China's Output of 10 Major Nonferrous Metals up 6.1% in January-February, But Growth Rate Slows

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources China (Beijing, China)--China's aluminum ingot output reached 3.77 million metric tons for January through February, an increase of 7.2% from the same period last year. The growth rate in the same period of last year was 15.0%.

Copper output was up 6.7% for the first two months of the year. The growth rate was 5.2 percentage points lower than the same period of last year.

Lead output was up 6.6% from January-February 2013, but the growth rate was 4.5 percentage points lower. Zinc output rose by 1.1%, but the growth rate slowed by 0.6 percentage points. Alumina was up 8.1%, but the growth rate was 6.9 percentage points lower than the same period of last year.

On a regional basis, the output of 10 major nonferrous metals in Ningxia reached 0.254-million metric tons in January-February, a drop of 1.58% from January-February of 2013. Output in Qinghai reached 0.420-million metric tons, a jump of 10.85%. Output in Gansu reached 0.531-million metric tons, an increase of 0.78%. Shaanxi reached 0.321-million metric tons, a jump of 35.83%.

Prices for copper, lead and zinc were slightly higher than in December, while the price for aluminum ingots fell. In February, the average prices of copper, lead and zinc, traded on the Shanghai Future Exchange, were $8,273.39, $2,258.39 and $2,436.13 per metric ton, respectively, which were 1.1%, 0.7% and 1.6% higher than the price in December last year, or 11.9%, 7.4% and 1.7% lower than February 2013. The price of aluminum ingots was $2,171.62 per metric ton, which was 5.6% lower than the price in December last year, and 10.2% than February 2013.

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