Chinese demand for bauxite is reshaping the dry bulk market, with imports of the aluminium ore hitting record levels in 2025 and pushing large carriers further into the spotlight.
Between January and August, port discharges of bauxite in China reached 145.2m tonnes, up 26% on the same period last year, according to vessel tracking data from AXSMarine. The year-to-date tally represents an increase of 30m tonnes compared with 2024 and marks the strongest start ever for the trade.
Guinea remains the backbone of China’s supply, providing 137.5m tonnes so far this year and holding a 77% share. Australia followed with 30.5m tonnes, about 17%, while smaller contributions came from Guyana, Turkey, Sierra Leone and other exporters across West Africa, South America and Asia.
The long-haul nature of Guinean shipments has elevated bauxite’s weight in tonne-mile demand, Ursa Shipbrokers noted. The commodity’s share of global dry bulk tonne miles has climbed from just 2% in 2015 to 8.5% this year, underlining its growing importance to capesize employment.
China’s bauxite imports have surged nearly threefold in a decade, from 57.2m tonnes in 2015 to 170.8m tonnes in 2024. Despite short-lived disruptions in 2016 and during the pandemic in 2021, volumes have risen steadily in line with the country’s aluminium expansion.
“This expansion has been one of the most notable cargo growth stories for the dry bulk sector, underpinned by China’s vast aluminium smelting capacity and heavy reliance on imported bauxite,” analysts at Ursa said.
On the production side, China’s smelters delivered 3.8m tonnes of primary aluminium in August, matching the record monthly levels reached in May and July. Cumulative output for the first eight months of 2025 was 29.4m tonnes, up 2.3% year on year.
The International Aluminium Institute estimates China produced 43.4m tonnes of primary aluminium in 2024, more than fifteen times the level recorded in 2000. With electric vehicles and construction fuelling demand, the bauxite trade has become one of the most significant growth stories in dry bulk shipping.
