GACC: China's Jan-Apr bauxite imports rise 15% YoY despite Apr drop

Despite April's decline, total imports over January-April rose by 15% on year to 77.68 million tonnes, the GACC data showed. On the demand side, consumption of imported bauxite by the 44 Chinese alumina refiners tracked by Mysteel reached 55.28 million tonnes during the four-month period, indicating a surplus of about 22.4 million tonnes of the imported material, Mysteel Global noted.

The on-month drop in the imported volume was mainly attributed to rising shipping costs driven by higher oil prices, as well as weaker purchasing demand from Chinese alumina producers during March and April, market analysts said.

Guinea and Australia remained the two dominant suppliers of China's imported bauxite in April. Their combined shipments came in at 18.85 million tonnes last month, accounting for 95.5% of total imports, Mysteel Global's calculations based on GACC data showed.

Bauxite imports from Guinea totalled 16.42 million tonnes in April, down by 9.3% from March and 1.4% lower compared with the same month in 2025. Meanwhile, shipments from Australia stood at 2.42 million tonnes last month, declining by 9.1% on month and by 9.6% on year.

The volume of imported bauxite from non-mainstream supplying countries amounted to 897,303 tonnes during the month, down by 9.7% from the previous month. Turkey, Sierra Leone, and Guyana were the top three non-mainstream suppliers.

Written by Iris Pang, pangjunyu@mysteel.com

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