The Australian alumina market was relatively stable Monday despite Alcoa paring down output at its Wagerup refinery in Western Australia since last Friday, after a bush fire.
Platts alumina daily assessment at $197/mt FOB Australia was unchanged from Friday, but has declined $2/mt on the week, and $7.50/mt in the last month.
Low priced Chinese supply and a weaker yuan have discouraged Chinese smelters from imports. At the same time, there has been no shortage of supply in Australia, China and India.
On Monday, bid-ask levels appeared range-bound at $195-$200/mt FOB Australia.
Outbound alumina shipments have not been disrupted at Western Australia's Bunbury and Kwinana ports, freight and charterer sources said Monday, despite a bush fire which has stalled operations at Alcoa's Willowdale bauxite mine and reduced output rates at the Wagerup alumina refinery.
Operations at the state's three other alumina refineries in Kwinana, Pinjarra and Worsley remain unaffected, Alcoa and South32 officials said Monday.
The Platts China spot alumina price ex-works Shanxi basis was rangebound Monday at Yuan 1,610/mt ($245) cash amid thin trade.
Despite an overall weak economic outlook, crashing stock markets and a falling yuan in the new year, domestic alumina prices have been holding steady on the back of slightly improved market sentiment due to stable domestic aluminum prices, sources said.
Talks of potential refinery cuts and anticipated smelter restocking demand ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays in February also added support.
"Refiners have been trying to push price up by raising offers in the past weeks, but they've only managed to keep prices from falling, so that means the market is still very weak fundamentally," a South China smelter source said.
"The talks of refinery cuts and shut downs, such as the latest news about Chalco's Shanxi plant, have mostly not been confirmed, so the impact has been marginal," a Henan refiner agreed, adding that it is not so easy to shut down when more than 10,000 workers' livelihoods are involved.
Local news reports in the past week said that Chalco is now mulling the complete shut down of its Shanxi refinery within the first quarter of 2016, which has a design alumina capacity of 2.5 million mt/year and employs around 10,000 workers.
Chalco officials could not be reached for comment Monday.
The front-month contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed at Yuan 11,030/mt on Monday, unchanged from last week, but up from Yuan 10,740/mt a month ago.
