Chinalco takes over aluminium plate firm
Chinalco, the mainland's biggest alumina and aluminium producer, said it would expand its aluminium fabrication business by paying 1.2 billion yuan for a 75 per cent stake in aluminium alloy plate producer Northeast Light Alloy.
In the deal, the municipal government of Harbin, where state-controlled Northeast Light has its key fabrication plant, would pay 400 million yuan for the remaining 25 per cent, the China Securities Journal reported yesterday.
The acquisition could help to improve the product structure of Chinalco, the parent of listed Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco), and accelerate Northeast Light's development, according to Chinalco general manager Xiao Yaqing, who worked for Northeast Light from 1986 to 1998.
Chinalco's current production of aluminium plates was 'quite low', said Wang Xiaoqi, an official at the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, which controls the national aluminium giant, the report said.
Chinalco plans to invest 15 billion yuan in its business by 2010, aiming for a total output of 1.6 million tonnes of aluminium-fabricated products by that date. The deal could help to achieve that target, Mr Wang said.
Last year, Northeast Light's aluminium product output was 70,000 tonnes.
The first aluminium-magnesium alloy producer in the mainland, it is currently 10 per cent owned by Jinchuan Group, the country's largest nickel producer, 30 per cent by Singapore-listed Midas Holding, an extruded aluminium product manufacturer in the mainland, and the rest held by Heilongjiang Investment, Harbin Investment Group and Harbin .
Shares of Chalco, Chinalco's subsidiary, fell 2.11 per cent to close at HK$20.90 yesterday.
