On January 15, 2026, thunderous applause rang out in the Port D ‘Ande Free Trade Zone in Bengo Province, Angola – the first electrolytic aluminium plant in Angola, led by a Chinese company, was officially put into operation. Angolan President Joao Lorenzo was present to cut the ribbon and press the start button of the project. This is not only a milestone in Angola’s industrial history, but also another benchmark for the export of China’s electrolytic aluminum technology and capacity.
As Angola’s largest industrialization project at present, the first phase, with an investment of 250 million US dollars, has an annual production capacity of 120,000 tons and can directly create 1,200 local jobs. The project hides a “cost killer” : Relying on Angola’s abundant hydropower resources, the industrial electricity price is as low as 0.08 yuan per kilowatt-hour, only one fifth of the mainstream production areas in China. The electricity cost per ton of aluminium is 4,200 yuan less than that in China, and the profit margin is far above the industry average. What’s more notable is that the project uses a large pre-baked electrolytic cell technology independently developed in China, which has low energy consumption and excellent environmental performance, and the green aluminum produced can be directly connected to the high-premium markets in Europe and the United States.
From a strategic perspective, this is just the beginning: the project will be built in five phases with a total investment of $1.6 billion and will form a full industrial chain of “alumina – electrolytic aluminum – deep processing of aluminum products” within 8 to 10 years. Angola is transforming from an “oil-dependent economy” to an “aluminum capital of Africa” with the subsequent expansion of 240,000 tons of capacity and the follow-up of five to six Chinese projects. For the global aluminium industry, with the supply gap expected to widen to 800,000 tons in 2026, this low-cost green capacity trough will profoundly influence the LME aluminium price trend and the global supply pattern.
Chinese enterprises led the design, construction and technology export throughout the process, from the process plan of Guiyang Institute to the project performance of China CAMC International, demonstrating the full industrial chain strength of China’s aluminum industry. This mountain-sea capacity cooperation not only writes a new chapter for China-Africa industrialization cooperation, but also provides a replicable “China-Anan model” for the low-carbon transformation of the global aluminum industry.