Reuters reported that China's refined copper production rose 4.9% in August reversing a fall the previous month, as some smelters likely stepped up operations ahead of seasonal demand hike in September and October. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that China, the world's top producer and consumer of refined copper and primary aluminium, produced 560,515 tonnes of refined copper in August, the third highest this year. The output was 11.2% up from August 2012. Mr Yang Xiaoguang analyst at Jinrui Futures, a subsidiary of top producer Jiangxi Copper Corporation said that "The August output was higher than we had expected. Some smelters may have increased production as they expect more demand around September and October." Mr Yang said that Seasonal demand had risen in September to November in previous years. This year, some end users were buying refined copper to build stocks as they expected orders to rise. China's primary aluminium production rose 1.3% from the previous month, hitting a record 1.863 million tonnes in August 2013. The output increased 5.2% from August 2012. Mr Yang said that new capacity in northwestern regions such as Xinjiang had helped push up aluminium production. The bulk of existing operating capacity was still running, thought some were making losses due to low prices. Spot aluminium prices AL-A00-CCNMM in China have fallen near 5% so far this year to CNY 14,340 because of oversupply problem in the industry. China produced 14.349 million tonnes of primary aluminium in the first eight months of the year up 8.2% from the same months in 2012.

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