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    Top five alumina producers in the world in 2019

  • China Aluminium Network
  • Post Time: 2019/8/19
  • Click Amount: 540

    Alumina or aluminium oxide (Al2O3) is the key raw material for producing aluminium. Due to the exponential growth of the aluminium industry in last two decades and the significance of alumina in the upstream value chain, aluminium producers are building their own refineries and expanding the existing facilities to secure the availability of this resource. For the whole year of 2018, global alumina production stood at about 130 million tonnes and China remained the largest alumina producing country with 72 million tonnes of production. We are listing the top 10 alumina producing companies in the world based on the latest available statistics:

    1. Chalco (China)

    Chalco is a leading company in China’s non-ferrous industry, which is engaged in the whole value chain, from exploration and mining of bauxite and coal, the production, sales, and R&D of alumina, primary aluminium and aluminium alloy products, to international trade, logistics, and power generation. Currently Chalco has 39 subsidiaries, 18 wholly owned and 21 controlled ones. Chalco’s Guangxi branch is engaged in producing alumina. The key alumina subsidiaries of Chaloco are:

        Chalco Shanxi New Material Co., Ltd.
        Zunyi Aluminum Co., Ltd. (“Zunyi Aluminum”)
        Chalco Mining Co., Ltd.
        Chalco Shandong Co., Ltd.
        Chalco Zhongzhou Aluminum Co., Ltd.
        Guizhou Huajin Aluminum Co., Ltd.
        Guangxi Huasheng New Material Co., Ltd.
        Shanxi Huaxing Alumina Co., Ltd
        Chinalco Shanxi Jiaokou Xinghua Technology Co., Ltd

    Chalco’s total alumina production capacity stood at about 17 million tonnes according to its last released annual report, which makes it the largest alumina producer in the world. The Group’s revenue from the alumina segment for the year 2018 was RMB44,151 million, representing an increase of RMB5,154 million from RMB38,997 million for the same period of the previous year, mainly attributable to the increase in the price and trading volume of alumina.

    The Group’s profit before income tax in the alumina segment for the year 2018 was RMB3,496 million, representing an increase of RMB205 million from RMB3,291 million for the same period of the previous year, mainly attributable to the rising price and increase in trading volume of alumina.

    2. Xinfa Group (China)

    Founded in 1972, Xinfa Group is a modern large-scale enterprise group integrating power generation, heat supply, alumina refining, electrolytic aluminium and aluminium deep processing. Though the exact volume of its alumina is not revealed by the company, its total production comes just after Chalco Group. The key alumina subsidiaries of the group are Xinfa Jiaokou Feimei refinery, Xinfa Huayu (Chiping Xinfa) alumina refinery, Xiaoyi Xinfa and Shandong Xinfa. 

    Xinfa Group, one of China’s top aluminium producers, has been cutting output at its alumina plant in last two years due to environmental inspections. In 2017, Xinfa reduced output at a 7-million-tonnes-per-year alumina refinery by the equivalent of 2.6 million tonnes per year, or about 37 per cent due to environmental shut down. It again reduced output by 500,000 tonnes on an annual basis at its alumina plant in southern China’s Guangxi region due to tight bauxite supply in 2019. Recently, on May 13, 2019, Xinfa Jiaokou Feimei refinery was ordered to shut its 2.8 million mt/year alumina capacity.

    3. Hongqiao Group (China)

    China Hongqiao Group Limited is a Chinese state-owned company founded in 1994 that specializes in the production of aluminium. Hongqiao is currently the largest aluminium producer in the world. The Group also has its alumina operations which produce alumina to feed its aluminium capacity. China Hongqiao had 6.46 million tpy capacity including about 2.6 million tonnes idle capacity. This has pulled down its aluminium capacity to about 3.8 million tonne. The smelter shutdowns “led to a corresponding increase in alumina available for sale,” Shandong-based Hongqiao said, allowing it to cash in on higher prices of alumina in 2018.

    Hongqiao’s 2018 alumina sales volume increased 117.9 percent to 4.09 million tonnes. With no new alumina capacity added in China last year, the company’s 1 million tonne-per-year alumina plant in Indonesia saw “booming production (and) further improved the net profit,” it said. Alumina sales accounted for 12.2 per cent of total sales in 2018, compared with 4.7 percent in 2017. The estimated alumina production in 2018 stood at about 12-13 million tonne in 2018. Weiqiao refinery, a subsidiary of China Hongqiao Group is claimed to be China's largest alumina refinery.

    4. AWAC:

    Alcoa’s bauxite and alumina segment is represented by Alcoa Worldwide Alumina and Chemicals (AWAC), a joint venture which is owned 40% by Alumina Limited and Alcoa owns the remaining 60% and is the manager/operator of AWAC's operations.

    AWAC operations produced 12.2 million tonnes of alumina in 2018, of which 30 per cent was supplied to Alcoa Corporation’s smelters and 70 per cent to third party customers. AWAC is the largest Western World supplier of alumina to third party smelters. AWAC’s alumina production of 12.2 million tonnes in 2018, declined by approximately 300,000 tonnes compared to the previous year. This reflected an industry wide trend of alumina production disruptions as producers pushed to meet market demand. However, there has been a high degree of focus on addressing the causes of the decline in production. 

    AWAC’s alumina refining business reported alumina production of 3.1 million tonnes in Q2 2019, flat from the reported production in Q1 2019. The production result is excluding the share of Ma’aden refinery. The yearly production is likely to stand at around 12.4 million tonne.

    5. Rio Tinto Alcan

    Rio Tinto Alcan owns Yarwun alumina refinery and Queensland Alumina Ltd (QAL) in Queensland, Australia. While Yarwun represents Rio Tinto's first 100% owned and operated alumina refinery, QAL is jointly held by Rio along with Rusal. QAL has an annual capacity of 3,950,000 tonnes of alumina. Located in Jonquière, Saguenay, Vaudreuil refinery is another 100% owned alumina refinery by Rio Tinto.

    For the full year 2018, alumina production of Rio stood at 7.9 million tonnes.  Alumina production in 2018 was two per cent lower than 2017, primarily due to the timing of maintenance shutdowns.

    For the H1 2019, Rio’s alumina production stood at 3.8 million tonnes, off 3% from 2018 first half due primarily to production disruptions following major maintenance work at QAL and the lower bauxite supply from MRN impacting production at Vaudreuil refinery. Rio Tinto’s expected share of alumina production in 2019 is between 8.1 to 8.4 million tonnes.

    Source: www.alcircle.com
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