THE country’s exports of alumina last month were roughly equal to September’s bumper volumes, the president of Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd., said yesterday.

“I estimate that October was more or less the same as September,” Lu Dongliang said on the sidelines of a signing ceremony at the China International Import Expo in Shanghai. The company, also known as Chalco, is one of the world’s biggest alumina producers.

China this year has been exporting unusually high volumes of alumina, a substance used to make aluminum, amid supply constraints caused by a now-concluded strike at Alcoa’s operations in Western Australia.

In northern China, producers of aluminium and alumina are just over one week away from winter output restrictions that take effect with the start of the heating season Nov. 15.

There is no blanket requirement for 30-percent output cuts this year but Lu cautioned that the environmental protection measures “have not decreased compared to last year.”

Chalco cut back alumina output last winter, but it did not have to lower aluminum production because its aluminum plants are not in cities targeted for the reductions.

Lu declined to say if Chalco’s smelters were losing money at current Chinese aluminum prices, which are languishing near two-year lows.

At the same event, Glencore signed a deal to supply copper concentrate to Yunnan Copper Co., a unit of Chalco parent Chinalco.(SD-Agencies)