[ferro-alloys.com]China, the world’s top metals consumer, is looking to reboot industrial activity across the country, after the pandemic lockdown hit its economy hard.

But potential shortages of key metal-making raw materials create risks to production of everything from home appliances to electric vehicle batteries.

Nickel

Imports from Indonesia dwarfed China’s domestic output in 2019, but the Southeast Asian country has banned nickel ore exports and inventories at Chinese ports are at their lowest since June 2018, data from research house Antaike shows.

The Philippines’ top nickel ore producers, Nickel Asia Corp and Global Ferronickel, suspended mining and export operations to comply with coronavirus-containment measures.

Tight supply will force producers of stainless steel raw material nickel pig iron (NPI) in China to “consider cutting output,” says Antaike chief nickel analyst Xu Aidong.

Benchmark nickel on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was at $12,085 per tonne on Tuesday.

Bauxite

Bauxite imports accounted for around 40% of China’s 2019 production of alumina, used to make aluminum, estimates CRU analyst Wan Ling. The aluminum price was $1,483.50 per metric tonne on Wednesday afternoon.

Top supplier Guinea has seen no disruption so far and Australian spot bauxite prices remain low.

“There have been some confirmed cases in the bauxite mines in Guinea and there could be more,” Wan says.

“We need to see what the government will do in terms of controlling the coronavirus.”

(Mining.com)

• [Editor:王可]