CRU: Making Sense of Chinese Aluminium Smelter Closures

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CRU

22 Aug, 2017, 08:00 GMT

LONDON, August 22, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

On 09 August the SHFE aluminium cash price soared to over RMB16,000 /t, its highest level since 2012. The move came after Shandong ordered 3.2Mtpy of illegal smelting capacity to close.

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This was the third province to make such announcements, but the SHFE and LME aluminium price reaction was much larger than after the previous announcements from Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia.

In this Insight, we detail the announced Chinese aluminium smelter closures and the impact on 2017 and 2018 production. In addition, we compare the very latest closure expectations to the Chinese closures and total Chinese production set out in CRU's July 2017 Aluminium Market Outlook.

Announced aluminium smelter closures by region 

Xinjiang
Xinjiang was the first province to order smelters to close capacity, in April the Changji County government stated two million tonnes per year of planned or operational illegal capacity must halt construction or close. Since that announcement 500,000tpy of operational capacity has closed. There are two plants in the province that have been ordered to close illegal capacity:

  • Xinjiang East Hope has been ordered to close 800,000tpy of operational capacity, and by mid-August 300,000tpy of this capacity has been closed.
  • Xinjiang Jiarun has been ordered to close 200,000tpy of operational capacity; this closure was completed in June.

Read the full story: http://bit.ly/Chinese-smelter-closures

Read more about CRU: http://bit.ly/About_CRU

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