BEIJING, Jan 18 (Reuters) – China’s primary aluminium production rebounded in December after five months of decline despite winter output restrictions imposed on smelters, helping lift total 2017 output to record levels. The world’s top aluminium producer churned out 2.71 million tonnes of the metal last month, up 15.3 pct from 2.35 million tonnes in November to its highest level since June’s record output, although it was down 1.8 pct on a year ago, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). For the full year, China produced 32.27 million tonnes of aluminium, a rise of 1.6 percent from 2016, the data released on Thursday showed. Production cuts of as much as 30 percent on some Chinese aluminium smelters, which kicked in fully in mid-November, led November’s output to fall by 7.8 percent from October. But December output rose despite the restrictions, brought in as the government battles pollution. China’s overall non-ferrous metals output — including copper, aluminium, lead, zinc and nickel — came in at 4.72 million tonnes in December, up 9.3 percent from 4.32 million tonnes in November to the highest level since June and up 2.8 percent from a year earlier. Full-year nonferrous production stood at 53.78 million tonnes, up 3 percent from 2016, to set a new annual record high.
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