NBS: China's Jan-Oct primary aluminum output rises 2% YoY

In October alone, China produced 3.8 million tonnes of the light metal, up by a small 0.4% from the same month last year, the NBS data showed. The figure was lower by 0.2% from September, Mysteel Global's calculation based on the NBS statistics showed.

The NBS October figure closely matched preliminary data emerging from Mysteel's survey, which showed that the 89 Chinese smelters under its regular monitoring produced 3.8 million tonnes of primary aluminum last month, up 3.3% on month.

Most primary aluminum smelters continued steady operations in October, supported by a further improvement in profitability across the domestic industry which climbed to a more than 3.5-year high, market watchers observed.

Mysteel's survey showed that the average profit margin among the same 89 smelters jumped by 8.4% from the previous month to Yuan 5,255/tonne ($740.5/t), the highest level since March 2022.

Improved profits were primarily driven by rising primary prices and reduced production costs. According to Mysteel's price assessment, the national average price for primary aluminum ingots with a purity above 99.7% increased by 1.2% from September to Yuan 21,026/t including the 13% VAT in October.

On the cost front, the weighted average complete production cost for China's primary aluminum industry fell by Yuan 147/t on month to Yuan 15,771/t, Mysteel's survey found.

The cost reduction was largely the result of the continued decline in alumina prices throughout October. The weighted average national price assessed by Mysteel for smelter-grade alumina with a more than 98.6% purity decreased by another 5% from a month earlier to Yuan 2,920/t, easing the cost pressures of primary aluminum producers.

Moreover, the NBS data showed that China's combined production of ten major non-ferrous metals – including aluminum, copper, zinc, and lead – increased by 3.1% on year to 68.14 million tonnes during the first ten months of 2025. In October, output of these metals reached 6.95 million tonnes, largely unchanged from September and higher by 2.9% from a year ago.

Written by Iris Pang, pangjunyu@mysteel.com