Producer
Chalco (Aluminum Corporation of China)
State-owned Chinese aluminum company (subsidiary of Chinalco); China's largest alumina and primary aluminum producer; operates ~50 bauxite mines and 15+ alumina refineries across China and internationally; ~12% of global alumina production
2
Inputs supplied
2
Goods downstream
1
Facilities
0
Stories
What they make
2 inputs Chalco (Aluminum Corporation of China) supplies
Click an input to see every good that depends on it, every country that produces it, and every other company in the supply chain.
Where it shows up
Goods downstream
Essential goods that depend on something Chalco (Aluminum Corporation of China) makes — pick one to see the full supply chain.
What else they do
Business segments
The company's full revenue map — where this supply-chain role fits within their broader business.
Bauxite Mining
15%Alumina Refining
35%Primary Aluminum Smelting
35%Downstream Fabrication
15%
Intelligence
What's known
Sourced claims about this company's role in supply chains — chokepoints, concentration, incidents, dual-use connections.
Did you know2023
Chalco produces primary aluminum used in Chinese commercial aviation (COMAC C919), Chinese military aircraft (J-20 stealth fighter), Chinese EV vehicles (BYD, NIO), Chinese beverage cans (for Wahaha and Mengniu), and Chinese power transmission infrastructure. The same state-owned smelting complex that produces aluminum for the consumer goods sold globally in Walmart and Amazon also produces structural aluminum for the PLA fighter jets and naval vessels that US defense planners classify as threats. This dual-use is more extreme than the Ajinomoto/semiconductor example because Chalco is explicitly a state enterprise that the Chinese government uses for both economic development and industrial self-sufficiency in defense materials. Unlike a private company with accidental dual-use, Chalco's dual-use is designed -- the Chinese state created it precisely to serve both civilian industrial development and defense industry needs from the same integrated assets.
Aluminum Corporation of China (Chalco) ↗Origin2023
Chalco (Aluminum Corporation of China) was established in 2001 by the Chinese government through Chinalco (China National Aluminum Corporation) to consolidate China's fragmented state aluminum assets and build a globally competitive aluminum enterprise that could challenge Alcoa and Rio Tinto's dominance. China had consumed imported aluminum through the 1990s, but determined that aluminum self-sufficiency was a strategic necessity for an industrializing economy. Chalco's creation was followed by massive government-subsidized capacity expansion: cheap coal power and state capital allowed Chinese smelters to add 50 million tonnes of annual capacity in 20 years -- more than the entire global aluminum production in 2000. China went from an aluminum importer in 1995 to producing over 55% of global primary aluminum by 2020, collapsing global aluminum prices and driving Western smelter closures in Europe and North America. Chalco was the state vehicle for this geopolitical industrial transformation.
Aluminum Corporation of China (Chalco) ↗