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Govt may stop 70b yuan electrolytic aluminum projects

By Hao Yan (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2011-04-11 17:08

China will stop all of the proposed new electrolytic aluminum projects, which are estimated to be worth of 70 billion yuan ($10.7 billion), said an official of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

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Vice-minister Su Bo said the MIIT, the National Development and Reform Commission and six other agencies will issue the policy in the near future, China Securities Journal reported Monday.

The MIIT said in an earlier report that overcapacity existed in the electrolytic aluminum production, citing statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics. The production capacity was 21 million tons last year, and output was 15.7 million tons.

The country now has more than 20 billion yuan worth of electrolytic aluminum projects under construction, according to the report.

The country will move the electrolytic aluminum projects to the west regions during the 12th Five-year Plan period, said Kang Yizeng, the former president of the China Nonferrous Metal Industry Association.

The goal for the nonferrous metal industry is to optimize the industrial structures and to improve quality and efficiency, while tightly limiting the new smelting projects in a region lacking abundant resources or environmental capacity, Kang said.