An electrolytic aluminum company in Sichuan went into operation in 2001 and established its own baked carbon anode factory in 2003. The distance between carbon anode production line and electrolytic aluminum production line is less than 1.0 km. The baked carbon anode factory supplies the carbon anode to the electrolytic aluminum production line, at the same time, the baked carbon anode factory recovers the carbon anode butts which from the said electrolytic aluminum production line.
The main raw materials for the baked carbon anode factory are petroleum coke, coal tar pitch and carbon anode butts, among of them, the proportion of calcined petroleum coke in carbon anode is about 70%. In addition, the calcined petroleum coke process in the said baked carbon anode is rotary kiln, which means it takes about 1200 kgs of petroleum coke to produce every 1000 kgs of carbon anode.
Since the place of origin for petroleum coke in China is mainly distributed in coastal areas such as Shandong, Liaoning, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, etc,but as an inland area, Sichuan is far away from the origin of petroleum coke, which brings to the high transportation charge. As a result, the production cost of carbon anode in the said factory is much higher than the average market price of carbon anode. For electrolytic aluminum company, it is more cost-effective to purchase carbon anode directly from coastal areas.
Owing to the long-term cost pressure for the baked carbon anode factory, the production line stopped production in 2019.