According to numbers released by the International Aluminium Institute (IAI) yesterday, worldwide primary aluminium production rose by 2.5 percent year-on-year last month to 5.3 million metric tons. That total was down from the prior month by 3.4 percent however, when global smelters churned out 5.485 million metric tons, with daily aluminium production down slightly to 176,700 metric tons per diem.
Global production for the year through the end of September totaled 48.022 million metric tons, a year-on-year rise of 0.3 percent, or 47.86 million metric tons. This despite a rise in production from smelters in the People’s Republic of China, as the total for the first nine months of the year from Chinese producers fell by 0.7 percent year-on-year to 27.17 million metric tons.
September saw China’s primary aluminium production rise by 3.6 percent year on year, but the total fell by 3.5 percent from August’s total aluminium output.
Outside of China, Asian producers smelted a total of 364 thousand metric tons last month, up by 6.4 percent from last September but down by 3.4 percent from August.
Mideastern smelters saw a month-on-month drop by 3.3 percent in aluminium production in the month to 437 thousand metric tons, but the month’s total was still 8.2 percent above the smelted aluminium production from last year.
Europe’s aluminium smelters teamed up to produce 644 thousand metric tons last month, a bump of 0.8 percent from last year, but a 3-percent fall-off from August’s totals.
Despite a United States domestic market protected by the Trump administration’s aluminium tariffs, North America’s aluminium smelting total for the month totaled 310 thousand metric tons, off by 3.1 percent from August and down by 4.3 percent from last September.