China's copper production in November increased month-on-month, and aluminum production fell

According to news from Hong Kong on December 13, the National Bureau of Statistics of China released data on Monday that China’s refined copper production in November was 443,000 tons, a 10.8% increase from the previous month, due to the increase in supply of copper concentrate and the high price of copper.

China is the world's largest copper producer.

In October, China produced 43,000 tons of refined copper.

An analyst at Jiangxi Copper stated that “the main reason for the increase in copper production in November was the increase in copper concentrate supply since late October.”

The analyst said, "China's imports of spot copper concentrate processing and refining costs have risen, making the smelter's profitability increased."

The analyst also said that the supply of scrap copper in China is also increasing due to strong copper prices.

Smelters usually use copper concentrate or scrap copper as raw materials to produce refined copper.

China is also the largest producer and consumer of primary aluminum in the world.

China’s primary aluminum production in November was 1,178,000 tons, which was a 2.5% decrease from October and a 14.1% decrease from the same period of last year.

In October, aluminum production in China increased for the first time in five months, but it decreased again in November because smelters still do not have sufficient power supply and idle capacity is still closed.

According to the above analysts, the low-cost new aluminum smelter capacity project was put into production and temporarily increased aluminum production in October.

Aluminum smelters in some provinces in China have already shut down some of their production capacity in the second half of this year, as local governments have restricted the supply of electricity to high-energy-consuming aluminum smelters in order to meet energy-saving emission reduction targets by the end of the year.

However, in November, large aluminum smelters in Henan and Guizhou provinces have been able to obtain more power supplies, and some of their idle capacity has also slowly restarted.