Alumina Imports Surging  

An official report of China's General Administration of Customs (GAC) said that China imported 4.511 million tons of aluminum oxide (alumina) in the first ten months of 2009, surging 19.5% over the year-ago period, valuing US$1.11 billion, a down of 26.6%. The CIF price averaged at US$246.1 per ton, plummeting 38.6%. Of that, 4.044 million tons came from Australia, an annual increase of 28.6%, and 275 thousand tons was imported from India, down 52.2%.
   GAC thought that the local governments increased their aluminum inventories in 2009, attributing to the surged imports. The Chinese Materials Story Bureau plans to purchase 1 million tons of aluminum for inventory in three years. As of May 2009 this bureau has purchased 590 thousand tons of aluminum. Because the price of electrolytic aluminum was too low in April 2009, some provincial governments, in order to help the local aluminum companies survive the crisis, also purchased aluminum for inventory. These purchase actions helped to drive the demand for aluminum.
   In the first ten months of 2009, China imported 1.611 million tons of aluminum ingot, 6.4 times that in the same period of 2008, having a replacement impact on imports of aluminum oxide. In October alone, the imports of aluminum ingot declined to 40 000 tons, showing a plunged replacement. Some electrolytic aluminum companies recovered production by acquiring cheaper power, resulting in an increased demand for imported aluminum oxide.
   The LME price of aluminum started to rebound from April 2009. The governmental purchases also supported the domestic aluminum price to go up from RMB12 000 t/a in January 2009 to RMB15 000 t/a at the end of October 2009. These factors pushed the aluminum oxide import price to move up from August 2009.