On December 29th, 2017, Zhao Hao, the marketing director of Asian Metal, and Iris He, the market analyst of Asian Metal, visited Guizhou Sanshan Abrasive Co., Ltd. and were welcomed warmly and shown around producing and processing workshops of the company by Liu Yuanju, the chairman of the board, Liu Yi, the general manager, and Kuai Yuewen, the business manager. Lu Yi stated that the company is constructing the second phase of project and plans to increase its annual capacity of brown fused alumina to about 110,000t.
When speaking to the market supply and industry development of brown fused alumina in 2018, Liu Yi noted that the market situation would remain complex in 2018 due to the tight supply affected by environmental inspections in 2017. On the one hand, with the gradual normalization of environmental inspections, producers will inevitably have more costs as they have to invest more capital in supporting environmental protection equipment; on the other hand, the cost and stability of brown fused alumina production will be influenced by national policies on resource protection and mining limitation as well as the levy of environmental taxes in 2018.