China’s aluminium output climbed to a second straight monthly record in August at 3.51 million tonnes, up 9.6% from the same month a year earlier, as new production capacity came on line, more than offsetting curbs on power use in some areas.

August’s production rose 2.3% from 3.43 million tonnes in the prior month, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Friday, extending recent robust growth compared with last year when some key smelting hubs grappled with restrictions on metal production as well as power usage.

In the first eight months of the year, China produced 26.47 million tonnes aluminium, a rise of 2.1 % from the same period last year, the data showed.

Output from regions like Guizhou and Inner Mongolia has risen with newly added capacity, enough to more than offset production headwinds in other regions that implemented power rationing in factories following tight electricity supply.

In one example the southwestern Sichuan province ordered industrial users to shut down their production from Aug. 15 until Aug. 25 to prioritise residential power supply amid its worst heatwave in 60 years. Local aluminium producers including Henan Zhongfu Industrial reported production disruptions as a result.

Outside China, soaring energy prices have triggered a growing number of producers in Europe to shut down or lower their production of the energy-intensive metal.

Supply worries have buoyed aluminium prices from a 15-month low in mid-July. However, the impact has been dented by global recession fears amid aggressive interest rate rises in the United States and elsewhere.

The three-month aluminium contract on the London Metal Exchange closed at $2,359 a tonne on the last trading session in August, up 1% from $2,336.50 a tonne on July 14, while 17% lower than the beginning of this year.

Production of 10 nonferrous metals – including copper, aluminium, lead, zinc and nickel – rose 6.7 % to 5.74 million tonnes from a year earlier, the highest since January 2021.

Year-to-date output was up 1.9 % at 44.0 million tonnes. The other non-ferrous metals are tin, antimony, mercury, magnesium and titanium. Source: Reuters (Siyi Liu and Dominique Patton; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)