DAILY: Chinese spot alumina prices fall to three-year low

The continued decline in spot alumina prices largely stemmed from softer quotations from sellers across the country's five key alumina-producing areas. On Tuesday, Mysteel's assessed prices for the same grade of alumina in Shandong, Henan, Shanxi, and Guizhou provinces and in the Guangxi autonomous region all fell by Yuan 5/t from the previous day, sitting within a range of Yuan 2,720–2,875/t.

The same day, domestic alumina futures posted steep losses as well. The most-traded January 2026 contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) slumped by 1.36% by the end of Tuesday's daytime trading and then declined by a further 2.15% at the close of the nighttime session, ending at Yuan 2,503/t by 1 a.m. Wednesday.

On the supply side, additional volumes of alumina have been released into the spot market recently, as some receipts for alumina stored in the SHFE-registered warehouses are about to reach maturity in concentrated batches, market sources learned.  

At the same time, some alumina producers and traders facing mounting inventory pressure continued to trim their offers in hopes of accelerating stock clearance. However, these modest reductions fell short of alumina buyers' expectations, leading many primary aluminum smelters seeking lower prices to defer raw material procurement.

Consequently, trading activity for spot alumina in the domestic market was subdued on Tuesday, with Mysteel not hearing of any concluded transactions.

In the overseas market, Mysteel heard of one deal involving 30,000 tonnes of alumina traded at $310/t FOB Eastern Australia on December 9, with shipment scheduled for January 2026.

Written by Iris Pang, pangjunyu@mysteel.com