China’s thirst for Guinea bauxite at an all-time high

China’s thirst for Guinea bauxite at an all-time high

China has significantly increased its bauxite imports from Guinea.

In March 2025 bauxite shipments from Guinea to China reached 13-million tonnes, a surge of 47.7% from March 2024.

Guinea is now China’s single largest supplier of bauxite, with monthly data showing that Guinea often accounts for more than 75% of China’s bauxite imports.

The rest of China’s bauxite supplies are mostly imported from Australia and Indonesia.

Bauxite fuels China’s aluminium industry  

Bauxite plays a critical role in fuelling China’s domestic aluminium industry. The bauxite is processed at large refineries in China into alumina (aluminium oxide) using the Bayer process.

Most refineries are in industrial provinces like Shandong, Henan and Guangxi. The aluminium is used in construction, transportation, packaging, electronics and machinery.

Guinea’s ports play a critical role in the efficient export of large volumes of raw material and bauxite is primarily loaded in specialised bulk port in the Boké region, most notably Kamsar, Dapilon/Katougouma and Kokoya, where Chinese joint-venture companies operate loading terminals.

Covering the supply chain

China’s investment spans the entire supply chain, from investing in Guinea’s mines and railways, to port terminals and shipping fleets, to import terminals and refining plants in China.

China use mainly Capesize and Kamsarmax bulk carriers to shuttle the ore and it takes about 45 days to reach ports like Yantai in Shandong and Huanghua in Hebei.

Guinea has one of the largest bauxite reserves in the world and Chinese companies like Chalco, Henan International Mining and Winning Consortium Simandou have invested heavily in Guinea’s bauxite sector.

New record for exports

Last week Reuters reported that Guinea set a record for bauxite exports in Q1 2025, with 48.6 million metric tons of material shipped, the bulk of that to ports in China.

This is a 39% jump from the previous year and happened despite regulatory hurdles and the country’s export ban on key players in the sector.

As Guinea builds out port infrastructure to meet soaring demand, its role in fueling China’s aluminium industry is set to grow.

Image: Beneficiating raw material in full swing. Image credit: Olav Ahrens Rothe from Unsplash

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