New China Aluminum Group Company Boosting Capacity

Newly created China Aluminium Group said it planned to hike aluminum capacity by 67 percent to 800,000 metric tons per year by the end of this year or early next year, rivaling Chalco as the country's top producer.

"We'll have no problems increasing our capacity to 800,000 tpy by the end of the year or early next year. It will hit two million tpy by 2005, once expansions are completed," President Chen Jianguo told Reuters.

Hong Kong-listed Aluminum Corp of China Ltd (Chalco) would have aluminum capacity totaling 1.1 million tpy if a deal to take over a 180,000 tpy aluminum smelter materializes, industry officials have said. Reuters