Increased supply of bauxite from Indonesia is likely to prevent any price rally and could even weaken prices in 2018 after Jakarta relaxed its export ban on the raw material last year, market participants said.
Indonesian bauxite is attractive to Chinese alumina refineries because of very competitive pricing due to its low-cost production and cheap freight costs to China, they added."With renewed supply from Indonesia, Chinese consumers have a stronger hand in price negotiations," a bauxite consumer in northern China said.Indonesia exported 1.3 million tonnes of bauxite to China during the second half of 2017, according to official...