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Raw Material Industry Department Of MIIT: Strictly Control The New Capacity Of Electrolytic Aluminium

On May 7, 2019, the Raw Material Industry Department of MIIT held the forum on aluminium industry operation analysis in Beijing. 13 key aluminum enterprises engaged in mining, smelting and processing, including CHALCO, SPIC, Weiqiao Pioneering Group and Liaoning Zhongwang, attended the forum. Chang Guowu, vice-director of Raw Material Industry Department, chaired the forum.

The attendees conducted exchanges on the enterprise production and operation and industry development trend in 2018 and Q1 2019, and proposed measures and suggestions for steady industry development from perspectives of strict control of capacity, strict management of capacity replacement, cost reduction and application expansion. It is widely believed that, since the beginning of 2019, the aluminium industry operation was basically stable; particularly, driven by a series of favorable macro policies, the market demand increased, aluminum price showed slight increase, and the industry performance decline slowed down; however, currently, the aluminium oxide and electrolytic aluminium are still exposed to excess capacity risk, the overall primary aluminium consumption entered the slow growth stage, and the imbalance between supply and demand is prominent, making it imperative to strictly control the capacity of electrolytic aluminium; meanwhile, the industry financing difficulty is prominent, and the power cost remains high with significant regional difference, restricting the sound operation and standard development of the aluminum industry, and there is a huge task to decrease cost and increase efficiency of the industry.

Mr. Chang concluded that it is crucial to guarantee the steady operation of the aluminum industry currently through in-depth promotion of supply-side structural reform of the aluminum industry, strict control of electrolytic aluminium capacity, and mitigation of imbalance between supply and demand. Specifically, the industry should accelerate the implementation of relevant tasks from two perspectives of internal structure adjustment and external environment optimization; continue maintain the tight control of new capacity of electrolytic aluminium, establish a smooth channel for report on illegal capacity, intensify the investigation and punishment, strictly control capacity replacement, and mitigate the excess capacity risk; accelerate the pace of merger and reorganization, enhance industry self-regulation, establish a regular communication and exchange mechanism, timely research and propose measures and suggestions for new situation and problems, and co-create a favorable market environment; accelerate the pace of power system reform, promote the fair power supply, and reduce the power cost of large-scale industry; and actively expand the aluminum application, explore new consumption growth points, accelerate the intellectualized reconstruction and cluster development of the aluminum industry, and promote the transformation and upgrading of the aluminum industry in China.