DAILY: Chinese spot alumina prices ease further

On Thursday, Mysteel's assessed spot prices for the same grade of alumina in Shandong, Henan, Shanxi, and Guizhou provinces and in the Guangxi autonomous region all slipped by Yuan 5/t on day to average between Yuan 2,660/t and Yuan 2,840/t, indicating persistent price softness across China's major alumina-producing regions.

Although some alumina producers have recently curtailed or reduced their output, the temporary production scaling back fails to ease the overall supply surplus in the spot alumina market, prompting alumina sellers to further clip their offers in an effort to facilitate sales.

Despite continued reductions in alumina offers, downstream buyers showed limited interest in securing additional volumes, as they had already purchased sufficient spot cargoes. As a result, alumina trading activity in the physical market remained limited on December 18, with Mysteel not hearing of any finalized deals.

In the derivatives market, alumina futures prices lost ground overnight after edging higher during the daytime session. The most-traded January 2026 alumina contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange slumped by 1.05% to close at Yuan 2,545/t as of 1 a.m. Friday, following a 0.12% daytime gain.

Written by Iris Pang, pangjunyu@mysteel.com