Interesting to see that some newspapers have picked up a story this morning, that Chalco has announced that their Malaysia smelter project has been suspended.

The stories I have read have talked about the size of the project - $1 billion, 370kt etc, and about the history - 2010, and about the JV partner in Malaysia - a company called Gulf International Investment Group. But nobody that I have read bothered to check the pulse of the project prior to this announcement. This patient hasn’t had a pulse for probably 2 years. It is up there with the Chalco city that they were planning to build in Saudi Arabia, that would cost $4.5 billion and would include a 1 million tonne smelter. Remember that project? That announcement came out in 2008, back when GFC stood for Geebung Football Club.

It’s very Chinese of Chalco to announce they were suspending this project. It is not unlike the announcement from Beijing a couple of months ago that 4 smelters would close because the Government had ordered them to close. What they failed to mention in that announcement was that 3 of the 4 were already idled, and the 4 smelters combined had a nameplate capacity of less than 500,000t.

To be fair to Chalco, they probably needed to provide closure to their shareholders, who are wondering about whether this company will turn itself around. Chalco’s capital program came under some scrutiny in their most recent financial results.

But surely the reporters out there could have done a little more than just run with the press release.