BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s aluminium production rose 7.5% to 6.74 million tonnes in January-February from a year earlier, the highest output for the two months since at least 2015, data showed on Wednesday.
The primary aluminium output in China, the world’s largest aluminium producer, compared with 6.33 million tonnes in the first two months of 2022, data from National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed.
New production capacity came on line in January and February in northwest Gansu province, and smelters in the southwestern region including Guizhou, Guangxi and Sichuan ramped up their production.
The rise in output came despite southwestern Yunnan province asking its local aluminium producers to further reduce their power use in February because of a power supply crunch.
Production of 10 nonferrous metals – including copper, aluminium, lead, zinc and nickel – rose 9.8 % to 11.92 million tonnes in January and February combined, compared with a year earlier. The other non-ferrous metals are tin, antimony, mercury, magnesium and titanium.
The total nonferrous metal output was also the highest for a January and February period since at least 2015, the data showed.
(Reporting by Siyi Liu and Dominique Patton: Editing by Neil Fullick)
