The number of Chinese aluminium producers halved in a decade

The Henan Provincial Nonferrous Metals Guild said on Wednesday, that China’s total number of aluminium producers has nearly halved in decade falling from 120 to just 64.

The 64 producers are operating across 32 aluminium enterprises, spread over sixteen Chinese provinces while the rest have been “wiped out of the market”, the group said.

The Shandong provinces in the top producer with an annual output of 6.62 million mt, followed closely by the Xinjiang province with an output of 6.25 million mt/ year while Henan produces 3.67 million mt/year.

Shandong Weiqiao Aluminium & Power alone produces 4.02 million mt/year making it China’s largest aluminium producer.

Beijing Antaike, a Chinese metal consultancy had predicted in July that by the end of 2014 China’s refined aluminium capacity will hit 35 million mt/year which is 12% more that the last year’s output. The actual output of China’s refined aluminium was expected to rise by 11% compared to last year to 27.7 million mt according to the agency’s forecast.

They also predicted a consumption of 27.5 million mt, 11% more than 2013 as well as a surplus of 400,000 instead of the 360,000 surplus recorded last year.