China stepping up focus on aluminium overcapacity, Alcoa CEO says

China's approach to addressing aluminium overcapacity is a "night and day" change from five years' ago, according to the chief executive officer of Alcoa Corporation, Roy Harvey.

Harvey said that China had previously operated on a model of building a coal-fired power plant with a smelter connected and essentially repeating the process continually, increasing aluminium production and creating oversupply.
But China has become very serious about supply side reform, including a focus on the permitting process as well as environmental, social and governance issues, Harvey told the Bank of America Global Metals, Mining & Steel conference on Wednesday May 19.
"What we've certainly seen over these last few years is that it's not just a planning document that the Chinese have been talking about on supply side reform, it's been actual execution," he said.

"And actually, you've seen the slowdown in new production capacity coming online; you've seen the need for any...

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