China's rapid industrialization and urbanization has fueled a boom in consumer demand for aluminum. Aluminum is an important part of the cable, the cable so that more and more Chinese users to use the Internet; last year, China sold 13.6 million vehicles, the average use of 130 kilograms of aluminum per vehicle; 2009 China new residential sales of 8.5 million units , Residential construction in many places are using aluminum. At present, China is the world's largest producer and consumer of primary aluminum, equivalent to about 37 million tonnes of global production in 2009 and about one-third of consumption of 3,430 tonnes. However, China's consumption is still lower than the developed countries, the annual consumption of 10.5 kg per person, while the developed countries per capita consumption of up to 13.1 kg per year. With economic development, China 's consumption may be doubled.

China's aluminum products to meet the demand there is pressure. Given China's reputation in other industries, this may be a bit surprising. China, for example, has the capacity to produce large quantities of steel, which makes global steel prices fall, as are electronics and consumer manufactured goods. But aluminum is another case. First of all, China's efforts to promote the aluminum industry, the production of one metric ton of aluminum, the average power consumption of about 17.4 million watts (while melting one ton of steel, only 5.7 million watts of electricity consumption). Energy-intensive is the reason why many refineries in the world are located in power-rich regions (hydropower, natural gas, coal or nuclear power). China is still heavily dependent on coal to meet its electricity needs, but the cost of coal is not low, nor environmentally friendly.

The productivity of the smelter is another key issue. The average production cost per metric ton of aluminum in most Chinese aluminum producers ranges from 2,000 to 2,100 US dollars, while the current aluminum price is around $ 2,260 per tonne. If the price of aluminum falls below $ 2,000 per metric ton, up to 80% of China's aluminum production could not be profitable, and about 25% of China's aluminum output is now unprofitable. At the same time, the aluminum giant Rusal is producing only $ 1,653 per metric ton of aluminum due to its proximity to cheap hydroelectric power and cost-saving measures (according to BrookHunt, Alcoa) (US $ 1,800) and Chalco (US $ 2,000 per tonne).

As the Chinese government strives to increase economic efficiency and tackle environmental problems on a wider scale, China may eventually eliminate all of the least efficient aluminum production and transfer energy to other important state-level projects and urban consumers. Once this is the case, many local consumer companies will have to go overseas to find aluminum. This is a great opportunity for global aluminum producers. Chinese companies have been working to obtain stable supply from domestic producers, the world's major aluminum producers also strive for in this lucrative market share.

China has shown a strong determination to strike a balance between economic growth and quality and efficiency so that the national economy can grow healthily. Aluminum is an example of its surprising opportunity for Chinese trading partners. In 10 years, we will see a completely different China, the problem is who first of all benefit from this change.