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China’s Yunnan eyes giant aluminium project
Yunnan Metallurgical Group, the parent
of Yunnan Aluminium Industry,
and the government of Zhaotong city
had signed an agreement to build a
plant with an aluminium smelting capacity
of one million tonnes per year,
an official at the economic and trade
commission in Zhaotong city in Yunnan
province told Reuters at the end
of October 2009. The plant, if built,
could be operated by Yunnan Aluminium
given China’s requirement
that listed companies’ parents are not
allowed to compete with their listed
arms.
Yunnan Aluminium already operates
a smelting capacity of 400,000
ALUMINIUM · 12/2009
tpy and is building a plant to produce
alumina in Yunnan province.
The city government and Yunnan
Metallurgical had not set a timetable
to start construction of the first phase,
which will be 300,000 tpy of smelting
capacity, because the whole project
would be determined by electricity
fees and Beijing’s approval, the official
said.
He added the plant was set to be
built near a new hydro-electric power
station, which was expected to provide
cheaper electricity to the energyintensive
aluminium smelter. Preparation
work for the construction of
the hydro-electric power station had
Hydro sells automotive structures activities
Norsk Hydro ASA has entered into
an agreement to divest its automotive
structures business to Benteler Automobiltechnik,
the automotive division
of the German industrial enterprise
Benteler group with headquarters in
Paderborn, Germany. The agreement
is in line with Hydro’s strategy to focus
its extruded activities on profiles
solutions and building systems.
The transaction is expected to
be cash neutral for Hydro and an
estimated after tax loss of nearly 30
million euros will be recognised in
Hydro’s fourth quarter 2009 results.
Hydro expects the transaction to
close by the end of this year subject
to clearance by relevant competition
authorities.
Hydro’s automotive structures
business, part of the Extruded Products
division, supplies advanced crash
management systems, roll-over bar
protection systems and other structural
components and assemblies,
serving the majority of the global carmakers.
The business has a significant
part of its production at Raufoss in
Norway, with other plants in China,
Europe and the United States. Revenues
amounted to some 260 million
euros in 2008 and the business has
about 1,200 employees.
The Benteler group is internationally
active with its divisions Auto-
motive, Steel/Tube and Distribution.
Today, Benteler employs more than
rusal and Norinco sign a long-term
contract for aluminium delivery
UC Rusal, the world’s largest producer
of aluminium and alumina, and China
North Industries Corp. (Norinco), one of
China’s largest diversified corporations,
have signed a contract for aluminium
Contract signing ceremony Photo: Rusal
delivery. Under the contract, Rusal will
supply 1.680 million tonnes of aluminium
to the Chinese company between
2010 and 2016. The metal will be
shipped as standard ingots from Rusal’s
Siberian smelters.
Rusal has a well diversified sales
platform covering the United States
and Japan and also has a strategic
focus on high-growth markets, South
News iN Brief
nearly finished and the building was
expected to start soon.
However, construction of the aluminium
project may face hurdles as
Beijing has repeatedly warned that
the country has overcapacity in the
aluminium industry and aims to phase
out combined 800,000 tonnes of old
smelters by 2010. Chalco Chairman
Xiong Weiping said some weeks ago
that China had 20 to 30 percent excess
production capacity of primary
aluminium. China’s annual smelting
capacity has surpassed 18.5 million
tonnes. Officials expect capacity to
reach nearly 20 million tonnes by the
end of this year.
24,000 persons at 150 locations in 35
countries.
East Asia and China in particular. Rusal’s
sales to China are expected to represent
five percent of its revenue in 2009,
and the company aims to increase this
to ten percent of revenue by 2015.
Commenting on the contract, Artem
Volynets, Rusal’s Director for Corporate
Strategy, said: “This agreement represents
a significant step towards achieving
our strategic objective of increasing
exposure to the Chinese market. In
addition, it allows our partner, Norinco,
to benefit from UC Rusal’s key competitive
advantages: a sustainable low-cost
position and favourable location. We
consider China to be a long-term driver
for aluminium demand due to its rapid
pace of urbanisation and industrialisation
and are pleased to continue
expanding our mutually beneficial cooperation
with Chinese clients.”
Norinco is an enterprise group that
mainly deals with defence and optronic
products, heavy equipment manufacturing,
automobiles and logistics
services.