China's demand for alumina will decline in 2006 and the price will fall, according to the latest analysis by the Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce.

Next year, China will likely import less than 7.15 million tons of alumina, a growth of 3.6 percent, or 250,000 tons more than that in 2005, the report predicts.

The increase will be 14.4 percentage points lower compared with the growth pace in 2004.

Customs statistics said in the first 10 months of this year, China imported 5.76 million tons of alumina, a rise of 18.33 percent from the same period last year.

It is expected that China will import a total of 6.9 million tons of alumina in 2005, up 18 percent from the previous year.

Source: Xinhua