In a move which is sure to be replicated many times across the China aluminium industry, Gansu Donging Aluminium company has closed their old potline (192 pots, 80KA, 40,000t per year). The phase-out started last month, and is now complete.

Meantime, they are now starting up the pots in their new plant, which will add 500kt to their other new line, taking them to 800kt. Dongxing enjoy a very good power price, which I won’t repeat here, making them very competitive.

As mentioned, this process of phasing out old capacity and bringing new lower-cost capacity is set to be repeated many times around China. The low metal price will accelerate the process.

Meantime, we are still investigating the stories of pots being prepped for shutdown in the event that the metal price hits RMB15000. So far, nobody is willing to talk about it directly, though we did hear a similar story from another source. The price is still falling, so the best way of testing the rumour may be only weeks away.