MARKETS-MINERALS-ALUMINIUM = 2

Dec 11 - China produced 11,732,000 tonnes of primary aluminium in the first 11 months of 2009, down 1.7 percent from the same period a year earlier, figures from the National Bureau of Statistics showed. Production of alumina rose by 1.6 percent over the same period to reach 21,387,200 tonnes. [ID:nAPI000621] Dec 8 - Germany's biggest aluminium smelter plant, owned by Norway's Norsk Hydro , is facing immediate shutdown due to high environmental costs, a German daily said. The Rheinwerk plant in Neuss will have to close immediately if the metal industries do not receive aid in the coming days, Die Welt newspaper cited Martin Kneer, managing director of the German Metal Federation WVM, as saying in an e-mail to the German Chancellor's Office. A spokesman for WVM told the newspaper other aluminium and zinc smelters are facing the same risk of being shut down. [ID:nGEE5B71UG] Dec 7 - Some mineworkers have left Guinea in response to growing tension in the West African country, but production at major minerals operations has not been affected, resources companies said. A failed attempt to assassinate military ruler Captain Moussa Dadis Camara last week ignited fears of more turmoil in the world's top exporter of aluminium raw material bauxite, where firms including RUSAL, Alcoa , Rio Tinto and AngloGold Ashanti operate. [ID:nGEE5B60T1] Dec 4 - Brazil's Votorantim Group has signed a deal to join Trinidad and Tobago's government-owned Alutrint in a project to build a 125,000 tonnes-per-year aluminium smelter in the Caribbean nation, a Votorantim official said. The Brazilian industrial conglomerate replaces Venezuela-based aluminium producer Sural, which had a 40 percent stake in the Trinidad project but withdrew due to financing problems earlier this year. Trinidad and Tobago's government has a 60 percent stake in the smelter project. [ID:nN04172840] Dec 2 - Two-thirds of Europe's primary aluminium smelters might shut in the near future, because they are struggling with high costs, the European Aluminium Association said. Next week's climate change talks in Copenhagen could be a first step towards a long term solution, but they will not address the present critical situation of most of the region's aluminium industry, the secretary-general of the European Aluminium Association . [ID:nGEE5B011D] PRICES Aluminium prices ended December at $2,245 a tonne, up from $2,065 a month earlier and $1,540 at the end of 2008. Three months trended higher in the first half of last month, reaching the month's high of $2,305 a tonne on Dec. 14. Prices eased off after that and held to a narrower range in the remainder of the month. But the market surged in early January on worries that power shortages in top producer China would affect smelter output and three-months reached. On Jan. 6, aluminium reached $2,394 a tonne, its highest since early October 2008. STOCKS Total exchange stocks were 4,921,934 tonnes at the end of December, equating to around 45 days of demand. At the end of November they totalled 4,870,116 tonnes. Most of this is accounted for by LME inventories, which stood at 4,624,425 tonnes at the end of December, compared with 4,599,700 tonnes a month earlier. Total visible stocks, including latest International Aluminium Institute unwrought stocks were 6.060 million tonnes, up from 6.007 million tonnes. Estimated aluminium stocks at the Japanese ports of Yokohama, Nagoya and Osaka totalled 180,500 tonnes at the end of November, up 5.4 percent from October, trading house Marubeni Corp <8002.T> said. Stocks had fallen to 169,600 tonnes at the end of September, the lowest since Marubeni began taking records about 14 years ago. Japan's demand for aluminium, widely used in packaging and transportation, plunged after the economic crisis, as large manufacturers cut production. Demand has returned to about 80 percent of the previous year's level but industry officials are worried that the pace of the recovery will slow down next year after the impact from initial government stimulus measures have had their affect. Moreover, demand from the construction sector, a major consumer, remains in a slump. [ID:nTOE5B8091] For a graphic on LME aluminium stocks and three months prices click on: http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/0110/LME_ALI0110.gif (3000 Xtra users can access Reuters Metal Production Database by clicking on http://bond.views.session.rservices.com/Metals/ MPD details historical and predicted output and capacity for bauxite, copper, lead, zinc and gold mines, alumina refineries, aluminium, copper, lead and nickel smelters and copper, zinc, lead and nickel refineries between 1997 and 2013.)