Alumina prices showed significant volatility in 2024. Since the beginning of the year, alumina prices have been affected globally by a number of factors, 

including the pandemic, supply chain issues, and changes in raw material prices. Here are the main movements of alumina prices in 2024:

January-march trend: From January to March 2024, the alumina market continued the rising pattern at the end of 2023. 

Due to the environmental protection policy and safety accidents of domestic ores, the supply of bauxite is tight, and some 

alumina enterprises in the north have low start-up load, and the national alumina operating capacity is about 79 million tons. 

The supply shortage caused the price increase to reach 217 yuan/ton, and the current basis spread expanded to 350 yuan/ton, 

and finally the futures returned to the spot price.

April-may trend: From April to May, the alumina market rose strongly. Domestic mine production is not as expected, 

some enterprises use imported ore to resume production, but the quality of finished products has problems, although 

the operating load has increased to 84 million tons, but the supply is still limited. At the same time, the spot large discount

 period of the current business entry arbitrage, Yunnan electrolytic aluminum enterprises in advance to resume production, 

overseas aluminum plant failure caused by supply reduction and price rise and other factors jointly promote the futures price

 to the highest of 4000 yuan/ton.

June to September trend: From June to September, the recovery of domestic cave mining and the production of new capacity

 made the operating capacity rise to 85-88 million tons, and the supply tension was eased. Yunnan electrolytic aluminum production 

has entered the stage of "high supply and high demand", and the market game is fierce. At this time, the spot spread widened again, 

but the spot price remained firm, pushing the futures price back up to the spot price again.

Trend since October: Since October, with the release of domestic favorable policies, electrolytic aluminum dry season unlimited electricity 

and other news led to the rise of alumina futures prices, breaking the 5,500 yuan/ton mark.

In summary, alumina prices experienced significant volatility in 2024, affected by a variety of factors, including domestic production resumption, 

imported ore quality, and domestic and foreign policy changes. The future trend of the alumina market will continue to be influenced by these factors