China’s General Administration of Customs (GAC) said the average price was $246.1/t, a decrease of 38.6%. Of that, 4.044Mt came from Australia, an annual increase of 28.6%, and 275kt was imported from India, down 52.2%.
GAC thought that local governments had increased their aluminium inventories in 2009, attributing to the increased imports. The Chinese Materials Story Bureau plans to buy 1Mt of aluminium as inventory in the next three years.
Because the price of electrolytic aluminium was too low in April 2009, some provincial governments, in order to help local companies survive, also bought aluminium for inventory to help increase demand for aluminium.
Source China Chemical Reporter, 21 January 2010