DAILY: Chinese spot alumina prices hold steady during holiday

China's spot alumina prices were largely unchanged for a third consecutive working day on December 31 and remained steady during the country’s New Year’s Day holiday over January 1-3, while the domestic alumina futures market rebounded ahead of the holiday closure.

On December 31, the final working day of 2025, Mysteel assessed the national average spot price for metallurgical-grade alumina with a purity exceeding 98.6% at Yuan 2,698/tonne ($386/t) including the 13% VAT, marking the third straight day of price steadiness.

Regionally, the assessed prices for the same grade of alumina in the country's five major alumina production hubs - Shandong, Henan, Shanxi and Guizhou provinces and the Guangxi autonomous region - all remained flat for three days in a row, ranging between Yuan 2,600/t and 2,790/t.

Trading activity for alumina in the spot market was thin on December 31, as most primary aluminium smelters had already secured sufficient alumina stocks in advance to ensure stable production during the holiday period. Mysteel did not hear of any concluded spot transactions on December 31 and during the three-day holiday.

In the derivatives market, domestic alumina futures strengthened during the daytime trading session on the last trading day before the holiday. The most-traded May 2026 alumina contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) rose by 1.42% to end at Yuan 2,778/t by the close of Wednesday's daytime session.

Written by Iris Pang, pangjunyu@mysteel.com

Edited by Alyssa Ren, rentingting@mysteel.c om