China's alumina production capacity is expected to hit 30 million tons in 2010, Vice Chairman Pan Jiazhu of the China Non-ferrous Metals Industry Association was quoted as saying by the China Securities Journal Monday.

At a conference on China's alumina industry, Pan said alumina production capacity in the country has been growing rapidly since the beginning of this year.

By the end of 2005, the alumina production capacity of the Aluminum Corporation of China, the leading aluminum producer in the country, reached 8.86 million tons, and this figure would reach 9.31 million tons by the end of 2006, he said.

By 2010, the alumina production capacity of the corporation would hit about 15 million tons, accounting for 50 percent of the total output capacity in China, he said.

Meanwhile, the production capacity of other aluminum corporations in China has also been on the rise in recent years. In 2004, the production capacity of these companies only stood at 420,000 tons, while the figure jumped to 1.5 million tons in 2005, according to Pan.

He estimated that the production capacity of these companies would reach 6 million tons and 9.68 million tons respectively in 2006 and 2007.

Figures show that now there are 11 alumina projects under construction in China, which will increase China's total yearly output capacity by another 12.15 million tons, exceeding that of the Aluminum Corporation of China at present.

Moreover,there are another 5 alumina projects to be constructed in the country, whose capacity will be about 3.2 million tons yearly, said Pan.

China produced 1.77 million tons of alumina in the first two months of 2006, up 44 percent year on year, due partly to the heavy domestic demand, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Despite the growth in alumina production in the two months, Chinese enterprises had to import alumina at a record high price of 650 U.S. dollars per ton, indicating a strong market demand in the country, according to market observers.

Alumina is the main material used by aluminum smelters to produce the light weight metal aluminum for making soda pop cans, light bulbs and many other consumer products.

Source: Xinhua