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”!