According to foreign news on February 20, the World Bureau of Metal Statistics (WBMS) released a report on Wednesday showing that the global primary aluminum market was short of 859,000 tons in 2018. The market supply shortage in 2017 was 1.209 million tons. In 2018, China's primary aluminum demand was 6,052.4 tons, an increase of 685,000 tons over the previous year. In 2018, the output of primary aluminum increased by 1.036 million tons year-on-year.

Manufacturers’ inventory data will no longer be released in the future. The total inventory reported in December increased by 186,000 tons, an increase of 58,000 tons from December 2017. In December, LME stocks increased by 225,000 tons, due to an increase of 185,000 tons in Malaysian stocks and an increase of 45,000 tons in other Asian registered warehouses.

As of the end of December, the total aluminum inventory was 2.404 million tons, and it was 2.346 million tons at the end of 2017.

As of the end of December 2018, the total inventory of the four major exchanges in London, Shanghai, the United States and Tokyo was 1.951 million tons, an increase of 9 million tons from the end of December 2017.

In 2018, global primary aluminum production increased by 1.8% year-on-year. China's primary aluminum output is estimated at 33.586 million tons, accounting for 56% of the world's total output. China's apparent demand for primary aluminum in 2018 increased by 4.4% year-on-year. China's net export of unforged aluminum in 2018 was 363,000 tons, down from 365,000 tons in the previous year. China's net export of semi-finished aluminum products was 4.681 million tons in 2018, up from 3.847 million tons in the previous year. The production of primary aluminum in the 28 EU countries decreased by 0.5% from the same period last year, and the output of the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) fell by 3.4%. The demand for primary aluminum in the 28 EU countries increased by 360,000 tons compared with 2017. In 2018, the global demand for primary aluminum was generally flat. In December 2018, global primary aluminum production was 5,242,100 tons, while consumption in the same period was 5,191,700 tons.