Number of aluminium smelters in Henan declines but China's total operational capacity keeps growing

Henan, one of the top three aluminium producing provinces of China, reported a fall in the number of aluminium smelters as industry concentration grew significantly.  The number of smelters in the province has dropped from a whopping 21 in 2005 to only 7 at present. These 7 aluminium smelters, however, takes up 90 per cent of Henan's total aluminium capacity.

As per a recent survey by the Shanghai Metals Market, Henan, at present, has an alumina capacity of 12 million tonnes and aluminium processing capacity of 9.8 million tonnes. The province has to procure over 1.5 million tonnes of aluminium from outside each year to meet the raw material demand of local aluminium processors.



Meanwhile, aluminium capacity in other parts of China has been reported to be growing and the trend will continue through September, SMM learnt. A number of new smelters are coming on stream while the closed ones are restarting operations. There will be around 300,000 tonnes of additional increase in operational capacity of aluminium this month, which will take the country’s total aluminium output to 2.67 million tonnes, SMM analyst said.

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In August, China’s aluminium output surged 4.9 per cent year-on-year to reach 2.73 million tonnes, with annualized new capacity up 650,000 tonnes to 32.17 million tonnes.

Aluminium majors like Shandong Xinfa Group and Shandong Weiqiao Group added to their existing capacity, while other smelters, such as Shanxi Zhaofeng Aluminum and Gansu Liancheng Aluminum restarted their idled capacities.  

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