Chinese Aluminum Industry's Sixtieth Year     

China's aluminum industry has led and supported the country's economy for sixty years (1949-2009), in three significant stages that had long-term effectiveness, affected the country's industries overall and established splendid historical records.
    
First stage: Creation in 1949-1978. China manufactured 10 tons of aluminum in 1949. After the founding of the People's Republic of China in that year, the new government issued a large-scale economic strategic policy that took heavy industries as the center with priority development. In 1950, China began to build its first aluminum oxide plant (The No.501 Plant), and put it into operation in 1954. In 1949, China started to construct its first electrolytic aluminum factory - Fushun Aluminum Plant (now named Fushun Aluminum Co., Ltd.), putting it into operation in October 1954. In 1953 China started construction of the first aluminum processing plant - Northeast Light Alloy Processing Factory (now Northeast Light Alloy Processing Company of Chinalco (the Aluminum Corporation of China)), and put it on stream in 1956. China put its first fluoride salts workshop into operation in Fushun Aluminum Plant in 1954. China's first carbon pole factory went on line in 1955. China had initially formed a relatively complete industrial chain of aluminum by 1958, with the output of aluminum oxide reaching 100.8 thousand tons; electrolytic aluminum 48.5 thousand tons; and aluminum extrusion profiles 39.3 thousand tons.
   In 1958, China's State Council designated aluminum as the second-largest metal material for the national economy. Thus the Chinese aluminum industry embarked on a rapid development track. As of 1958, China established three aluminum oxide production bases - Shandong Aluminum Plant (now Shandong Branch of Chinalco), Zhengzhou Zhongyuan Aluminum Plant (now Zhengzhou Aluminium Industry Co., Ltd.) and Guizhou Aluminum Plant (now a subsidiary of Chalco (the Aluminum Corporation of China Limited)); and eight electrolytic aluminum production bases including Fushun Aluminum Plant, Baotou Aluminium Plant (now Baotou Aluminium (Group) Co., Ltd.), Qingtongxia Aluminum Plant (now Qingtongxia Aluminium Group); and several aluminum extrusion profiles production bases like Northeast Light Alloy Processing Factory, Southwest Aluminium (Group) Co., Ltd., Gansu Longxi Aluminum Factory. In 1978, China produced 778.7 thousand tons of aluminum oxide, 296.1 thousand tons of electrolytic aluminum and 105.6 thousand tons of aluminum extrusion profiles.

Second stage: miraculous rise in 1983-1995. China's aluminum industry entered a new stage of development in 1983, with rapidly increasing scale and production.
   In the aluminum oxide field, Shandong Aluminum Plant, Zhengzhou Zhongyuan Aluminum Plant, Guizhou Aluminum Plant completed second phase, third phase and fourth phase expansions, and gradually increased the country's output of aluminum oxide. Shanxi Aluminium Plant, Zhongzhou Aluminum Plant (now Zhongzhou Branch of Chalco) and Pingguo Aluminium Company were established in Shanxi and Henan provinces, Guangxi region respectively, all of which are rich in aluminum mineral resources. These three plants went into operation in the early 1990s. In this stage, the aluminum oxide companies mainly relied on the imports of foreign advanced technologies over the same period to conduct the technological upgrading and renovation. In 2000, the Aluminum Corporation of China (Chinalco) was put together, becoming China's largest aluminum oxide (alumina) company from day one. In 2001, Chinalco's Shanxi branch and Henan branch both ranked as China's largest aluminum oxide plants with annual output exceeding one million tons. In that year, China's top six aluminum oxide plants jointly produced 4.65 million tons of aluminum oxide, which was nearly six times the country's total output in 1978, accounting for 98% of the country's total and 9% of the global total. China hence became one of the world's leading aluminum oxide producing countries.
   In 1984, Guizhou Aluminum Plant of Chalco, Baiyin Hualu Aluminum Company and Qingtongxia Aluminium Group imported technologies and equipment from Japan, helping to upgrade the technology and equipment level for China's electrolytic aluminum industry. At the same time, in order to optimize the industrial layout, a number of small and medium sized electrolytic aluminum enterprises, including Yunnan Aluminium Co., Ltd. and Shanxi Guanlu Co., Ltd., were set up in the energy-rich regions. In 2001, China's electrolytic aluminum output increased rapidly to 3.42 million tons, accounting for 15.7% of the world's total, and in that year China became a net exporter of primary aluminum.
    Driven by the fast development of the home building industry, China's aluminum processing industry entered a fast development period. In 1978, Yingkou Liaohe Aluminium Products Co., Ltd. purchased a 16.3MN hydraulic press machine from Japan, the first in China, becoming the country's first company producing aluminum extrusion profiles for the home building industry. Then came the first round of setting up new companies to produce aluminum extrusion profiles. Private and joint-venture aluminum processing companies quickly developed and emerged, and foreign companies entered the Chinese market for aluminum processing. China's aluminum processing industry started a trend of diversified development. After 1995, along with the restructure of China's manufacturing industries, the aluminum processing technologies that focus on the construction of aluminum plate, belt and foil capacity gradually adopted international standards, and another upsurge was witnessed in China's construction of aluminum processing capacity.

Third stage: innovation and crossover from 1996. When China's aluminum oxide industry was founded, the players created a new set of aluminum oxide manufacture processes - the combined and joint method - in line with the characteristics of domestic resources in monohydrate diaspore. This method was first applied successfully in Zhengzhou Zhongzhou Aluminum Plant. Thereafter, based on imported technologies, the combined and joint method has gradually become the main method for producing aluminum oxide in China. From 2000, China's aluminum oxide enterprises markedly accelerated the pace of innovation, and a large number of key technologies with intellectual property rights were developed in this period, including the high-temperature double streams process with enhanced leaching technology, the enhanced sintering method and the extraction of gallium with resin adsorption technology and etc. These technologies became a solid foundation for the rapid development of China's aluminum oxide industry.
    With respect to electrolytic aluminum process innovations, Fushun Aluminum Plant began to try 135 kA pre-baked anode aluminum electrolytic cell test in 1965. In 1996, Zhengzhou Light Metal Research Institute (now Zhengzhou Research Institute of Chalco), Guiyang Aluminium & Magnesium Design and Research Institute (now Guiyang Branch of Chalieco), and Shenyang Aluminum & Magnesium Engineering and Research Institute (now Shenyang Branch of Chalieco) jointly developed the technology of 280 kA pre-baked cell with high-volume. From 1990s' the locally developed pre-baked cell technology over 180 kA has been widely adopted in Chinese newly constructed, renovated and expanded electrolytic aluminum plants. In 2000, a 320 kA large-scale, high-performance pre-baked cell technology was developed cooperatively by the Pingguo Aluminium Company and Guiyang Aluminium & Magnesium Design and Research Institute.
    For carbon cathnode and fluoride salt used in electrolytic aluminum, China successfully d