The acquired company Chinalco-Shanghai Copper Industry Co., Ltd, used to be a subsidiary of Shanghai Nonferrous Metals (Group) Corp. It has finished restructuring and was put into operation on June 7.

With a registered capital of 1.22 billion yuan, the company will focus on copper plates/strips, and steadily develop copper alloy wires and electrolytic copper foils. It will also develop cooper alloy tubes.

It is learned that the company has one of China’s biggest copper and copper alloy plates/strips plants.

Aside from the 560 million yuan investment, Chinalco will invest another 1.1 billion yuan in a reconstruction project of high-refined copper plates/strips, which is expected to raise the production capacity from 50,000 tons per year to 120,000 tons per year.

Along with the fast economic growth, China’s output and demand for copper have increased considerably, said Kang Yi, director of China Nonferrous Metals Association.

The output of copper for the first time breached 3 million tons in 2006, ranking 1^st globally. Meanwhile, China is facing serious copper shortage as it is world’s biggest copper consumption country. High-end processed copper products have been relying on import, Kang said.

Chinalco purchased Hubei Daye Nonferrous Metals in 2004 and Luoyang Copper Industry in 2005. Hubei Daye Nonferrous Metals is China’s biggest upstream copper smelter while Luoyang Copper and Shanghai Nonferrous Metals are two largest copper processing companies, belonging to downstream sectors.