Asian Metal visits Shandong Sun Rise Fuel, Bofeng Lizhong Chemical and Weiqiao Aluminum & Power Co., Ltd.

On January 22, 2015, Mr. Friday Gao, senior analyst of Asian Metal visited Shandong Sun Rise Fuel Co., Ltd., Shandong Bofeng Lizhong Chemical Co., Ltd. and Shandong Weiqiao Aluminum & Power Co., Ltd.

On the morning of January 22, Mr. Gao firstly visited Shandong Sun Rise Fuel Co., Ltd. Mr. Xu Bin, general manager of International Department of Sun Rise Fuel, noted that they now focus on Malaysian bauxite and import around 2-3 ships of the material per month, with 45,000t for each ship. They mainly import low grade Malaysian bauxite Al 40-41% and the price is around USD31-32/t FOB Malaysia.

Meanwhile, they deal with Chinese origin bauxite in Shanxi province, with an annual volume of around 3 million tonnes.

In the morning, Mr. Gao also visited Shandong Bofeng Lizhong Chemical Co., Ltd. Mr. Niu Zhiyong, director of Sales Department of the company claimed that the mainstream price for aluminum fluoride is around RMB6,500-6,600/t (USD1,048-1,065/t) d.d.p in Chinese domestic market, and the export price is around RMB100/t (USD16/t) higher. Most Chinese aluminum fluoride producers suffer losses at the moment. Therefore, they plan to cut or halt production during Chinese Spring Festival, expecting the price to go up.

According to Mr. Niu, their plant is running at the output of 60,000tpy, based on the annual capacity of 90,000t. They are also involved in export business and have a plan to increase exports in 2015.

In the afternoon, Mr. Gao visited Weiqiao Aluminum & Power and talked about aluminum and bauxite markets with Mr. Zhao Qianfang, vice general manager of the company and with Ms. Niu Hongyan, purchasing director of the company.

Mr. Zhao confirmed that they consumed all self-produced alumina by themselves and did not sell the material for a long time. Instead, they need to purchase some alumina as supplement. According to him, they own power plants and the charge is very low, so their aluminum ingot capacity keeps expanding. The current running annual alumina output of the plant is around 7.5 million tonnes, based on the capacity of 13 million tonnes. The operating annual aluminum ingot output is around 4 million tonnes, based on the capacity of 6.1 million tonnes per year. Mr. Zhao claimed that the demand in Shandong province is strong. They mainly sell aluminum liquid in the local market and the sales go well.

Regarding the bauxite import market, Ms. Niu revealed that Malaysian bauxite imports are recovering after the rainy season. They also mainly import low grade Malaysian bauxite. Besides, they purchase bauxite from India, Australia, the Dominican Republic and Solomon Islands. Based on various supplies, she believes that Malaysian bauxite price will not go up in spite of the rising demand from China.

After the export tax increase for Indian bauxite, low grade Indian bauxite price did not move up. In 2014, they imported around 5 million tonnes of Indian bauxite and plan to import more in 2015.