Aluminum Corp of China (Chinalco), the nation's largest aluminum
and alumina producer, said on Friday it is actively pursuing
opportunities to expand into other metals including copper and
titanium.
Chinalco has earmarked 30 billion yuan to fund its expansion
into copper and is in talks to develop mines and projects in
Russia, Mongolia, Indonesia and Fiji, a company source said on
Friday.
Lu Yongqing, the company's vice-president, said on Friday that
Chinalco will focus on copper mine exploration and high-end copper
product manufacturing.
"Metal companies that depend on a single metal cannot secure a
sustainable competitive advantage," Lu said.
Chinalco has completed an $860 million takeover of Peru Copper
and plans to buy a 49 percent stake in Yunnan Copper Group.
Xiao Yaqing, Chinalco's president, said copper, which now
accounts for less than 10 percent of its income, could become a
major revenue earner for the company.
The acquisition of Peru Copper and Yunnan Copper would give
Chinalco total copper reserves of about 20 million tons - more than
Jiangxi Copper, the mainland's biggest producer.
Chinalco and British company Aricom, which owns a titanium mine
in Russia, have also struck a deal to co-invest 2.2 billion yuan in
a titanium project in Jiamusi, in Northeast China's Heilongjiang
Province. The project will have an initial output of 15,000 tons
and is expected to begin operation in 2009. Its output is expected
to reach 30,000 tons after second-phase construction.
Chinalco's listed unit Chalco is publicly traded in Hong Kong,
New York and Shanghai. Chinalco posted a first-half sales increase
of 36.2 percent on Friday from a year earlier, and 10.8 percent net
profit growth, buoyed by a series of takeovers that boosted
capacity.
The company notched up 105.5 billion yuan in sales income and
22.5 billion yuan in net profit last year.
(China Daily September 1, 2007)
