Global aluminium market suffers 91 kilo tonnes shortfall in first four months of 2018

Global primary aluminium market suffered a slight deficit of 91 kilo tonnes between January and April, a modest loss compared to the 1022 kilo tonnes deficit recorded in 2017, the latest data released by the World Bureau of Metal Statistics (WBMS) has shown.

The demand for primary aluminium for the months under review was 19.77 million tonnes 489 kilo tonnes less than in the same four months of 2017.

Production in the period fell by 51 kilo tonnes compared to 2017, while total reported stocks rose by 112 kilo tonnes during March and by a further 17 kilo tonnes in April.

The increases included net deliveries into the Malaysian London Metal Exchange warehouses of 208 kilo tonnes.

The data said total stocks at the end of April 2018 were 2757 kilo tonnes which compares with 2346 kilo tonnes at the end of 2017.

The total stocks held in the four exchanges in London, Shanghai, USA and Tokyo were 2328 kilo tonnes at the end of April 2018 which was 440 kilo tonnes above the December 2017 total.

Overall, global production fell in the period under review by 0.3 percent compared with the first four months of 2017. China’s output was estimated at 10891 kilo tonnes, which currently accounts for about 55 percent of the world production total. China’s apparent demand was 1.0 percent lower than in January to April 2017.

China’s net exports were 103 kilo tonnes in January to March and net exports of unwrought aluminium for the whole of 2017 were 365 kilo tonnes.

WBMS estimates show that exports of aluminium semi manufactures by China were 390 kilo tonnes in April, bringing the year to date figure to 1527 kilo tons which is 34 percent higher than the comparable period in 2017.

For April 2018, the report pegged primary aluminium production at 4966.7 kilo tonnes and consumption was 4954.5 kilo tonnes.