Chinese magnesium alloy producer Nanjing Yunhai Special Metals is on target to boost its output capacity for aluminium alloy air-conditioning flat tube in response to growing demand from the auto industry in China.

The Jiangsu-based firm aims to expand capacity to 20,000 t/yr by the end of 2020 from 15,000 t/yr last year.

Aluminium tube is one of Yunhai’s main business sectors, which received revenue of 250mn yuan ($36mn) in 2019, up by 9pc from 2018 and accounting for 5pc of the company’s total revenues.

Yunhai’s share of the Chinese aluminium alloy air-conditioning flat tube market is 20pc. Output increases in China’s auto industry are expected to support demand for aluminium tubes. It is also likely to replace copper tubes in household appliances in the longer term.

China’s auto output in June grew by 22.5pc from a year earlier to 2.33mn units, with sales increasing by 11.6pc to 2.3mn units, according to data from China’s automotive manufacturers association.

Yunhai has a design capacity of 180,000 t/yr for magnesium alloy, including 100,000 t/yr from its Chaohu plant, 50,000 t/yr from Wutai and 30,000 t/yr from Huizhou. Its magnesium alloy sales reached 156,000t in 2019.

The firm also has 100,000 t/yr of in-house capacity for magnesium metal feedstock with 50,000 t/yr each from the Wutai and Chaohu plants.