China's Bosai Expands Alumina, Aluminium Capacity

HONG KONG, Aug 10 -- China's Bosai Group is doubling capacity of alumina and aluminium in the first half of next year, adding production to the world's top aluminium producing nation.

    Privately owned Bosai is in talks with Minermet and Krupadeep Traders, to import Indian bauxite, the ore from which alumina is produced, company sources said.

    The firm is building a facility in Sichuan province to boost its annual alumina capacity to 500,000 tonnes in April 2010 from 200,000 tonnes now.

    "Our (local) mines do not have sufficient ore supplies," a senior executive said. Importing bauxite from India was one of the firm's options, he added, but did not identify other potential overseas suppliers.

    To meet Bosai's expanding alumina production, the firm was likely to import about 500,000 tonnes of bauxite annually, a company source said. That amount would cover half of the firm's annual demand of bauxite from next year.

    Alumina is the main material for primary aluminium production.

    Bosai's new 110,000-tonne-per-year A-Ba Aluminium Smelter, which was slightly damaged by massive earthquakes in May last year in Sichuan, started production in December 2008 and is adding 90,000 tonnes of annual capacity, the company source said.

    Construction of that capacity will be completed as early as June next year, bringing A-Ba's capacity up to 200,000 tonnes per year.

    China already produces more aluminium than it needs, with annual smelting capacity of more than 18.5 million tonnes. Capacity is expected by Chinese smelter officials to reach nearly 20 million tonnes by the end of this year.

    A-Ba Aluminium also plans to build a 100,000-tonne-per-year plant to produce semi-finished aluminium products, the company source said.

    (Source: Reuters)