Lihua International Breaks Ground on Second Copper Recycling Facility

Lihua International Inc., a China based developer, designer and manufacturer of low cost, high quality alternatives to copper products, has broken ground on its second copper recycling facility. The groundbreaking follows Lihua's acquisition of land use rights from the Jiangsu Provincial government.

The new recycling and smelting facility, expected to open by the second half of 2011, is being built on 30 acres adjacent to Lihua's existing copper recycling facility in Danyang, China. The facility will initially house two smelters, and will increase Lihua's annual refined copper production capacity to 100,000 tons from its current annual capacity of 50,000 tons.

Total costs associated with the new facility, including the acquisition of the land use rights, as well as construction and equipment, are expected to total between $35-$40 million.

"We are pleased to secure these land use rights and to break ground on our second copper recycling facility, which will provide us with a much needed increase in refinery capacity as we work to keep up with the tremendous demand that exists for our products in the Chinese market," says Jianhua Zhu, chairman and CEO of Lihua in a release. "We have received 2011 copper anode supply contracts and customer demand indications totaling 110,000 metric tons, which exceeds our estimated refinery capacity for the full year, reinforcing our belief in the sizeable market opportunity that exists for this product and supporting our decision to launch the anode product line during the second quarter of 2010. Demand for our other products remains strong as well, and we believe that this capacity addition will allow Lihua to capture additional share of the Chinese copper market."