China imports large amounts of bauxite and is highly dependent on foreign countries. For a long time, China has supported the world's most intensive bauxite mining with its relatively low bauxite resource security capacity. However, there is a large gap in domestic demand for bauxite resources, which relies heavily on imported resources. China is the country with the largest bauxite trade volume in the world, and its import volume accounts for about three-quarters of the world. As China's alumina production capacity continues to expand, the amount of imported bauxite resources has also increased significantly.
China's bauxite importing countries are highly concentrated. A total of 125.47 million tons of bauxite will be imported in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 16.8%, a record high. Among them, 70.26 million tons of bauxite were imported from Guinea, 34.09 million tons were imported from Australia, and 18.94 million tons were imported from Indonesia. The three together accounted for more than 98%. The Indonesian government has implemented a bauxite export ban, and China has stopped importing Indonesian bauxite after the first quarter of 2023. The proportion of bauxite imported from Guinea will further increase.