BEIJING, June 17 (Reuters) - China's primary aluminium production in May rose 7.2% to its highest level in almost a decade, helped by strong growth prospects for the solar and electric vehicle sector.
The world's biggest aluminium producer churned out 3.65 million metric tons of primary aluminium in May, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.
That's the most for a single month since at least November 2014, Reuters data show.
Market participants said signs that robust demand will continue have helped drive speculative buying of aluminium futures, which rose to about two-year highs last month.
The benchmark aluminium contract on the London Metal Exchange gained for a fourth consecutive month in May, hitting a level of $2,700 per tone late in the month, a level not seen since June 2022.
The most-traded aluminium contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange climbed to a high of more than two years to about 22,000 yuan ($3,032.43) per ton.
In the first five months of the year, China produced 17.89 million tonnes, a rise of 7.1% from the same period last year, the data showed.
Production of ten nonferrous metals - including copper, aluminium, lead, zinc and nickel – rose 7.4% to 6.61 million tonnes from a year earlier. Year-to-date output was up 6.9% at 32.42 million tonnes. The other non-ferrous metals are tin, antimony, mercury, magnesium and titanium. ($1 = 7.2549 Chinese yuan) (Reporting by Siyi Liu and Colleen Howe; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
