According to Mysteel data, China's primary aluminum production was 3,463,600 tonnes in December, up 3.8% on month and 8.03% on year. Daily output increased by 0.4% on month to 111,700 tonnes.
By the end of December, total primary aluminum installed capacity was 44.95 million tons/year, up 0.58% on month and 4.33% on year. The operating capacity was 40.7 million tons/year by the end of the month, down 0.29% on month and up 6.75% on year. The operating rate in December was 90.55%, down 0.79% on month and up 2.05% on year.
According to Mysteel data, around 137,000 tons of capacity have been restarted in December, bringing the total restarts to 3.98 million tonnes in 2022. Yunnan, Guangxi, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Shanxi, Sichuan and Gansu were the mainly contributors to the capacity growth. In December, China's primary aluminum restarts concentrated in Guangxi and Sichuan, which were slower than expected due to high cost and low profit.
In December, the newly added production capacity mainly concentrated in Inner Mongolia and Guizhou. According to Mysteel's survey, Guizhou Yuanhao Aluminum put the first phase into production on December 29, and it is expected to reach 100,000 tonnes/a in the first quarter of 2023.