Earthquake in Xinjiang

An earthquake of magnitude 6.2 occurred in China’s Xinjiang Province earlier today. There have been a couple of aftershocks reported since the first tremor.

There are 8 smelters in Xinjiang with total 6.7Mt operating capacity. After checking with smelters, two of them have reported no damage to their plants. We are still attempting to talk to the other plants.

Aluminum smelters are generally built to meet earthquake protection standards. There are several potential threats to a smelter - disruption to supply of electricity if the power station is affected, damage to the integrity of the potroom foundations, liquid metal spilling and general damage to other parts of the plant.

Xinjiang is a particularly sensitive area for aluminum supply. Recently the Shanghai price rose in response to snow storms blocking delivery of ingots to markets. We expect some speculators will move on the metal price, using the uncertainty of whether there was damage to railway lines or highways. There have not been any reports of damage to logistics channels, but it is still early yet.

As mentioned, there have been no reports of damage to any smelter as yet, but we will keep checking and will post more information if it becomes available.

The photos below show the distance between the earthquake epicenter to each smelter in Xinjiang.

今天，新疆发生了6.2级地震。随后发生了多次余震。

新疆共有8家电解铝厂，共涉及到运行产能约 670.5万吨。通过和相关电解铝厂联系，其中两家铝厂反应他们没有受到地震的影响。我们还在积极与其他新疆的铝厂联系并获得最新消息。

电解铝厂在建厂时有一定的抗地震标准要求。地震会对铝厂有许多潜在的影响，例如一旦发电站受到地震影响，电解铝厂的电源供应会有问题；地震对电解铝车间的基础完整性会起到破坏；地震会产生铝液溢出的潜在危险和对铝厂其他部分产生一定的破坏。

新疆对铝市场的供应占有至关重要的地位。最近新疆的大雪影响到了铝锭的供应，并直接导致沪铝价格的攀升。我们认为此次地震会引起资金炒作者对铁路运输和公路运输受地震影响的不确定性而再次操控铝价。我们还没有得到确切消息说地震已影响到了物流运输。因为地震刚发生不久，相关物流信息还没有报出。

到目前为止，我们还没有听说电解铝厂受到了地震影响。我们会持续关注相关信息并及时为您做出更新。

文中图片显示地震中心到各大电解铝厂的距离。