session, the exchange's data showed.

Written by Iris Pang, pangjunyu@mysteel.com

Edited by Russ McCulloch, russ.mcculloch@mysteel.com