Sept 2 (Reuters) – The second part of a China Hongqiao Group 1378.HK alumina plant in Indonesia ought to begin up by the tip of this 12 months, an adviser to the aluminium large stated on Thursday, as costs for the uncooked materials hit two-year highs.
The primary 1 million tonnes per 12 months part of the Properly Harvest Profitable alumina refinery on the island of Borneo started producing in 2016. Hongqiao had aimed to fee the second part by end-2020 however current disclosures solely stated it was “progressing easily.”
“A second part of the Indonesian undertaking – one other 1 million tonnes – ought to come on line later this 12 months,” Ron Knapp, worldwide adviser at Hongqiao, stated in a presentation to the Fastmarkets Worldwide Aluminium digital convention.
Hongqiao presently has round 16 million tonnes of annual alumina capability, largely in China, famous Knapp, a former secretary normal of the Worldwide Aluminium Institute.
COMEX alumina futures AALc1 hit $320 a tonne on Wednesday, the very best since July 2019 following a fireplace on the Jamalco refinery in Jamaica final month. Chinese language costs SMM-AVEG-ALM for the fabric topped 3,000 yuan ($465) a tonne on Thursday, additionally a greater than two-year excessive, amid tight provide.
The run-up in alumina prices has contributed to a surge in costs of aluminium CMAL3 to decade highs this week. MET/L
Hongqiao is shifting nearly one-third of its 6.5 million tonnes of annual aluminium capability from its house of Shandong to Yunnan in Southwest China. The primary part of the Yunnan undertaking began up in 2020 and three extra manufacturing traces for Section 2 might be transferred from Shandong subsequent 12 months, Knapp stated.
The corporate plans to broaden aluminium gross sales into the rail and aerospace sectors in future as its Shandong operations concentrate on downstream functions and it strikes midstream processing to Yunnan, he added.
($1 = 6.4554 Chinese language yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Tom Daly; Modifying by Bernadette Baum)
(([email protected]; +86 10 5669 2119;))
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the writer and don’t essentially mirror these of Nasdaq, Inc.
www.nasdaq.com