China’s aluminium sector and prospects of global aluminium industry

Abstract

Using statistical data, this paper analyzes the evolution, current status and prospects of China’s aluminium industry: sufficiency of raw materials, bauxite mining, alumina production, capacity utilization, primary aluminium output, technological development. The analysis confirms that China will maintain its leading position at the global aluminium market in the long term. Thus, China will remain the world’s biggest importer of bauxites and alumina, the leading producer of alumina and primary aluminium, a big exporter of semi-finished products and aluminium compounds with a high added value. The growth of the country’s aluminium sector is a typical example of China’s global economic dominance policy — i. e. imports of raw materials, rising production and exports of final products, which are sweeping the national and international markets thanks to breakthrough technology and competitive prices. Being the key player at the global market for non-ferrous metals (primarily, aluminium), China, on one hand, generates an initial demand for them by using them in manufacturing and, on the other hand, the country is interested in low and stable prices. The main advantages of China’s aluminium industry include its large scale, low energy consumption, the capacity of the steadily growing internal market, available production facilities with a low wear level, a developed transport infrastructure and port facilities, an aggressive merge policy exercised at both the national and international markets, the government’s flexible currency policy, quick decision making, a high economic mobilization discipline. In the long run, only primary aluminium producers of comparable size and technology status (both the existing and the projected ones) will be able to survive the competition with their Chinese peers.