China's aluminium imports rise 20% in July amid low stocks

BEIJING, Aug 18 (Reuters) - China's aluminium imports jumped 20.1% in July from a year earlier, customs data showed on Friday, due to low stocks and expectations for stronger demand in the autumn season.

China, which is the world's biggest consumer of aluminium and also the biggest producer, imported 231,452 metric tons of unwrought aluminium and products including primary metal and unwrought, alloyed aluminium last month, according to data from the General Administration of Customs.

That marked a 9.6% increase compared with June imports of 211,235 metric tons.

The rise in imports came amid tight stocks of the light metal.

Aluminium stocks on the Shanghai Futures Exchange hovered just above 100,000 tons last month, the lowest level since December and just a third of a March peak AL-STX-SGH.

Investors were also expecting more stimulus by Beijing to boost economic growth, lending additional support to industrial metals.

Demand from traditional consumers of the metal, including the transport, construction and packaging sectors was weak due to a summer lull and a sluggish economy.

Imports for the first seven months were at 1.43 million tons, up 12.2% from the same period in 2022.

Market participants attributed the increase to a surge in Russian inflows as Western buyers shied away from purchasing Russian aluminium.

China imported 414,243 tons of primary aluminium from Russia in the first half this year, up 177.1% from the same period last year, customs data showed.

That came against the backdrop of near-record high production of primary aluminium last month.

Bauxite imports in the first seven months of the year totalled 84.98 million metric tons, up 12.2% from a year earlier, the data showed.