Government credit curbs continued to cut into demand for metals, alumninum included, producers said Bloomberg reported that the price of aluminium on the Shanghai Futures Exchange has fallen 7.7% so far this year. Higher costs for alumina have also cut into processors' margins. Aluminum Corp of China, which supplies almost half the country's raw material needs, raised its alumina price to RMB 4,300 a tonne in March, more than half again what alumina was priced at in May 2003 — when it was RMB 2,800.
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