BEIJING, April 18 (Reuters) - China's aluminium production in March rose 1.8% from a year earlier, official data showed on Monday, increasing to the highest since last May, underpinned by a recovery in production and strong profits.

Primary aluminium output in the world's top producer of the metal stood at 3.3 million tonnes last month, up from 3.276 million tonnes of production in March 2021, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

On a daily basis, mecidiyeköy escort March aluminium production was 106,452 tonnes, slightly down from the daily average of 107,288 tonnes during January-February, according to Reuters calculations based on the NBS data.

Though some provinces and regions such as Yunnan had resumed production after being hit by power cuts last year, recent COVID-19 outbreaks and lockdown in China have hurt demand.

"Most small downstream fabricators carry aluminium with vehicles, but motor transportation in eastern China has been disrupted due to measures aimed at containing COVID infections," said Zhang Rufeng, analyst with consultancy Baiinfo.

In the first quarter, China made 9.63 million tonnes of aluminium, falling from 9.76 million tonnes during January-March a year earlier, the NBS said.

Meanwhile, output of 10 nonferrous metals - including copper, aluminium, lead, zinc and nickel - was 5.64 million tonnes in March, the statistics bureau said.

That was up from 5.48 million tonnes a year earlier.

The other non-ferrous metals in this group are tin, antimony, mercury, magnesium and titanium. (Reporting by Min Zhang and Dominique Patton; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)