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Last Updated: Oct 11, 2008 - 8:30:31 AM |
Aluminum Corp of China Ltd (Chalco), the country`s top producer of
primary aluminium, may shut down some high-cost aluminium capacity due
to low prices, its investor relations manager said on Friday.
Zhang Qing said Chalco would try to make up the volume by running full
capacity at its low-cost aluminium operations. Chalco may cancel or
shorten time for repairs at those low-cost smelters to increase
production, she said.
"We are going to fine-tune operations to cut losses," Zhang said.
Chalco, the world`s third-biggest producer of alumina which is the main
material for aluminium production, maintained its output target of
3.5Mt of primary aluminium this year, Zhang said.
She said nearly all aluminium smelters in China should be making losses
as current prices were below production costs. Spot aluminium was
offered at about Yu13,260/t in Shanghai, down 20% in the past month
and below many smelters` production costs at Yu16,000-18,000/t.
"We may close down one of our two systems," an official at Chalco`s
Pingguo plant in Guangxi said. The system that may be shut down had
25,000t of primary aluminium capacity, he said.
Pingguo would run full rates at its other system, which has 130,000t of
capacity. Pingguo`s smelter was using cheap hydro-electricity but it
would face higher electricity costs in the winter when it switched to
power supplies from thermal power plants, he said.
Other high-cost aluminium smelters in China are expected to shut down
some capacity in coming months if aluminium prices stay below
production costs. Sichuan Aostar Aluminum started closing a third of
the capacity at a 125,000t/y smelter in late September and planned to
shut further if prices remained weak.
Source:Ocnus.net 2008
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