BEIJING: China's primary aluminium production rose to its highest in six months in June, with daily output reaching record levels, as domestic prices extended their stellar rally and new smelting projects ramped up to cash in.
The National Bureau of Statistics said the world's biggest aluminium producer churned out 3.02 million tonnes of the metal last month up from 2.977 million tonnes in May. It was 0.8% higher than June last year.
June output was the highest for any single month since last December, according to Reuters calculations based on official data, up 1.4% from May. Figures for January and February are typically reported together because of China's Lunar New Year holidays.
First-half output was up 1.7% from a year earlier at 17.89 million tonnes, the statistics bureau said. June output was 100,667 tonnes per day, according to Reuters calculations, a record daily rate and up from around 96,000 tonnes in May.
Shanghai aluminium prices, currently at 14,085 yuan per tonne, rose 6.1% in June, adding to strong gains in April and May when Chinese consumption started recovering as lockdown measures to contain the coronavirus were eased.
Some 680,000 tonnes of new annual aluminium smelting capacity was brought on line in the first six months of the year, including 295,000 tonnes in June, research firm Antaike said in a note last week.
Production of 10 nonferrous metals - including copper, aluminium, lead, zinc and nickel - rose 2% on a monthly basis in June to 5.08 million tonnes, the highest since December, according to Reuters calculations. That was up 3.1% year-on-year, according to the statistics bureau.
First-half output rose 2.9% from the same period last year to 29.28 million tonnes, according to the statistics bureau. The other non-ferrous metals in this group are tin, antimony, mercury, magnesium and titanium.
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