China’s monthly production of aluminium reached a record high in May, showed official data on Wednesday, following easing in power consumption curbs and as COVID-19-induced lockdowns had little impact on output.

Primary aluminium output in the world’s largest producer and consumer of the metal rose to 3.42 million tonnes, up 3.1% from the same month a year earlier, National Bureau of Statistics data showed, and up from 3.36 million tonnes in April.

On a daily basis, aluminium production in May stood at 110,322 tonnes, showed Reuters calculations based on the data, easing from April’s record daily output of 112,000 tonnes.

“The strong rate of output continued in May Lockdowns have not impacted primary aluminium production in China,” said Wan Ling, aluminium analyst at CRU Research, referring to lockdowns in some parts of the country in the last two months to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Wan said aluminium production is likely to continue rising in June and July. “Power supply has been generally sufficient in China since the end of last year.” Energy-intensive aluminium production was hit last year when China imposed limits on power consumption to meet climate goals and tackle electricity shortages.

Still, China’s annual aluminium output rose to a record high of 38.5 million tonnes in 2021.

Aluminium hits near 6-month low on China lockdowns, growth fears

For January-May, China produced 16.4 million tonnes, up 0.3% from the same period last year, the data showed. Meanwhile, production of 10 nonferrous metals - including copper, aluminium, lead, zinc and nickel – rose 3.3% to 5.64 million tonnes from a year earlier.

The monthly levels are the strongest since December 2020.

Year-to-date output was up 0.9% at 27.25 million tonnes.

The other non-ferrous metals are tin, antimony, mercury, magnesium and titanium.