China's output of aluminum from recycling may jump 5.7 percent next year on increased demand from car makers, an executive from the country's largest maker of the metal from scrap forecast, Bloomberg News reported yesterday.

Output may rise to 2.96 million tons from an estimated 2.8 million tons this year, Li Hongwei, vice general manager at Shanghai Sigma Metals Inc, said at a conference. Production may reach 3.6 million tons by 2010, Li said.

China is the world's largest producer of aluminum, the lightweight metal used in car and plane parts. Passenger car sales rose 21 percent in October to 496,900 units, according to data released yesterday by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

Still, the growth in the nation's output of so-called secondary aluminum may be curbed as the "profit margin from recycling scrap has been slashed to below two percent due to low domestic prices of primary aluminum," Li said.

(Shanghai Daily November 13, 2007)