Focus on China

摘要

Since the biginning of the year, the Chinese central government has moderately tightened monetary policy by raising the bank deposit reserve ratio three times and by taking other measures. In particular, China started to control rising house prices from the middle of April, leading to worries about aluminium consumpion in the building and construction sector, the largest end-use sector of aluminium in China. At the same time, the Greek debt crisis triggered another round of aluminium selling. Therefore, base metals have come under pressure and aluminium prices have dropped by 16% since mid-April. In this issue of Focus on China, we will highlight changes in aluminium smelting costs after the recent falls in aluminium prices.