UPDATE 1-China Oct aluminium production falls for third month ahead of winter
(Adds details, quotes, base metals output)
BEIJING, Nov 14 (Reuters) - China's primary aluminium outputfell for a third straight month in October, according toofficial data released on Wednesday, as low aluminium pricesprompted smelters to cut production even beforegovernment-mandated winter restrictions kick in.
The world's top aluminium maker produced 2.72 million tonnesof the metal last month, according to data from the NationalBureau of Statistics. That was down 2.5 percent from 2.79 million tonnes inSeptember, although up 6.8 percent from the same month a yearago.
On a daily basis, China produced around 88,000 tonnes ofaluminium last month, versus 93,000 tonnes in September,according to Reuters calculations. September had one day fewerthan October.
That was the lowest so far this year on a daily basis,according to historical data.
China has opted not to enforce a repeat of blanket 30percent output curbs on aluminium and alumina output in 28northern cities this winter. The curbs were in place for thepeak winter heating season from Nov. 15-March 15 in 2018/19. This winter's cuts are to be decided by individual citiesbut it remains unclear how much major smelters will have to cut.
Market forces are, however, leading to cutbacks already, assmelter margins are squeezed.
Shanghai aluminium prices fell 2.1 percent inOctober, partly on expectations of more lenient curbs, and hit atwo-year low of 13,790 yuan ($1,983) a tonne on Nov. 6.
Jackie Wang, an aluminium analyst at CRU in Beijing,estimates 1.4 million tonnes of annual smelting capacity hasbeen shut because of the slump in prices.
Over the first 10 months of 2018, China produced 27.71million tonnes of aluminium, up 4.4 percent year-on-year andstill on course for an annual record high, the NBS data showed.
Meanwhile, output of 10 nonferrous metals - includingcopper, aluminium, lead, zinc and nickel - came in at 4.52million tonnes in October, down 0.9 percent from 4.56 milliontonnes in September and up 5.5 percent from 4.46 million tonnesin October 2017.
Output from this group in January-October was up 4.4 percentyear-on-year at 44.79 million tonnes. The other metals in thegroup are tin, antimony, mercury, magnesium and titanium.
(Reporting by Tom Daly; editing by Richard Pullin)
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