NBS: China's Jan-Feb alumina output rises 13.1% YoY

NBS consolidates its data for January and February due to the disruption in regular data collection and releases caused by the Chinese New Year holiday, which typically falls in either of these months, Mysteel Global notes.

The increase in alumina production shown by the NBS numbers aligns with the results of Mysteel's survey among the 44 Chinese alumina producers under its regular tracking. The most recent survey findings show that their average capacity utilization rate was 86.4% over January-February this year, higher by 8.6 percentage points from the same period last year.

Contributing most to the higher output that the NBS recorded was the increase in production in East China's Shandong, North China's Shanxi provinces and Southwest's Guangxi autonomous region during the two months.

Output in this year's first two months in East China's Shandong, the country's largest alumina production base, reached 5.35 million tonnes, up by 9.6% on year and the highest nationwide, according to the NBS data.

The new capacity that was added last month fuelled the eastern province's rise in alumina output, market analysts explained. An alumina refiner based in Binzhou, Shandong province, commissioned two alumina production lines with a total capacity of 2 million tonnes/year in February, as reported.

North China's Shanxi and Southwest's Guangxi had the second and third highest alumina production levels at 3.48 million tonnes and 2.61 million tonnes respectively during the first two months of the year, rising by 15.9% and 17.9% from the corresponding period in 2024, the NBS data show.

The climb in these two regions occurred mainly because some alumina refiners either resumed production or commissioned new production lines in late February, a market watcher noted.

Written by Iris Pang, pangjunyu@mysteel.com

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