Sapa forms joint venture with China’s largest aluminium company

Aluminium Corporation of China Limited (Chalco), the largest aluminium company in China, and the Sapa Group, the world’s largest aluminium extrusion company, signed a memorandum of understanding to form a joint venture (JV) to serve the rapidly growing Chinese rolling stock market. The JV will be a 50/50 joint venture between Chalco and Sapa.

The Chinese rolling stock industry has seen a very strong development both in terms of volume and technology. The JV will be able to meet the current needs as well as serving the rapidly increasing technical demands of the rolling stock industry. The parties are certain that a combination of Sapa’s extrusion knowledge and Chalco’s aluminium production expertise is a strong foundation for a successful JV. The JV will construct an aluminium extrusion and fabrication facility in the south areas in China. This facility will comprise the latest of technology both with regards to press- and fabrication capabilities. The two parties aim at concluding the contract negotiations and final plans for the construction of the facility by Q4, 2010, but aim at launching products to market as early as Q1,2011 through the two parties' existing subsidiaries.