As of the end of September, in the past three months, the trade of European aluminum foil has been in a quiet period due to the continuous uncertainty of the global market and the continuous existence of trade disputes between China and the United States. According to the data released by EAFA, the total demand of aluminum foil in the third quarter dropped 2.2% to 228685 tons (2018: 233727 tons), while the data so far this year shows that the total output has hardly changed, which is 714251 tons.

The main reason for the economic downturn was a slowdown in demand for thinner specification aluminum foil (down 1.9% this year), which is mainly used for soft packaging and household foil. According to the figures, delivery of such products fell by 4.4% in the third quarter, continuing the slight decline in the first six months. The delivery of thicker specification aluminum foil increased by 2%, offsetting the decline of demand for thinner aluminum foil, which maintained the trend again compared with the previous two quarters. Thick aluminum foil is usually used for hard packaging, technical field or other purposes,

Due to continued global trade uncertainty, exports declined slightly by 0.8% from the previous quarter, but remained well above the figure at the beginning of 2018 (up 21.4%). At the same time, the overall demand for thick aluminum foil was strong, up 3.5% from the beginning of the year.

"It's extremely difficult to predict demand in the current market," said Bruno rea, President of EAFA "The demand for aluminium foil in Europe is generally weak throughout 2019 due to the increase in Chinese exports, but there are still some bright spots, especially thick specification aluminium foil and strong export deliveries," he added

"We are still positive because traditionally the last quarter of this year has been a good quarter for the industry and it is possible that customers will delay replenishing inventory for the upcoming holiday season until later this year." As new orders are almost the same as in 2018, which itself is a record for the industry, we believe that this is still a very resilient performance in the unpredictable future. "He explained. （From CCMN)