China's aluminium output in April rose 0.8% compared with a year ago, data showed on Tuesday, with daily production picking up from the previous month thanks to some smelters' resuming operations.
China produced 3.33 million tonnes of aluminium last month, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, or an average of 111,000 tonnes per day, based on Reuters calculations.
That compares with March output of 3.37 million tonnes or an average of 108,710 tonnes daily.
Capacity of 255,000 tonnes per year resumed last month, mostly in the southwestern Guangxi and Guizhou regions, according to a survey by information provider Mysteel.
Year-on-year growth was slower than it was in March, with power curbs in the southwestern Yunnan province limiting production of the metal.
China's fourth-biggest aluminium-producing province, with about 12% of the country's total capacity, relies heavily on hydropower for power generation but has asked aluminium producers to
cut production since last September amid low rainfall and water levels.
So far, constrained supply has lent little support to prices, with demand for the metal used in construction and transportation hit by a slower-than-expected economic recovery in China and sluggish exports.
The most-traded aluminium contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange averaged 18,440 yuan ($2,667.79) a tonne last month, down from 18,750 yuan a tonne in March.
China's output of aluminium for the first four months of the year came to 13.3 million tonnes, up 3.9% from the same period in 2022, statistics bureau data showed.
May output is expected to rise slightly, CITIC Futures
said in a recent note, with summer rain in Yunnan replenishing
water levels in the province's dams and increasing hydropower
generation.
April production of 10 nonferrous metals - including copper, aluminium, lead, zinc and nickel - rose 6.1% from a year earlier to 6 million tonnes, according to the statistics bureau.
Output of the metals for the first four months was up 7.7% at 24.1 million tonnes, a record high.
The other nonferrous metals in the category are tin, antimony, mercury, magnesium and titanium.
($1 = 6.9121 yuan)
(Reporting by Siyi Liu, Ningwei Qin and Dominique Patton;
Editing by Kim Coghill and Gerry Doyle)
