The Chinese aluminium producer Chinalco has restarted most of its idle capacity of alumina and primary aluminium, according to a company presentation prepared for a conference last week.
As of end-October, 90% of Chinalco's total alumina capacity and 88% of its primary aluminium capacity in China was operating.
Chalco's president Luo Jianchuan said in late August that the company was operating 67% of total alumina capacity and 83% of total primary aluminium capacity. It has about 11 million tonnes of annual alumina capacity and 4 million tonnes of primary aluminium capacity. Chinalco has been posting operating profits since August following cost-cutting measures and losses earlier in the year.
Chinalco expects this year's investment plan to be cut by $495.1 million. In the first ten months of the year, the firm completed investment of $1.57 billion.
In the first ten months of the year, Chinalco added holdings of 53 million tonnes of bauxite reserves and 3 million tonnes of copper reserves, one of Chinalco's fastest-developing businesses after aluminium.
But Chinalco's market share has fallen to 38% in the domestic alumina market and to 27% in China's aluminium market as local competitors, run by private and provincial-controlled companies, have increased capacity.
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