Shandong Weiqiao to move 2.03 MT aluminium capacity from Shandong to hydro power rich Yunnan

A report from Shanghai Metals Market said that Shandong Weiqiao Aluminium and Electricity, a subsidiary of China Hongqiao Group, would move 2.03 million tonnes of capacity from Binzhou of east China’s Shandong province to south China’s Yunnan. The news was confirmed from an official notice on Weiqiao’s capacity swap by Shandong’s department of industry and information technology on Thursday, November 28.

A number of Chinese aluminium producers, including Aluminum Corp of China and Henan Shenhuo, have been focusing on Yunnan, because of the easy access to cleaner hydropower for the energy-intensive smelting process, for which Chinese aluminium producers use coal powered electricity.

An earlier news report said China Hongqiao Group was planning to set up a “green aluminium” industrial park in Southwest China’s Yunnan capitalizing on its hydropower resources.

Construction of the plant in Yunnan has already started, and the first 1 million tonne of capacity is expected to come online at the end of 2020. Once the capacity transfer is done, the facilities in Binzhou will be completely demolished.

China Hongqiao or Weiqiao has about 6.46 million tonnes of capacity, with around 5.8 million tonnes in operation.