China's Jan imports of Russian aluminium surge tenfold y/y: customs

BEIJING: China's imports of primary aluminium from Russia rose tenfold year on year in January, data released by the General Administration of Customs showed on Monday.

China imported 11,185 tonnes of aluminium from Russia last month, the data showed, versus just 1,109 tonnes in the same month a year earlier.

The unusually high volume followed over 56,000 tonnes of Russian aluminium inflows into China in the fourth quarter of 2018, including 22,007 tonnes in December, which was the highest monthly Russian import figure since at least 2016.

The United States lifted sanctions on Russian aluminium giant Rusal in late January.

Traders and analysts had expected Rusal to try to sell its metal into China, the world's biggest aluminium consumer, in the wake of the U.S. sanctions announced in April, which threatened the company's sales to Western customers.

But Russian aluminium exports to China, which rarely go above 2,000 tonnes in a single month, totalled only 1,237 tonnes in the third quarter before spiking late in the year, customs data showed.

It is not clear who has been taking the Russian aluminium in China, which is also the top global producer of the metal and has scant need for foreign aluminium, especially with current demand lacklustre and prices sinking to two-year lows last month.

Rusal, which has long had a trading joint venture in Shenzhen, southern China, last year set up its own trading company in Beijing, whose role was partly to explore aluminium imports.

It is unclear whether this new firm, which three sources say has already let go an analyst it only hired in September, has a future following the lifting of the sanctions, which means Rusal will no longer have a problem selling its metal in the West.

Rusal declined to comment.