GACC: China's bauxite imports jump 18% YoY in Aug

Guinea continued to dominate China's bauxite supply last month, shipping 12.33 million tonnes and accounting for 67.4% of the total imported bauxite. This volume was down by 22.7% on month but up 12.7% on year, according to the GACC data.

The monthly decline in imports from Guinea was mainly due to the May-October rainy season and the cancellation of dozens of mining licenses by the Guinean government in late May, which both disrupted bauxite mining activity and shipments during June and July in the West African country, market analysts explained. 

As shipments from Guinea take around 45 days to reach China, the disruptions from mid-June to mid-July resulted in lower arrivals of the ore in August, they added. 

Australia, China's second-largest source of imported bauxite, supplied 4.4 million tonnes in August, accounting for 19.8% of the total imports. This was a sharp jump of 41.3% from July and an increase of 22.1% from a year earlier.

For non-mainstream bauxite suppliers, China imported a combined volume of over 1.5 million tonnes last month, representing surges of 55.5% on month and 67.8% on year. Notably, Sierra Leone, Guyana, Malaysia, and Laos were the top four non-mainstream supplying countries, with their respective shipments posting sharp on-month increases of 164.2%, 410.5%, 92.1%, and 93.9%.

For January-August, China's total bauxite imports amounted to 141.5 million tonnes, 31.4% higher than the volume in the same period of last year, the customs data showed.

Written by Iris Pang, pangjunyu@mysteel.com