Metal Information Center

NDRC: up to a quarter of China’s aluminum smelting capacity idle

December 3, 2007 – 8:25 am

About 2.6 million tonnes of China’s total aluminum smelting capacity of 10.3 million tonnes is idle because of falling profits and high alumina prices, according to the country’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

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Of China’s 142 aluminum smelters, 86 were profitable in the first 11 months of 2005, although profits at those companies fell by an average of 61 percent compared with the previous year, the NDRC said in a review of China’s economic and industrial development. The other 56 smelters reported combined losses estimated at 1 billion yuan ($124 million).

Surplus capacity exists in the aluminum, copper smelting, ferroalloys, steel, coke and calcium carbide industries after many new projects were commissioned in recent years, the NDRC said.