2024 is a critical year for achieving the goals and tasks of the 14th Five-Year Plan. Over the past year, China’s aluminum industry has taken Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as its guide, implemented the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the Second and Third Plenary Sessions of the 20th Central Committee, fully and accurately implemented the new development concept, accelerated the cultivation of new quality productivity, and strived to contribute the strength of aluminum processing workers to China’s modernization. Now we will sort out and review the important events of the past year for colleagues.
China’s aluminum processing industry is making steady progress, and there is still potential to expand new applications of aluminum
In 2024, the aluminum processing industry will operate generally smoothly and steadily. First, my country’s “new three” such as new energy vehicles, lithium batteries, and solar photovoltaics will maintain double-digit growth, which will continue to drive the rapid development of sub-industries such as new energy vehicle profiles, automotive panels, battery foils, and photovoltaic profiles, and to a certain extent alleviate the negative impact of the downturn in the real estate industry.
Second, emerging fields such as artificial intelligence, low-altitude economy, and commercial aerospace have opened up new tracks for aluminum applications, bringing new volume and highlights to aluminum consumption. Third, in the first 11 months, my country exported 5.83 million tons of aluminum, a year-on-year increase of 20.8%, and annual exports are expected to set a new record high. Overall, the output of aluminum processing materials is expected to increase steadily throughout the year, but the sub-sectors continue to differentiate.
Technological innovation enables high-quality development to improve quality and speed up
Dongqing, Southwest Aluminum, Nanshan, etc. continue to provide high-end aluminum materials for Tianzhou series cargo spacecraft, Shenzhou series manned spacecraft, Long March series launch vehicles, domestic large aircraft C919 and sixth-generation fighter jets, and other national heavy equipment, providing strong material support for the development of China’s aerospace and national defense science and technology industry.
Six aluminum processing projects completed by Dongqing, Nanshan, Fenglu, and China Nonferrous Metals Technology, including “Key technologies and engineering applications for residual stress control of large-scale aviation aluminum alloy plates”, “Green recycled high-end aluminum alloy industrialization complete set of technical equipment and application (invention)”, “R&D and industrial application of aluminum profiles for new energy vehicles”, and “2800mm wide high-precision aluminum alloy strip six-roll cold rolling equipment development and application” won the first prize of the 2024 China Nonferrous Metals Industry Science and Technology Award.
Three aluminum processing patents completed by Chalco Ruimin, Dongyangguang, Guangdong Huachang, etc., including “a mirror-like anodized aluminum alloy rolled plate and its preparation method”, “a 6181 aluminum alloy for automotive plates and its preparation method”, and “a high-strength and high-conductivity deformed aluminum alloy and its preparation method”, won the 25th China Patent Excellence Award. The entire industry has always been committed to taking scientific and technological innovation as the core driving force, accelerating the cultivation of new quality productivity, and enabling high-quality development.
Give full play to the main role of the association, the annual aluminum processing conference, the green aluminum industry conference, and the battery foil forum were held in Linqu, Guangyuan, and Huaibei respectively
From June 19th to 20th, the 2024 China Aluminum Processing Industry Annual Conference was held in Linqu, Shandong. Ge Honglin, Party Secretary and President of China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association; Song Bo, Director of Trade Remedy Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Commerce; Jiang Chuan, Deputy Director of Raw Materials Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology; Zhang Ming, Deputy General Manager of Shanghai Futures Exchange; Ma Yong, Deputy Mayor of Weifang Municipal People’s Government; Liu Yanfang, Member of the Standing Committee of Weifang Municipal Party Committee and Secretary of Linqu County Party Committee; Wu Weiguang, Chairman of Shandong Huajian Aluminum Group attended the opening ceremony and delivered speeches.
Fan Shunke, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association and Chairman of China Nonferrous Metals Processing Industry Association, Liu Zhengwang, Deputy Mayor of Tongchuan Municipal People’s Government of Shaanxi Province, Tan Yizhi, Member of the Standing Committee of Anyi County Party Committee and Deputy County Magistrate of Anyi County, Jiangxi Province, Li Xin, Deputy County Magistrate of Qingchuan County People’s Government of Sichuan Province, and more than 1,200 representatives from related units attended the conference. As an important exchange platform for the aluminum processing industry, this conference has brought together many talents and has far-reaching influence, playing a positive role in promoting high-quality development.
On May 10, the 2024 China (Guangyuan) Green Aluminum Industry Development Conference was held in Guangyuan, Sichuan, with more than 500 representatives attending. The conference aims to improve further the green development level of China’s aluminum industry chain, promote the integrated development of green aluminum and aluminum processing, and help Guangyuan’s aluminum industry cluster to reach a new level
On November 6, the 2024 China (Suixi) Aluminum-based New Energy Materials and Battery Foil Forum was held in Huaibei, Anhui. This is the ninth consecutive year that Suixi County has held a national aluminum processing industry conference, with more than 350 representatives attending. The forum has become the only thematic high-end exchange platform in my country’s aluminum foil industry.
Solidly promote green and intelligent development and actively explore the optimal solution for the capital market
14 aluminum processing companies including Chuangyuan Metal, Gränges, Mingtai Technology, Henan Mingsheng, Yongjie Aluminum, Innovation Precision, Xi’an Hi-Tech, Ningbo Kono, and Tianshuo Aluminum won the title of “National Green Factory in 2024”. So far, more than 70 companies in the industry have won the title of national green factory.
Nanping Aluminum was awarded the title of “AAA-level Excellent Enterprise for the Upgraded Version of the Integration of Industrialization and Informationization Management System in 2023-2024”, and Chalco Ruimin was successfully selected into the list of national 5G factories in 2024. The level of intelligence in the entire industry continues to improve, and the pace of industrial upgrading has significantly accelerated.
On June 26, Yongzhen Technology Co., Ltd. was successfully listed on the main board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, opening a new chapter in the development of the company. On December 30, the launch ceremony of Xiangyu Aluminum’s entry into Liaoyang was held in Liaoyang City, marking the completion of Xiangyu Group’s restructuring investment in Zhongwang Group. The largest merger and acquisition case in my country’s aluminum processing industry has been completed, realizing effective resource integration.
Strengthen industry self-discipline and successfully hold the Entrepreneurs Forum for Photovoltaic Aluminum Alloy Frames, Aluminum Foil, and Aluminum Strips
In order to implement the spirit of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee meeting on July 30, prevent “involution” vicious competition, and promote high-quality development, the China Nonferrous Metals Processing Industry Association organized and held the first China Photovoltaic Aluminum Alloy Frame Industry Entrepreneurs Forum, the fourth China Aluminum Foil Industry Entrepreneurs Forum, and the fourth China Aluminum Strip Industry Entrepreneurs Forum in Nanjing, Huaibei, and Sanmenxia on October 19, November 6, and December 11, respectively.
In the context of increasingly fierce market competition and continuous escalation of industry involution, the Entrepreneurs Forum has received more and more attention and attention and has reached several consensuses in strengthening scientific and technological innovation, cultivating new quality productivity, expanding the application of aluminum materials, maintaining the basic export plate, and strengthening industry self-discipline.
Overseas investment has accelerated, and the process of globalization has accelerated
At present, involution has intensified, trade frictions have occurred frequently, the cancellation of aluminum export tax rebates has been superimposed, and some companies have accelerated the process of overseas layout. In 2024, Shanghai Yousheng Aluminum plans to invest 2.8 billion yuan to build a new factory in Mexico, Mengtai Group will acquire 100% equity of Swiss Menziken Aluminum, Zhongyifeng Lopuskin plans to set up a wholly-owned subsidiary in Vietnam, Xingfa Aluminum’s 20,000-ton aluminum project in Australia and 180,000-ton aluminum project in Vietnam are progressing in an orderly manner, and Xinbo shares’ 70,000-ton aluminum frame project in Malaysia is under construction.
The Ministry of Emergency Management’s “Safety Specifications for Aluminum Processing (Deep Well Casting) (Draft for Comments)” was issued
In the past year, Nantong Asia Pacific, Fujian Fen’an, Henan Zhongrui, and Shanxi Southeast Precision have successively experienced 4 aluminum casting safety accidents, 3 of which were major accidents. Since 2018, a total of 10 safety accidents have occurred in the field of deep well casting for aluminum processing, 9 of which are major accidents, which is very distressing.
On December 27, the Law Enforcement Industry and Trade Bureau of the Ministry of Emergency Management issued the “Safety Specifications for Aluminum Processing (Deep Well Casting) (Draft for Comments)”, proposing a series of new requirements such as “newly built, rebuilt, and expanded project casting machines should use hydraulic traction systems”, “except for special process casting furnaces such as vacuum furnaces and inert gas protection furnaces, casting furnaces should be tilting”, “casting areas should be isolated from other processes by hard isolation measures such as solid walls with a height of not less than 2 m (excluding safety passages and smelting plants)”, “When multiple casting wells are set up in the same workshop, casting machines with the nearest edge distance of less than 15 m between casting wells should be interlocked and should not operate at the same time”
Cancellation of export tax rebates, enterprises actively adjust export strategies
On November 15, the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation issued the “Announcement on Adjusting Export Tax Rebate Policies” (No. 15 of 2024), canceling export tax rebates for 24 tax numbers of aluminum from December 1.
Since 2024, India, the Eurasian Economic Union, Thailand, Israel, and the United States have launched anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations on my country’s aluminum foil, aluminum extrusions, aluminum tableware, and other aluminum products. On May 14, the United States released the results of the four-year review of the 301 tariffs on China, announcing that based on the original 301 tariffs on China, it would further increase the tariffs on electric vehicles, lithium batteries, photovoltaic cells, key minerals, semiconductors, steel and aluminum, port cranes, personal protective equipment and other products imported from China. Among them, the tariff on aluminum products will be increased from 7.5% to 25%.
Although my country’s aluminum export pressure has increased and export uncertainty has increased, the export volume of sub-categories has continued to grow. In the first 11 months, aluminum plates, aluminum foils, and aluminum extrusions were exported at 3.16 million tons, 1.44 million tons, and 1.15 million tons, respectively, up 25.0%, 19.7%, and 12.1% year-on-year. Aluminum processing enterprises should adapt to new situations and changes promptly, take the initiative, strengthen communication with overseas customers, actively adjust business strategies, shift to processing trade mode, shift to product exports, and do everything possible to stabilize the basic export of aluminum materials and products.
Investment enthusiasm remains unabated, and there are still many new projects
In the field of aluminum plates and strips, especially hot rolling, new investment projects are still hot. At present, Yunnan Zhilu, Zhihui Xinyuan, Chongqing Huafeng, and Southwest Aluminum are all building (1+4) hot rolling projects. In addition, Mingtai Aluminum’s second (1+4) hot rolling project was officially put into production in November 2023, and Baowu Aluminum’s (1+3) hot rolling was successfully upgraded to (1+4) on November 15, 2024. As of now, the total number of hot rolling projects with (1+4) and above in the country has reached 18.
In the field of aluminum foil, the construction of the 170,000-ton annual production of new energy high-precision aluminum foil project of Chalco Aluminum Foil has started, the construction of the 100,000-ton annual production of recycled aluminum foil project of Baotou Chang Aluminum is underway, and the main equipment of the first phase of the 100,000-ton annual production of battery foil/double zero foil project of Luoyang Longding has been installed and debugged.
In the field of aluminum extrusion, Southwest Aluminum plans to build the world’s largest 250MN double-acting aluminum extruder project, Guangdong Huachang’s annual production of 200,000 tons of aluminum profiles project is in trial operation, and Inner Mongolia Wei Ke’s annual production of 200,000 tons of green lightweight high-end aluminum alloy deep processing project is in trial production.
Aluminum extrusion companies should pay attention to risk prevention
In the real estate field, as the delivery of guaranteed buildings is coming to an end, a series of related indicators such as real estate development investment and completed area continue to decline; real estate companies such as Landsea, Dongyuan, Jinhui, Agile, and Vanke are deeply in debt crisis, and the risk of default of real estate companies is still severe. The market environment faced by building profile companies is not optimistic.
In the photovoltaic field, according to the third quarter report, 39 of the 121 listed photovoltaic companies suffered net losses, and the losses of leading companies such as Longi Green Energy, Tongwei Co., Ltd., and TCL Zhonghuan were even more serious, with the highest loss reaching 6.5 billion yuan. The photovoltaic industry has entered a new round of downward cycles. Photovoltaic profile companies must deeply learn the lessons of the collapse of real estate companies, actively respond, strengthen risk prevention, ensure “steady progress”, and remember that “survival is more important than development”!
