A leading Chinese consortium has started a USD 200 million project for importing bauxite ore from a new mine in Guinea, sidelining its traditional suppliers like Australia, India and Indonesia.
Singapore-based shipper, Winning International Group, leading the investors with a 45 per cent stake in Societe Miniere de Boke-Winning Africa Port (SMB-WAP), plans to export 30 million tonnes a year of bauxite ore from the new mine in Boke Province of Guinea in West Africa to China.
Winning executives said Guinea will become China's new source of bauxite ore as Australia has imposed restrictions for environment reasons, Indonesia has virtually banned it and the Indian bauxite was getting lower in quality.
Winning is transporting between three to four million tonnes of bauxite ore a year from India's western shores to China.
"The Indian bauxite ore quality is getting lower in aluminium content," said Bosco Lau Chi Wah, chief executive officer of the group's Winning Logistics Services Pte Ltd.
Lau estimates Indian bauxite ore exports to China at 10 million tonnes a year.
Comparatively, Guinea has bauxite reserves of 7.4 billion tonnes, or 26 per cent of the world's total deposits.
The group's mine has reserves of 100 million tonnes of 42 per cent to 45 per cent aluminium content.
The SMP-WAP consortium will initially start with five million tonnes of bauxite exports from Guinea this year, and increase it to 30 million tonnes in two years.
The investment is driven by the strong demand in China, which requires more than 55 million tonnes of bauxite ore per year, being the world's largest producers of aluminium.
Aluminium use is set to increase in industrial products from auto sectors to mobile phones, the executives said.
"This is an investment transcending regions, fields, continents and countries, connecting Singapore, Africa and China," said Sun Xiushun, president of the Winning Group.
Winning, as a shipping conglomerate, is venturing into bauxite ore mining, resource trading, marine shipping, and alumina smelting, he said.
Winning's partners in the SMP-WAP are China's Weiqiao Pioneering Group and Yantai Port Group as well as UMS, a Guinea-based company.
