Aluminum Copper Lead

Jinzhong Aluminum plans to reduce the consumption volume of imported bauxite

BEIJING (Asian Metal) 16 Oct 20 - East Hope Jinzhong Aluminum Co., Ltd., a big alumina producer and bauxite consumer in Shanxi of China, is scheduled to suspend one alumina production line in the middle of November because of the environmental protection policy in winter and the imported bauxite consumption volume would reduce by around 50% from the middle of next month, a source from the company reported to Asian Metal. The consumption volume in November might slip to 340,000t from around 450,000t in October.

"We plan to suspend one production line relying on imported bauxite in the middle of next month in line with the environmental protection policy in winter, and the imported bauxite consumption volume would slip by around 50%," said the source, adding that the policy might last till next March. Based on a total alumina production capacity of 3.2 million tons per year, they have three production lines and two of them depend on imported bauxite with the annual consumption capacity at 6 million tons.

They presently mainly use imported bauxite from Guinea and Australia but plan to include Indonesian bauxite in 2021. Considering the plan in winter, they have no plan to buy more imported bauxite. In addition, they have more than 700,000t of imported bauxite in stock. Starting consumption of imported bauxite from the middle of last year, they used around 750,000t in 2019 and around 1.8 million tons in the first three quarters of this year.

Current mainstream prices for Guinean bauxite Al2O3 45%min SiO2 3%max stand at USD44.5-45.5/dt CIF China, up by around USD0.5/dt from one month ago and might continue to go up late this month because of the higher freight of USD18-20/dt.