Guinea is steadily increasing its bauxite shipments, and there are indications of further volume increases.
Despite upheavals from the accident in December and the occasional public unrest, volumes of bauxite exports have grown so far this year and look set to continue growing. Simply put, the miners, shippers and traders (usually those 3 are the same company) are responding to increasing demand. The challenge is to get the material out of the ground and onto a vessel before the rainy season starts in a few months.
Amongst the miners, SMB shipments continued to be high, with a total of approximately 11 million tonnes shipped as of mid-March, and shipments reached a single-week high of 1.45 million tonnes at the end of February. This was followed by Shunda Mining and Chinalco Boffa, which shipped approximately 3.92 million and 3.386 million tonnes, respectively. All mines shipped goods stably in March, with Guinea shipping a total of nearly 6 million tons in mid-to-early March.
Demand is increasing from China because of the re-opening of smelters in Yunnan province, combined with ongoing restrictions and limitations at domestic mines in China's north.
We expect shipments from Guinea to hit record levels in the coming weeks.
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