May 7 (Reuters) – China’s Tsingshan Holding Group has applied for aluminium from its Hua Chin smelting joint venture in Indonesia to be deliverable on the London Metal Exchange, a notice from the bourse showed on Thursday.
If accepted, Hua Chin, where Tsingshan is partnered by fellow Chinese firm Huafon Group, would become only the second Indonesian high-grade primary aluminium brand to be accepted by the LME after that of state-owned Inalum.
• The application comes as Indonesia ramps up production and exports of aluminium, potentially offsetting shortages caused by the war in the Middle East.
• The second phase of Hua Chin, located on the island of Sulawesi, started up this year; the project has annual capacity of 480,000 metric tons of aluminium ingots, according to the LME notice.
• Tsingshan is best known as the world’s biggest nickel producer; nickel cathodes produced by its Indonesian affiliate PT Eternal Nickel Industry are deliverable against the LME’s nickel contract.
(Reporting by Tom Daly and Dylan Duan. Editing by Mark Potter)