2024 concludes in Shanghai Metals Market eventfully! Find out which aluminium pricing went which way...

Shanghai Metals Market (SMM), on the last day of the year, has been super active in the stance of base metal—aluminium pricing. From raw material to primary ingot to secondary ingot, such fluctuations in pricing have been a rare incident in recent times. During the winters, a lot of smelters have cut down production owing to environmental concerns. Thus, SMM's aluminium segment pricing list has had uncertainty for the last few days.

Alumina pricing

Alumina closed at an average of RMB 5,689 per tonne on Tuesday market, with a loss of RMB 14 from the previous day's pricing. After the lump sum rise in pricing, SMM witnessed a 0.6 per cent receding in prices M-o-M for alumina (prices on November 29, 2024, RMB 5,725 per tonne). However, the rise and fall of alumina pricing, as listed on SMM, has been significant in two regions of China — Lianyungang and Bayuquan. When alumina prices in these two port regions started rising, it was in the 50s, 100s and 200s. Now, as alumina climbs down the pricing ladder in the Chinese trading market, the jumps are also not less than 50s. On December 31, cost input in these two regions was RMB 5,950 per tonne after losing 50 bucks to the numbers of the previous day's closing session. Alumina pricing in Guizhou and Guangxi remained stagnant. Alumina's price downfall was consistent in the regions of Shandong, Henan and Shanxi where the prices were listed as RMB 5,715 per tonne (-20), RMB 5,650 per tonne (-20) and RMB 5,695 per tonne (-15), respectively.

Primary ingot pricing

A00 primary aluminium ingot, au contraire, is plumping on the pricing meter with regional as well as national averages and shows an addition of at least 40 to 50 bucks to the Monday pricing. As 2024 concludes, the average pricing of primary aluminium ingot closes at RMB 19,770 per tonne with a range of RMB 19,750-19,790 per tonne, which was RMB 70 higher than the previous average. The average price of A00 primary aluminium ingot dropped 2.8 per cent Y-o-Y when compared to the December 29, 2024 pricing. 

In the eight SMM-listed regions of China, pricing was amplified. The lowest inflation of RMB 40 per tonne was witnessed in the region of Tianjin, where the average price stood at RMB 19,770 per tonne, followed by Gongyi, where the price inflation was RMB 50 with an average price of alumina banking at RMB 19,660 per tonne. The hike range of Foshan and Shenyang succeeded, wherein alumina gained 60 bucks, and the average price finally clocked at RMB 19,970 per tonne and RMB 19,770 per tonne, respectively. Linyi and Hangzhou, two eastern provinces of the nation which are over 600 kilometres apart from each other, saw similar price gains on Tuesday market (+70). Prices in these two provinces nested at SMM as RMB 19,820 per tonne and RMB 19,790 per tonne.

Other pricing

Both high-purity aluminium ingot (99.99 and 99.996 per cent) variants gained RMB 100 on the last day of the calendar year and reached RMB 26,900 per tonne and 27,900 per tonne. On the same day, the low-carbon aluminium ingot gained 60 bucks as per the SMM listing and was priced at RMB 20,986 per tonne.