London, May 16, according to a report released Wednesday by the World Bureau of Metal Statistics (WBMS), showed that the global primary aluminum market supply gap was 141,000 tons in January-March 2018, and the annual gap in 2017 was 1.13 million tons.

From January to March, the global demand for primary aluminum was 14.9 million tons, a decrease of 343,000 tons compared with the same period of last year.

From January to March, global primary aluminum output fell by 10,000 tons compared with the same period of last year.

WBMS no longer released producer inventory data. During the month of February, the total reported inventory increased by 272,000 tons, and in March it further increased by 85,000 tons. These increases include a net delivery of 258,000 tons to the London Metal Exchange (LME) Malaysian warehouse. At the end of March, total inventory was 2.719 million tons, and by the end of 2017 it was 2.346 million tons. At the end of March, the total stock held by the four exchanges in London, Shanghai, the United States and Tokyo was 2.312 million tons, an increase of 373,000 tons from the total amount in December 2017.

According to WBMSSi, overall global aluminum output in January-March 2018 fell by 0.1% over the same period last year. China’s production is estimated at 8.119 million tons, which currently accounts for about 55% of the world’s total output. China’s apparent consumption in January-March fell 1.5% from the same period last year. From January to March, China’s net exports were 103,000 tons, and in 2017, the total volume of unprocessed aluminum exports was 365,000 tons. From January to March, China’s net exports of aluminum semi-finished products rose to 1.043 million tons from 858 million tons during the same period last year.

From January to March, the output of 28 EU countries increased by 1.4% year-on-year, and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) output fell by 5.3%. Demand from 28 EU countries fell by 22,000 tons year-on-year.

From January to March, global primary aluminum demand decreased by 2.3% year-on-year.

March 2018. The output of primary aluminum was 5,133,400 tons and the consumption was 5,805,100 tons.