NBS: China's H1 alumina output up 9.3% YoY

In June alone, China produced 7.75 million tonnes of alumina, up by 3.5% from May and by 7.8% from the same month last year, the NBS data showed.

East China's Shandong province, North China's Shanxi province, and Southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region remained the country's top three alumina-producing regions last month, Mysteel Global noted.

Alumina production in Shandong and Guangxi grew by 3.4% and 4.3% respectively from May to reach 2.76 million tonnes and 1.47 million tonnes last month. In contrast, Shanxi's output of 1.67 million tonnes saw a marginal drop of 0.05% from the previous month.

Central China's Henan province and Southwest China's Guizhou province ranked fourth and fifth nationwide last month in terms of alumina output by producing 735,400 tonnes and 501,400 tonnes respectively, with marked on-month increases of 11.9% and 11.8%.

Notably, Southwest China's Yunnan province posted the highest on-month growth among all production bases with monthly output exceeding 100,000 tonnes in June, with its volume jumping by 19.8% to 107,500 tonnes, despite ranking only seventh in output.

The on-month increases in production across various areas in China were largely driven by the resumption of operations at alumina refineries, spurred by continued improvements in their profit margins, according to market analysts.

Mysteel's monthly survey showed that the average profit margin among the 44 Chinese alumina producers it regularly tracks surged by 105% from May to Yuan 391.4/tonne ($54.4/t) in June.

  Table: China's June alumina output by region

  Source: NBS