LONDON: April was another record month for Chinese aluminium production, the latest in a series stretching back over a decade that has seen China’s share of global output rise from 40percent to near 60percent.

It produced 3.2 million tonnes in April, 8percent higher year on year and equivalent to an annualised 39.2 million tonnes, according to the International Aluminium Institute (IAI).

China’s seemingly inexorable rise has long been the dominant theme of the aluminium market, both in terms of persistently low pricing and the proliferation of trade disputes as countries have pushed back against its exports of semi-manufactured products.

Those exports continue to flow, totalling 1.66 million tonnes in the first four months of this year.

But China is currently short of aluminium raw material with imports of both primary metal and alloy still running strong. The country’s flip to net importer last year initially looked like a COVID-19 recovery disconnect, similar to the one during the global financial crisis more than a decade ago when China last needed to tap international supplies.

But net Chinese imports are starting to look like the new normal as the global economy steadies from the depths of the coronavirus crisis. China’s dominance of the global supply chain has taken a whole new narrative twist.

China’s trade in unwrought aluminium alloy has undergone a structural transformation over the last year.

The country has historically been a net exporter of aluminium in this form, with outbound shipments averaging around 515,000 tonnes per year between 2015 and 2019.