CITIC Group, the country's biggest state-owned financial group, has joined hands with Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) to establish a new aluminum firm, the US company announced at a press conference in Beijing yesterday.

Alcoa plans to pour US$200 million into the joint venture for facility construction, including an aluminum hot mill plant, said Joseph Muscari, Alcoa's executive vice president.

According to the agreement, CITIC Group will hold 27 percent of the stakes in the new firm, named Alcoa Bohai Aluminum Industries Company Limited.

Alcoa is a world leading aluminum producer and also China's biggest investor and trade partner in the aluminum industry, Muscari said, adding that his company aims to shape the joint venture into a technologically advanced enterprise with global competitiveness.

CITIC Group's core business ranges from finance and industrial investment to service industries, and it said it will utilize foreign capital and market access to support the operation of the new company, Vice Chairman and General Manager Kong Dan was quoted by Xinhua News Agency as saying.

CITIC Group said the new firm has acquired a registered investment of 1.87 billion yuan (US$234 million) and would achieve an annual production of 223,000 tons of high quality aluminum products after completion of the hot mill plant in 2008. It is believed that it will be the biggest aluminum processing company in China in terms of investment and throughput.?

(Xinhua News Agency October 13, 2005)