In the middle of last year 1 1 month, the domestic alumina price was still hovering around 1800 yuan/ton. Since 20021February, the market price of alumina has been rising all the way. In just five months, it rose from 1830 yuan/ton to 3,250 yuan/ton, an increase of nearly 80%, and high-priced goods were hard to buy. Some middlemen who import alumina even store a large amount of imported alumina in the port and hoard it. Why did the price of alumina rise from the long-term downturn in the past to the current strength? Alumina is the upstream product of electrolytic aluminum and the main raw material of electrolytic aluminum industry. By the end of 2002, the capacity of 32 electrolytic aluminum enterprises in China was 5.22 million tons, the actual output in that year was 4.35 million tons, the sales volume was 4/kloc-0.40 million tons, and the export volume was 206 thousand tons. On this basis, China's electrolytic aluminum production capacity was 2.6 million tons in 2003. In addition, some localities and enterprises are stepping up preparations for a batch of electrolytic aluminum projects with a capacity of over 500,000 tons. China has become the largest producer of electrolytic aluminum in the world. According to the ratio that 1 ton of electrolytic aluminum needs 2 tons of alumina, China needs nearly10 million tons of alumina. However, the actual production capacity of six alumina plants in China last year was only 54 1 10,000 tons, and the domestic resource satisfaction rate was only 54.5%. Judging from the situation in the whole province, Henan is a major province in aluminum industry and electrolytic aluminum production. Last year, the output of 2/kloc-0 electrolytic aluminum enterprises in the province was1008500 tons, accounting for about a quarter of the national total output. According to the capacity estimation of completed projects in Henan Province in 2002, the output of electrolytic aluminum in this province will reach1400,000 tons this year, which will increase the demand of 800,000 tons of alumina, and the total demand will be close to 3 million tons. Moreover, according to the estimation of electrolytic aluminum projects started in the province this year, the electrolytic aluminum production capacity in the province will reach 2.23 million tons in 2004, and the output will exceed1800,000 tons. By then, the demand for alumina will reach more than 3.7 million tons. In 2005, the production capacity was 2.5 million tons, and the output was about 2 million tons. At present, domestic alumina enterprises simply cannot meet such a large demand. In recent years, with the improvement of people's living standards, the world's demand for aluminum has increased year by year. In addition, the rapid development of domestic real estate industry and the large-scale implementation of rural power grid transformation in the previous two years have induced electrolytic aluminum projects in many areas to be launched one after another. Correspondingly, alumina enterprises have large investment, long time-consuming and few projects. This is not proportional to the growing demand for raw materials for the rapidly developing electrolytic aluminum. Comprehensive analysis of the relationship between supply and demand in the international and domestic alumina market and its changes shows that the current price center of gravity will continue to move up for a long time. The bauxite reserves in Mianchi County of our city are 1.47 billion tons, with high grade, easy exploitation and unique resource advantages. Although the overall cost of domestic alumina is slightly higher than the average level of foreign countries, the advantages of domestic factories are still very obvious if factors such as freight and customs duties are considered. The construction of Mianchi County1050,000 tons alumina project can alleviate the shortage of alumina in the whole province and even the whole country to some extent, and meet the needs of the rapid development of electrolytic aluminum industry. After the project is completed and put into production, it is expected to enter the ranks of large alumina production enterprises in the world.