THE city of Binzhou in eastern China’s Shandong Province, home to top aluminum producer China Hongqiao Group, is planning five new projects to support development of a high-end aluminum industry, according to a local government document.

The projects include a 10,000 ton-per-year (tpy) aluminum alloy plant to be built by Huachuang Metal, according to the document dated Aug. 30 on the Binzhou city government website.

A second aluminum alloy project, with unspecified capacity, is to be built by Hangqiao Technology to target the automotive and aerospace industries. A third, built by Yangxin Taihe New Material, will make aluminum formwork used in construction.

The move towards added-value products in Binzhou comes amid increased competition in the aluminum sector from other parts of China, where new smelters are pushing the country’s output to record levels.

The southern Guangxi region, which has an abundance of aluminum raw material alumina, last month unveiled a plan to establish its own high-end aluminum production base in Nanning.

Another project planned by Binzhou is a plant that will make 1.88 million tons per year of carbon materials for the aluminum sector, according to the government document.

Carbon anodes are used to conduct electricity in the aluminum smelting process.(SD-Agencies)