China’s Henan Shenhuo Group expecting to start the second phase of its Yunnan project in Q1 2021

China’s Henan Shenhuo Group is expected to start production at the second phase of its 900,000 tonnes per year aluminium project by the first quarter of CY2021, said an official familiar with the matter.

The second phase of the project, located in Wenshan prefecture in Yunnan province, will be having a capacity of 450,000 tonnes per annum, said Li Zhongyuan, general manager of listed unit Henan Shenhuo Coal & Power, on the sidelines of an industry conference.

"The second phase of the project in Wenshan should be put into production in the first quarter of next year," Li told Reuters at the China International Aluminium Week organised by Antaike in the southwestern city of Chongqing.

With the abundant resources of hydropower, Wenshan has emerged as a major centre of China’s aluminium industry. Yunnan Aluminium, a unit of the biggest state-owned aluminium firm Chinalco, also recently planned to raise up to RMB 3 billion to fund its Wenshan aluminium project.

The second phase of Shenhuo project was initially expected to start this year.

Last year, the company moved 450,000 tonnes of annual aluminium smelting capacity from Henan to Yunnan for the first phase of its planned 900,000 tonnes-per-year project.