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)