BEIJING - Shandong Nanshan Aluminum Co Ltd, China's second-largest aluminum products maker, said it will invest $161 million to build an extrusion plant in the United States to further tap into the overseas market.

The Nanshan facility in Lafayette, Indiana, will make high-end aluminum extrusions used in sectors such as mass transportation, automotive, distribution, and electrical industries, with annual production of 40,000 tons, said the Shanghai-listed company on Wednesday.

The plant in the US will also make materials for train bodies for the upcoming high-speed rail industry.

The plant is expected to start production by June 2012, and will employ 150 staff within two years, Song Jianbo, Nanshan's board chairman, told China Daily.

The Lafayette plant, the company's first manufacturing site in the US, will be named Nanshan America Advanced Aluminum Technologies.

The company signed a primary agreement with the Lafayette city authorities on Feb 17 this year, declaring its investment in the US.

Nanshan Aluminum reported on April 19 that it expected net profit in the first quarter to rise more than 50 percent year-on-year, thanks to a sustained heavy volume in deep-processing products and an adjustment to structural products this year.

China is the world's largest consumer of aluminum extrusion products, with a growth rate of 25 percent year-on-year.

Industry insiders said the move to build a US plant is related to the US anti-dumping and countervailing duties investigations arising in 2010.

In May 2010, the US International Trade Commission approved a US Commerce Department investigation on aluminum extrusions, stating that there was enough evidence to show a massive increase in imports from China.

According to the US government, imports of aluminum extrusion products from China rose 90 percent from 2007 to 2009 and in 2009 alone were valued at an estimated $514 million.

In March 2011, the US government increased anti-dumping duties to 33.28 percent from 32.79 percent, and countervailing duties on the imports of Chinese-made aluminum extrusions could be as much as 374.15 percent.

China Zhongwang Holdings Ltd, China's largest aluminum extrusion producer, said in March that it expects the proportion of exports to the US to decline further this year, owing to the US anti-dumping and countervailing duties.

The company reported a 26 percent decline in profits in the fiscal year 2010 due to the decline in export sales from the US.

China Daily