DAILY: Chinese spot alumina prices edge lower, futures retreat overnight

China's alumina prices largely edged lower in the spot market on December 15, while its futures prices retreated slightly overnight after recording marked gains during the daytime trading session.

According to Mysteel's daily price assessment, the national average spot price for metallurgical-grade alumina with a purity above 98.6% dipped by another Yuan 4/tonne ($0.6/t) from last Friday to sit at Yuan 2,775/t including the 13% VAT on Monday, marking the eighth consecutive working day of declines.

The further decline mainly reflected a persistent price weakness in China's major alumina-producing regions, where falling spot alumina prices have pushed some alumina producers below their break-even points, market watchers noted.

Mysteel's assessed prices for the same grade of alumina in Shandong, Henan, Shanxi, and Guizhou provinces fell by Yuan 5/t from the previous working day to average between Yuan 2,675/t and Yuan 2,850/t, while the assessed prices in the Guangxi autonomous region stayed unchanged at Yuan 2,830/t.

In the derivatives market, the most-traded January 2026 alumina contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange pulled back slightly by 0.75% overnight to end at Yuan 2,527/t as of 1 a.m. Tuesday, reversing a 3% rise during the daytime trading.

The marked rise in alumina futures during the day encouraged some alumina traders to hold firm on their offering prices yesterday. However, a number of alumina refiners and traders, already under pressure from losses, remained eager to liquidate inventories and therefore cut their offers. Meanwhile, primary aluminum smelters continued to adopt a low-price purchasing strategy amid rising stock levels.

Mysteel heard of two deals totalling 40,000 tonnes of alumina concluded on Monday. A primary aluminum smelter based in Yunnan province purchased 30,000 tonnes of Indonesia-origin imported alumina at Yuan 2,720/t, including VAT, excluding transportation costs, at Guangxi's Fangchenggang port. And another smelter in the Xinjiang autonomous region bought 10,000 tonnes of North China-origin alumina via tender at a delivered price of Yuan 2,980/t, including freight and VAT.

Written by Iris Pang, pangjunyu@mysteel.com

Edited by Alyssa Ren, rentingting@mysteel.c om