The world’s 3 largest aluminum product origins are Asia (Production volume: Asia accounts for 65%, China accounts for 85% of Asia, namely, China accounts for 55% of the global), North America (accounts for 15%) and Europe (accounts for 13%, mainly distributed in Germany and Italy).
China’s production volume of aluminum is approximately equal to the consumption. Analysis will focus on changes in China’s demand for aluminum in the future for the global growth of aluminum mainly happens in China. Aluminum is mainly applied in construction (32%), transportation (25%), electric power and electronic (18%), machinery & equipment (6%), durable goods (8%), packaging (8%), etc. The consumption structure did not change much in the past few years.
In recent years, aluminum used in construction has remained above 30% of China’s demand for aluminum. Presently, transportation is the second largest sector in aluminum consumption with the growth rate of aluminum consumption always above 10%, being the fastest growing field in downstream industries of aluminum. Aluminum consumption of vehicles can be classified into 4 parts: passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, exported vehicle parts and others. Passenger vehicles account for 60%, which is the main factor influencing aluminum consumption of vehicles. Aluminum is mainly used in wires and cables, transformer coils, induction motor rotors, busbars, etc. in electric power industry. In electronic industry, aluminum is mainly used in shells and internal brackets of 3C products and electronics and electrical appliances.
Reference:
Research Report of China’s Electrolytic Aluminum Industry, 2017-2021
The CAGR of China’s electrolytic aluminum output volume was 13.2% during 2006-2016 while that of other regions in the world declined slightly in the same period.
Research Report on Electrolytic Copper Industry in China, 2017-2021
With the profit margin of electrolytic copper smelting industry increasing and fixed asset investment encouraged by local governments, the production capacity of copper smelting expands quickly, which raise the degree of self-support of electrolytic copper.