Ye Chiu Metal to Build New Secondary Al Alloy Plant in Malaysia in 2010

Chinese major secondary alloyed aluminium maker, Ye Chiu Metal (Taicang) in Jiangsu tries to build new plant in Malaysia in 2010. The firm negotiates with Malaysian government for natural gas supply and the firm expects to get the supply in around end of 2010. The chairman Chung Sheng Huang said to a reporter of Japan Metal Bulletin the firm plans to launch the new plant with 13,000-14,000 tonnes of monthly output capacity in spring 2011.

The firm operates small plant with 7,000 tonnes of monthly output capacity on land with 65,000 square meters in Johore, Malaysia. The current production level is 5,000 tonnes mainly for ADC12 grade die-casting material.

The firm planned to launch new plant in Malaysia as early as in 2007. The firm secured 140,000 square meters of land in 10 kilometers away from existing plant and prepared for the construction. However, the firm couldn’t secure natural gas supply. After then, the plant was shelved.

Malaysian natural gas supply is short due to higher demand than the capacity. According to Mr. Huang, several hundreds of companies in Malaysia still cannot secure sufficient gas supply.

Mr. Huang sees secondary alloyed aluminium demand in Southeast Asia started to improve in past several months while the demand is still weaker than China. He expects the actual demand recovery could take place as early as in mid-2010 in Southeast Asia. The firm tries to establish new supply base in the area with expectation for sustainable growth of the market.