UC RUSAL expands its cathode producing capacity in China

UC RUSAL announced that the company has acquired a cathode plant in Baoguan, which is located in the administrative centre of Taiyuan, within the Shanxi Province, in the People’s Republic of China. The plant’s existing annual capacity is currently 9,300 tn of cathode blocks and the company plans to increase this to 20,900 tn by 2010. The total investment in the plant’s development is planned to exceed USD 20 mln.

The Baoguan plant, located 600 km from Beijing, was built in 2001. It specializes in production of cathode blocks, which are a key component of the electrolytic cells required to produce aluminium. The Baoguan plant is now the second asset owned by UC RUSAL in China following the purchase in April 2006 of a 15,000 tn-a year cathode plant in the Linshi district of the Shanxi Province. Products from the Chinese plants meet the demand for cathode blocks from UC RUSAL’s smelters in Siberia. Current cathode producing capacity supplies about 30% of the company’s needs and the Baoguan expansion project will enable UC RUSAL to raise this up to 60%.