China's aluminum imports in December last year increased by 40.5% compared with the previous month, ending a three-month decline and bringing the annual import volume to a record level in 2020, according to customs data released on Monday.
As the world's largest aluminum producer, China usually does not need to import from overseas. However, due to the rapid recovery of demand from the epidemic, the aluminum price in Shanghai is higher than that in London, which provides arbitrage opportunities.
According to customs data, the arbitrage window was closed in the fourth quarter, but imports of unwrought aluminum and aluminum products in December were 265569 tons, still the highest since September.
This was higher than 188973 tons in November and 147.3 tons in the same period last year.
The annual import volume in 2020 will be 2.7 million tons, which is 318.7% higher than that in 2019.
With China becoming a net importer in July and August (for the first time in more than a decade), imports of raw and unwrought aluminum alloys in the first 11 months of 2020 exceeded the previous annual record set in 2009.
According to the customs data released on January 14, the export volume of unwrought aluminum and aluminum products in 2020 dropped to 4.86 million tons, the lowest annual export volume since 2017.
