The Hindu Business Line : China propels world aluminium production growth

Mumbai April 27 World aluminium production has continued to grow strongly so far this year (up 11.9 per cent year-on-year in first quarter 2007), thanks largely to extremely high production rates in China where production was up by nearly 40 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter this year.

Total reported world production in the first quarter was 8.886 million tonnes (mt), up from 7.920 mt same period last tear. Of this, China's contribution is 2.859 mt in the first quarter versus 2.060 mt same period in 2006, a rise of 38.8 per cent.

Chinese production rates in March were down month-on-month, but up strongly year-on-year, as reported by International Aluminium Institute.

In March, China's aluminium production was reported at 9,65,000 tonnes, an annualised rate of 11.362 mt a year.

On the other hand, production in the rest of the world has been growing but at a fairly slow pace of just 2.5 per cent y-on-y in the first quarter. For the full year, global aluminium production is expected to grow by around 10 per cent, with China of course contributing to the bulk of the growth (2.4 mt out of a total of 3.6 mt), Macquarie Research said in a report, adding that Russia's output would increase by over 3,00,000 tonnes in 2007 because of ramp up/expansion of smelters.

World production ex-China is forecast to grow by 5.2 per cent (1.26 mt) in 2007.