China turns to India, Australia to fill gap for bauxite

China’s imports of bauxite from India and Australia increased in May as buyers in the biggest consumer of commodities sought to fill the gap caused by Indonesia’s ban on shipments. Bauxite shipments from Australia rose 21 percent from April to 1.24 million tons.

Indonesia accounted for more than 10 percent of global bauxite supplies before imposing its ban earlier this year to foster a local refining industry, analysts at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. estimate. The Southeast Asia nation was also the biggest source of ore used by China to produce nickel pig iron, a lower grade alternative to refined metal used to make stainless steel.

“More Chinese smelters are replacing Indonesian ores with material from the Philippines,” said Chen Ruikan, an analyst at SMM Information & Technology Co. in Shanghai. Indian bauxite is also emerging as a substitute for Indonesian shipments and Australia is also increasing cargoes, according to Ye Yonggang, an analyst with Jinrui Futures Co. in Shenzhen.

China’s bauxite shipments in May were 44,968 tons, down 91 percent from April according to customs data.

Indonesia is poised to maintain export restrictions on raw ores as Joko Widodo and Prabowo Subianto, both candidates in the nation’s July election, support the policy.

Copyright and Exemption Declaration :¢ÙAll articles, pictures and videos that are marked with "China Aluminum Network" on this website are copyright and belong to China Aluminium Network (www.alu.com.cn). When transshipment, any media, website or individual must list the source from "China Aluminium Network (www.alu.com.cn)". We seek legal actions against anyone that disobey this. ¢ÚArticles that marked as copy from others are for transferring more information to readers, do not represent or endorse their opinions or accuracy and reliability. When other media, website or individuals copy from our website, must keep the source. Anyone that changes the articles' sources will hold the responsibilities for copyright and law problems. We also seek legal actions against anyone that disobey this. ¢ÛIf any articles copied by our website concern the copyright and other problems, please contact us within one week.