The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s plan for the 2011-2015 period is to boost production by 8.8% from 2010 levels.
It has a list of major targets, which include technical upgrades and energy saving. Other targets include:
- Primary production by the top 10 smelters to account for 90% of national production, up from 67% in 2010;
-- Obsolete electrolysis capacities to be totally abandoned, with 800kt/y of this to be phased out between 2011-2015. A total of 840kt/y of out of date capacity was phased out in between 2005-10.
-- DC consumption/t primary production to be below 12,500kwh, down from 13,084kwh at end of 2010;
-- Anode effect to be reduced to no more than 0.03times per tank per day, from 0.15 times at end-2010;
-- Fluoride emission/t primary production to be decreased to no more than 0.6kg, down from 1kg at end-2010; and
-- PFC emission to be reduced to no more than 500t (CO2 equivalent), down from 508t at end-2010.
The plan encourages bauxite exploration at home and abroad. By 2015, the country is expected to build 8Mt/y of greenfield alumina refineries in Guizhou,
Shanxi and Guangxi provinces, which are all rich in bauxite resource.
Other major projects include Chalco’s 1Mt/y alumina project in Xing County, Shanxi Province, a 1Mt/y refinery in Tongde, Shanxi, a 1Mt/y refinery in Yangquan, Shanxi, and a 800kt/y refinery in Qing Town, Guizhou Province.
In the meantime, construction of alumina refineries and aluminium smelters abroad will be encouraged.