China's national refined magnesium exports in 2017 are forecast to be around 400,000 mt, up 12% from realized export volume of 356,400 mt last year, the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association said in its sector report Tuesday.
CNIA said primary products such as magnesium ingot, magnesium alloy and magnesium powder currently accounted for the bulk of China's national magnesium exports, so urged the sector to produce more products with added value and change its export structure in the years to come.
China's national refined magnesium output in 2017 is expected to be 900,000 mt, up 16% from realized output of 775,000 mt, according to CNIA.
The association said that judging from the rising domestic magnesium output in the past few months, national volume and exports are expected to both grow this year.
China's national refined magnesium output rose 8% year on year to 649,700 mt in the first eight months of this year on greater output in the key production zones in Shaanxi province and Ningxia region in Northwest China, data from CNIA showed.
After volatile prices during the global financial crisis in 2008, which severely disrupted the industry, the CNIA said domestic magnesium prices had entered a maturity phase in 2017, with prices largely at reasonable levels for most of this year. However it noted that since July, domestic magnesium prices had started soaring again, hitting Yuan 18,500/mt ($2,775), their highest since 2012. CNIA said the sharp jump was due to rising raw material costs, including ferrosilicon and coal costs, environment protection control, and market speculation.
CNIA said reasonable price changes were normal, but local magnesium prices had been very volatile since July, moving in a range of Yuan 15,000-18,500/mt, which was not favorable to producers' operations and Chinese magnesium sector growth, foiling the industry's development.
It said the magnesium sector is China's strategic emerging industry, which is still at its early development phase, with market players in various sectors lacking knowledge, blocking the use of magnesium materials.
Looking ahead, CNIA is striving to boost magnesium applications, develop new smelting technology, and speed up the commercialization and industrialization of the domestic magnesium sector in 2018, to cut costs and boost smelters' competitiveness.
CNIA said though China's magnesium alloy sheet and strip can reach 2-2.2 m in width and 20 m in length, it is in chip form and not sheet roll. It said in the 2016-20 period, the Chinese magnesium sector should produce bigger, high precision, wide magnesium alloy sheet and strip as its better tensile, yield strength and elongation properties can help boost applications in the transport and military sectors.
China's national magnesium demand in 2020 is forecast to grow to 750,000 mt, up from 532,000 mt in 2015, due to the trend in the domestic transport sector for lighter-weight materials, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
Annual average domestic magnesium demand growth in the 13th Five Year Plan period (2016-20) is seen slowing to 7.1%, compared with 7.2% in the 12th Five Year Plan period (2011-2015), MIIT data showed.
China 's national magnesium output is forecast to grow to 1.3 million mt by 2020, up from 800,600 mt in 2015, the data showed.
