China's aluminum imports have been affected by power curtailment

China's raw aluminum imports will continue to fall in the next few months after falling to a seven-month low in April, as electricity shortages threaten to spread throughout the country and demand for cars has also shown signs of declining. According to data released by China Customs on Monday, aluminum imports in April fell by 44.4% to 12,766 tons, and will drop by 56% in recent years.

An analyst from Shanghai said: “Local demand is decreasing, and the spread between local and overseas markets is also very large.” Another analyst in Shanghai also said: “Downstream demand will not improve in the next few months.”

Because electricity shortages will affect the processing plant rather than the smelter production, because many smelters have their own power plants. Therefore, China’s desire for raw aluminum will slow down. In April, China’s aluminum production rose by 6% and reached a new high in April, which challenged the government’s control of this year's production policy, in part because of strong demand from aluminum producers. However, this situation will change, not only because of power cuts, but also because the demand in major areas is also declining. According to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, China’s auto industry’s production and sales in April all decreased, which was the first decline in 27 months. Production and sales volume dropped by 15.98% and 15.12%, respectively, to 1.53 million vehicles and 1.55 million vehicles, representing a year-on-year decrease of 1.85% and 0.25%, respectively. Property sales rose only 6.3% year-on-year in the first four months, but has slowed since 14.9% in the first quarter. At the same time, according to customs data, China exported 6,201 tons of raw aluminum in April, an increase of 39.5% from March, but it decreased by 87.2% year-on-year. In the same month, 233,109 tons of aluminum slag was also imported, which rose by 21.6% on a monthly basis, but fell by 7.9% annually.