Accelerated Construction of Affordable Housing Brings Many Orders to Aluminum Profile Producers

SHANGHAI, Jul. 21 (SMM) -- Operating rates at domestic aluminum profile producers remained at 76% during June, higher than market expectations. New construction of more than 1.6 million units of affordable housing in June brought many orders to aluminum profile producers.

As of the end of June, the construction of more than 5 million units of affordable housing started in 1H 2011, with new construction of affordable housing at 3.4 million units from January to May and exceeding 1.6 million units during June. As the cold weather was unfavorable for construction from January to March in north China, the task of construction of affordable housing in 1H 2011 has generally been completed.

According to a recent SMM survey, person-in-charge from many producers said recent orders were bullish, especially orders from the construction of affordable housing were even sufficient. Operating rate at one aluminum profile producer in Shandong province exceeds 80% recently due to ample orders from affordable housing projects in neighboring cities, and the company is very busy now given the mobility of workers.

Guangdong province is a large aluminum profile exporting region, but many consumers in Europe have begun to suspend operations for holiday due to the hot weather, and many aluminum profile exporters in Guangdong province said orders from Europe plummeted. Many export-oriented aluminum profile producers begin to develop domestic markets, and some producers in Taishan and other regions said they are working on domestic orders.