Most market participants expect the China domestic alumina price to fall further as more imported cargoes arrive in an already oversupplied market, delegates at the aluminium conference held in Qingdao on November 13-15 told Fastmarkets.
Sources estimated the average monthly surplus on domestic alumina would reach 200,000 tonnes in second half of the year."Roughly, I would say, the surplus each month now in the domestic market would be 200,000 tonnes, and we still have many cargoes imported from the seaborne market," an alumina trader in the northern region of China said.China was set to import around 200,000 tonnes alumina from the seaborne market in October, compared with 180,000 tonnes in September, due to an arbitrage window that opened in late September, sources told Fastmarkets before the conference.The opened arbitrage window allowed consumers to save almost 50-70 yuan ($7-10) per tonne on imported cargoes compared with domestic material, according to...