China's ex-works Henan spot alumina price closed the week Friday at Yuan 2,470/mt ($401/mt) for 70:30 cash and credit payment terms, unchanged from Thursday and a week ago.
Sentiment stayed strong for the near term, and alumina prices were likely to edge higher on the back of anticipated seasonal restocking demand in the fourth quarter ahead of winter, as well as relatively stable domestic aluminum prices recently, sources said.
Rising imported alumina prices, and falling imported bauxite reserves that were stockpiled earlier ahead of the Indonesian export ban, would also add support to alumina, they said. The Ebola virus outbreak in Guinea this week was likely to affect exports, including bauxite, but the impact on China's bauxite and alumina market would be minimal, as Guinea bauxite makes up a small percentage of China's overall bauxite imports, Chinese importing refiners said.
"There are many other countries we can still buy from, such as Australia, India, Brazil and Malaysia," one Shandong refiner said.
To date in January-May 2014, China has imported 19.7 million mt of bauxite, of which 184,879 mt were of Guinea origin. In 2013, China imported 71.6 million mt of bauxite, of which 831,108 mt came from Guinea.
Meanwhile, spot alumina offers ex-works Shanxi were also stable Friday at Yuan 2,420-2,440/mt cash, with prices down south in Guangxi rangebound at around Yuan 2,300/mt.
On Friday, the front month August aluminum contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed at Yuan 13,995 mt Friday, down from Yuan 14,000/mt last week but up from Yuan 13,610/mt a month ago.
