China Oct aluminium, steel exports fall to multi-month lows
BEIJING/MANILA, Nov 8 (Reuters) - China’s aluminium exports fell in October as sliding domestic production meant less metal was available for overseas markets, while steel exports also dropped, hitting their weakest since February amid stiffer competition in key market Southeast Asia.
China’s unwrought aluminium and aluminium product exports came in at 482,000 tonnes last month, the General Administration of Customs said on Thursday, down 3.6 percent from a revised figure of 500,000 tonnes in September but still up 37.7 percent from October 2017.
The October aluminium export volume, in a month that included a week-long holiday around China’s National Day, is the lowest since May, with shipments having reached at least 500,000 tonnes in the four months from June to September.
The United States in March imposed import tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminium, including from China, in one of the opening moves of an ongoing trade dispute between the world’s top two economies.
Several steel and aluminium products from China were hit with additional 25 percent tariffs by the United States in September.
