Chalco ups alumina prices, aluminium restarts help

Aluminum Corp of China Ltd raised alumina prices by 4.5 percent from Wednesday as spot prices have risen 15 percent over the past week in China, the world's top user of alumina, used for aluminium production.

A rise in Chinese prices could increase China's alumina imports and push up international prices, smelter officials said.

Chalco <2600.HK><601600.SS>, the world's third-largest alumina producer, is offering spot alumina at 2,300 yuan per tonne on Wednesday versus 2,200 yuan on Tuesday, marking the firm's second hike this year, according to its website. Chalco increased prices by 10 percent in mid-January.

Other Chinese alumina refineries were offering spot alumina at 2,200-2,300 yuan per tonne, up from 1,950 yuan last week, according to aluminium smelter officials.

"Alumina prices are rising because some smelters are restarting idle capacity and aluminium prices have risen," said an executive at a large smelter in Inner Mongolia, who expects the price to rise to 2,400 yuan next month.

The hike may signal a turnaround of alumina prices from the weak performance in the last quarter.

Chalco cut spot alumina prices 23 percent at the start of 2009 due to production cuts at Chinese aluminium smelters, which face weak demand after the global economic slowdown cut consumption in the last quarter.

But Chinese spot aluminium prices have risen more than 20 percent this year to about 14,050 yuan per tonne on Wednesday after the State Reserves Bureau and power grids had bought nearly 1 million tonnes from the domestic market since December.

Strong aluminium prices are spurring some smelters to reopen idle and new capacity, boosting demand for alumina, smelter officials said.

More than 700,000 tonnes, or 10 percent, of the country's idle aluminium capacity is in the process of restarting. Two tonnes of alumina are need for one tonne of aluminium production. [ID:nHKG349996]

Increased aluminium prices are also increasing smelters' cash flow, spurring them to build alumina stocks, a trade manager at a large smelter said.

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