Embracing Aluminum as King, China's First Female Wealthy Family Ride the Wind New Energy

Ask AI · Under the cap on electrolytic aluminum capacity, how has the Zeng Shuliang family’s wealth continued to grow?

Zhang Bo, Chairman of the Board of Directors of China Hongqiao. Visual China/Photo

In the 2026 Forbes Global Billionaires List released on March 10, Zeng Shuliang, 80 years old, and her family ranked 8th in China (including Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan) with $33.2 billion, and 63rd globally. This is the Zeng Shuliang family’s first time making it into the top ten in China, and the only woman among the top ten.

The Zeng Shuliang family holds 64.02% of China Hongqiao (01378.HK), which is precisely the main source of their wealth. China Hongqiao was founded by her late husband, Zhang Shiping, and is the world’s second-largest aluminum producer.

However, the real stockholders are the couple’s children. After Zhang Shiping died in 2019, the equity stakes he held were inherited by three children, Zhang Bo, Zhang Hongxia, and Zhang Hongyan, at 40%, 30%, and 30%, respectively. China Hongqiao is indirectly controlled by Shiping Global Holdings, and Zhang Bo also succeeded as chairman of China Hongqiao’s board.

Like many well-known enterprises that emerged after the reform and opening up, the history of this trillion-yuan aluminum company can be traced back to collective economy.

In 1981, Zhang Shiping started his career as the general manager of the No. 5 Oil and Cotton Mill in Zouping (a county-level city under the administration of Binzhou City, Shandong Province). Over the next more than thirty years, he turned a supply and marketing cooperative factory into an integrated industrial group combining cotton picking, textiles, thermal power, and the aluminum industry.

Through careful design and arrangement, China Hongqiao obtained unmatched electrolytic aluminum capacity, ultimately riding the global surge in demand for new energy.

The electrolytic aluminum price was triggered at just the right moment and soon appeared in the capital markets. In early 2024, China Hongqiao’s share price was only around HK$5; it closed at HK$34 on March 25, 2026.

Capacity is highly concentrated

China Hongqiao listed in Hong Kong in 2011. Its products cover upstream raw materials such as alumina, midstream aluminum alloy products (electrolytic aluminum), and downstream aluminum alloy processing products (aluminum foil, aluminum plate, etc.).

According to the group’s full-year performance for 2025 released on March 23, 2026, the group’s revenue was approximately RMB 162.35B, a year-on-year increase of about 4%, and the main source of revenue is midstream electrolytic aluminum, contributing RMB 106.1B.

Electrolytic aluminum is aluminum produced in electrolytic cells using molten-salt electrolysis with alumina, also called primary aluminum, and it is the raw material for all aluminum products.

Data calculated and published in the US Geological Survey’s “Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025” show that in 2024, global electrolytic aluminum output was about 72 million tons, of which China produced about 43 million tons, accounting for nearly 60%.

And this capacity is almost a “ceiling.” In 2018, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the “Notice on Matters Concerning Capacity Replacement for Electrolytic Aluminum Enterprises via Mergers and Acquisitions,” explicitly locking China’s total electrolytic aluminum capacity upper limit at about 45 million tons per year.

According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2025 China’s electrolytic aluminum output was 45.02M tons, already reaching the theoretical capacity cap. More demand has to rely on imports. According to data from the General Administration of Customs, in 2025 China imported 2.54M tons of electrolytic aluminum, up 18.8% year on year; by contrast, export volume was only 298k tons.

With capacity constrained and demand continuing to rise, it provides support for aluminum prices. Since August 2023, aluminum prices have fluctuated upward. In January 2026, the Shanghai aluminum main contract once rose to a historical high of 26,185 yuan/ton. After that, it traded at high levels above 23,000 yuan/ton. Then, as fighting in the Middle East broke out and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz was disrupted, aluminum prices once again surged to above 25,000 yuan/ton.

A person in charge of an aluminum profile processing plant that specializes in home appliances and power industry components had to start stockpiling and raise the inventory level for long-term orders. He told Southern Weekend that the rise in aluminum prices increased his financial pressure. On one hand, costs increased. On the other hand, because competitors cut prices to grab orders, he could not pass the price increase on to customers.

In such a context, whoever has electrolytic aluminum capacity effectively sits on wealth. China’s electrolytic aluminum capacity is highly concentrated: the top ten aluminum companies together hold more than 70%.

Among them, state-owned enterprise China Hongqiao? No—China Aluminum Industry? Actually, the text says: central SOE China Aluminum (601600.SH/02600.HK) has electrolytic aluminum capacity of over 7 million tons, making it the world’s largest aluminum producer. China Hongqiao has electrolytic aluminum capacity of 6.46 million tons, second only to China Aluminum worldwide. In 2024 and 2025, attributable net profits were RMB 22.37B and RMB 22.64B, respectively, up 95.2% and 1.2%.

In addition, Shenhuo Co., Ltd. (000933.SZ) has electrolytic aluminum capacity of 1.7 million tons, and Xinjiang Tianshan Aluminum Industry (002532.SZ) has electrolytic aluminum capacity of 1.4 million tons. Among the companies mentioned above, except for Shenhuo, whose performance fell due to drag from the coal segment, the others saw both their performance and share prices soar.

A supplier of China Hongqiao told Southern Weekend that the company’s requirements for supplier qualifications have become increasingly stringent, leading to a sharp increase in the deposit, and there are also requirements such as paid-in registered capital.

So, where does China Hongqiao’s electrolytic aluminum scale come from?

On March 9, 2026, Yantai, Shandong, a large batch of imported bauxite ore was loaded onto a train at the Shandong port of Yantai Port in preparation for shipment to electrolytic aluminum companies. Visual China/Photo

Buy at the bottom during a downturn

Looking down from the air at China Hongqiao’s headquarters in Zouping, you can see that industrial plants with blue roofs are connected in clusters, with cooling towers of several thermal power stations dotted among them, releasing streaks of white smoke. Next to the industrial area is a neatly uniform residential area: all buildings face south and look north, in contrast to the scattered villages nearby.

About 30 kilometers northwest of Zouping is Weiqiao Town. Its layout is similar to Zouping: vast farmland surrounds a messy spread of villages as well as orderly industrial areas. This is precisely where Zhang Shiping’s business began.

Based on the Weiqiao Textile (now delisted; before delisting, held by Weiqiao Group at 63.45%) prospectus and an article published in 2003 by the Shandong Cooperative Economic Information Network (run by the Shandong supply and marketing cooperatives), in 1964 Zhang Shiping entered the fifth Oil and Cotton Mill of Zouping County to work, serving as workshop director, production-share unit head, and deputy factory director, among other roles. In 1981, he was promoted to factory manager. At that time, he was among the first nationwide to source seed varieties from outside the province to expand production. By 1984, the oil and cotton mill took first place nationwide within the supply and marketing system with a profit of RMB 4 million.

In 1989, nationwide cotton production had surplus. Analyzing the situation, Zhang Shiping, then general manager of Weiqiao Cotton Textile Mill in Zouping County, believed that the cotton-spinning market was in cyclical fluctuations and that the downturn would not last long. So, he seized the opportunity of low prices for textile machinery, raised funds from all sides, and built a spinning mill with 16k spinning frames.

In 1998, the Asian financial crisis combined with the “production reduction and smelting capacity squeeze” policy pushed the cotton textile market into another downturn. Once again, Zhang Shiping expanded against the trend. He scoured for machinery and plant facilities, while also gradually building production bases on a large scale across various locations to further expand production scale.

He had a saying: “Market position and the gap in development often form during market downturns.”

In the same year, he reorganized the Weiqiao Cotton Textile Mill into the Weiqiao Textile Group, and in 2003 it was renamed Weiqiao Chuangye Group (hereinafter Weiqiao Group; after restructuring, controlled by the Zeng Shuliang family). Also in 2003, Weiqiao Group separated and reorganized its textile business, and Weiqiao Textile was listed.

At that time, Weiqiao Textile had already become the largest cotton textile manufacturer in China. The prospectus shows that in 2002, Weiqiao Textile’s total production capacity was approximately 265k tons of cotton yarn, 462 million meters of greige cloth, and 157 million meters of denim, with revenue reaching RMB 16k.

A retired employee who entered Weiqiao Group in 1993 told Southern Weekend that the wages at the textile plants that year were around RMB 300 to 400. “Nearby factories not only didn’t pay that much, they generally even withheld wages for one to three months.” Weiqiao Group, however, paid wages every month on time, attracting many local people to work there. After 2000, the speed of recruiting workers could no longer keep up with the pace of expansion in production scale.

By 2003, Weiqiao Group had set up three industrial parks in Weiqiao Town, attracting more than 100,000 industrial workers. “At the time, among the girls in our village, six or seven out of ten went into Weiqiao Group.” A worker who entered the textile factory of Weiqiao Group in 2003 told Southern Weekend that she came from rural areas in Jinan to Weiqiao Town and it took 40 minutes to ride a motorcycle. At that time, Weiqiao Group’s monthly salary had already reached over RMB 1,000. In addition, dormitory accommodation was free, and heating was also free. A meal cost only RMB 3 to 5.

“How many people were there to what extent?” She recalled, “Where I worked, there was a village nearby, and the village’s chicken coops were converted into single rooms for rent to people outside.”

As production scale expanded, Weiqiao Group’s demand for electricity also increased. However, at that time domestic electricity resources were tight and supply was unstable. To avoid being constrained, Zhang Shiping decided to invest in power plants.

On September 28, 1999, Weiqiao’s first thermal power plant was completed and put into operation. After that, more and more were built. Having captive power plants not only solved electricity supply but also allowed Weiqiao Group to enjoy lower electricity costs. With these advantages, Weiqiao Group moved into the electrolytic aluminum industry, which is highly electricity-intensive.

On September 13, 2018, workers in an aluminum company in Zouping City, Binzhou, Shandong were working. Visual China/Photo

Stealth expansion

In the electrolytic aluminum industry, Weiqiao Group replicated its expansion model in the textile industry: even when the industry was oversupplied and the market entered a downturn, it still maintained an aggressive stance.

Multiple rating reports from China Chengxin International on Weiqiao Group show that in 2003 Weiqiao Group began entering the aluminum industry and built a 150k-ton electrolytic aluminum production line. Since 2006, lured by high profits, many companies started aluminum refining projects, which led to a rapid expansion of capacity. The price of alumina fell quickly.

Affected by the 2008 financial crisis, demand in the aluminum market weakened significantly, and alumina prices further weakened. Many domestic aluminum producers began to reduce output, but this did not stop Weiqiao Group’s expansion—indeed, even during this period it proceeded without approvals.

In 2007 and 2008, Weiqiao Group’s alumina production lines of 1.6 million tons/year and 2.4 million tons/year were completed and put into operation one after another. Yet both projects lacked approval documents from relevant authorities when they were being constructed. China Chengxin International had therefore lowered Weiqiao Group’s rating outlook to negative twice.

In 2009, the state introduced regulation policies in sequence, shutting down some non-compliant capacity. However, this still did not prevent Weiqiao Group from achieving “stealth expansion.”

The next year, Zhang Shiping transferred Weiqiao Group’s electrolytic aluminum assets and some power stations through a series of equity arrangements to China Hongqiao, which he wholly owned and controlled, and it was listed the following year.

According to China Hongqiao’s annual reports over the years, since its listing, the production capacity of its aluminum products has grown continuously, doubling. It reached 265k tons in 2011, 4.026 million tons in 2014, exceeding United Company Rusal in Russia, and at one point became the world’s largest electrolytic aluminum producer. By 2016, it increased further to 7.436 million tons.

The rapid growth ultimately came to a halt under strong regulation. On April 12, 2017, four ministries and commissions—including the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Land and Resources, and the Ministry of Environmental Protection—jointly issued the “Notice on the Work Plan for a Special Campaign to Clean Up and Rectify Illegal and Non-Compliant Projects in the Electrolytic Aluminum Industry,” launching a comprehensive cleanup and rectification of illegal and non-compliant electrolytic aluminum projects.

That July, multiple departments in Shandong Province, including the provincial Development and Reform Commission, jointly issued the “Action Plan for Coal Consumption Reduction through Substitution in Shandong Province in 2017,” directly naming five electrolytic aluminum projects built by Weiqiao Group in violation of regulations, with non-compliant capacity of 2.68 million tons. The plan required the People’s Government of Binzhou City to shut down the non-compliant electrolytic aluminum projects by the end of July, and to suspend the corresponding coal-fired power generating units of similar scale.

According to an announcement issued by China Hongqiao in August 2017, the shut-down capacity of 2.68 million tons accounted for 29% of its total capacity. Based on this calculation, in 2017 China Hongqiao’s aluminum capacity at one point exceeded 9 million tons. In addition, according to Antaike statistics, in 2017 global primary aluminum output was 63.87 million tons, while China’s primary aluminum output was 36.67 million tons.

Also “getting criticized” were local governments. Feedback from the Central Third Environmental Protection Inspection Team on Shandong’s environmental protection inspections showed that since 2013, Weiqiao Group had built 45 coal-fired power station generating sets in violation of regulations, and Binzhou City had not taken effective measures to stop it.

In addition, in 2014 Binzhou City submitted to the Shandong Provincial Development and Reform Commission and other departments self-check reports on electrolytic aluminum projects built in violation of regulations. In those reports, six electrolytic aluminum projects under construction were falsely reported as completed projects. They also issued proofs for 2.44 million tons of electrolytic aluminum capacity that had not yet been built at the time, such as supporting documents for environmental protection facilities, claims of compliant pollutant discharge, and energy consumption status, in order to obtain legitimate permits by deception. Moreover, Binzhou City underreported other 2.85 million tons of electrolytic aluminum non-compliant capacity under construction.

In 2019, Shandong Province’s implementation of the rectification of the inspection feedback from the Central Environmental Protection Inspection Team showed that these non-compliant capacities originated from Weiqiao Group.

Weiqiao Group is pivotal in Binzhou. Because it uses a production model of “no aluminum liquid drops on the ground,” directly shipping to downstream enterprises, and “upstream and downstream integrated” production—highly intensive, energy-saving, and efficient—it has attracted a large number of downstream aluminum processing companies to cluster there. According to a report by the Binzhou Daily, in 2024 the revenue of local high-end aluminum industrial clusters exceeded RMB 471.1 billion, making it the largest aluminum industry cluster globally.

In 2024, Weiqiao Group achieved sales revenue of RMB 558.5 billion and paid taxes of RMB 17.7 billion to all levels. At a work summary and commendation conference that year, Binzhou City officials disclosed that Weiqiao Group’s industrial output value, industrial revenue, and tax revenue accounted for 56%, 64%, and 59% of Zouping, respectively. In 2024, Zouping City’s general public budget revenue was RMB 4.38B, ranking first in Binzhou City.

On July 10, 2025, Shanghai, at the China International Aluminum Industry Exhibition, China Hongqiao showcased aluminum demand for new energy vehicles, among other things. Visual China/Photo

Embracing the new cycle

After shutting down non-compliant capacity and improving the environmental permitting procedures for compliant capacity, China Hongqiao’s compliant total electrolytic aluminum capacity still reaches 6.46 million tons per year, and it has also entered a new large cycle as emerging sectors rise.

Several brokerage research reports point out that emerging areas such as new energy vehicles, power grids, photovoltaics, and aluminum replacing copper will offset the negative growth in real estate. In its 2025 annual report, Hongqiao Holdings also stated that in recent years, aluminum demand in emerging and high-end fields such as lightweighting for automobiles, the construction of new power systems, aerospace, and electronic information has been strong, providing solid support for the sustained growth of aluminum consumption.

Taking new energy vehicles as an example: the Nonferrous Metals Society’s Processing Industry Association released 2025 statistics on China’s industrial aluminum profiles. The output of aluminum materials for new energy vehicles increased 28.6% year on year, leading the entire industry.

Southern Weekend placed calls to multiple listed aluminum companies as an investor. Some aluminum companies that have aluminum processing businesses said they can clearly feel the growth in aluminum demand for new energy vehicles, to the extent that they need to adjust and even build new production lines to meet customer demand. One listed aluminum company said that its monthly sales of automotive aluminum materials in 2024 were around 5,000 to 6,000 tons, and in 2025 that figure rose to more than 10,000 tons per month.

Southern Weekend also approached China Hongqiao multiple times by telephone and email, but as of the time of publication it had not received a response.

With the development of AI, shortages in power supply driven by rapid construction of data centers have also become one of the forces behind this round of aluminum price increases. A research report from Everbright Securities shows that due to continually rising power costs, in 2024 US electrolytic aluminum output was only 6.7 million tons, down 82% compared with 2000, and its output as a share of global production is about 0.9%.

The research report believes that global data center construction accelerating may intensify power supply shortages overseas, and that in some high-cost regions, capacity will withdraw gradually. Against this backdrop, in 2025 China Hongqiao’s export revenue to North America grew rapidly, reaching RMB 150k, up 247% year on year.

However, the electrolytic aluminum industry is facing increasing pressure to reduce carbon emissions, and China Hongqiao, which uses captive power plants to generate electricity and consumes large amounts of coal, is no exception.

The “Guiding Opinions of the General Office of the People’s Government of Shandong Province on Strictly Controlling Total Coal Consumption and Advancing Clean and Efficient Utilization,” issued in late July 2019, proposed that “over a period of 5 years, the province will strive for a net reduction of 50 million tons of coal consumption.” The “Overall Plan for Coal Consumption Reduction in Shandong Province (2019–2020)” issued that same month further proposed that by the end of 2020 the province would reduce coal consumption by 37 million tons, broken down into each city and key coal-consuming enterprises. Among them, Binzhou was allocated a coal consumption reduction of 12.98 million tons, while Weiqiao Group was allocated a reduction of 6 million tons.

On whether aluminum companies would reduce capacity due to high electricity prices, an industry person in Shandong’s energy development sector analyzed for Southern Weekend that because there is a “capacity ceiling,” companies in any case find it difficult to add new capacity, so it is unlikely they would withdraw existing capacity.

On one hand, domestic coal supply is sufficient, and captive coal-fired power plants remain the “stabilizing” factor for enterprise electrolytic aluminum production, because renewable energy generation is volatile. For loads like electrolytic aluminum that require stable power, captive coal-fired generating units are still needed to balance supply.

On the other hand, domestic renewable energy generation is developing quickly. Especially in northwest regions such as Gansu’s “wasteland and flatlands,” offshore wind projects are also being vigorously developed. The installed capacity of new energy generation projects nationwide, including wind and solar, has continued to double. With this strong supplement, “there won’t be a domestic situation of power shortages or a surge in electricity prices.”

He pointed out that many aluminum companies have already moved to regions rich in hydropower resources such as Yunnan-Guizhou to enjoy relatively lower electricity prices and also meet the national requirements for green electricity utilization—such as Shandong Province’s requirement for the electrolytic aluminum industry in 2026 to ensure a green electricity utilization ratio of no less than 28.3%.

Since 2019, China Hongqiao has been continuously transferring capacity to Yunnan Province. Yunnan is a major hydropower province, but due to weaker industrial development, large amounts of electricity cannot be consumed. Before 2016, curtailment of water power output had at one point exceeded 1.78M kWh. In 2018, Yunnan promised a preferential rate of RMB 0.25 per kWh, which attracted electrolytic aluminum companies to relocate capacity to Yunnan.

In November 2019, Shandong’s Department of Industry and Information Technology approved and agreed that China Hongqiao would transfer about 2.03 million tons of capacity indicators to Yunnan. After that, China Hongqiao quickly started construction of multiple aluminum capacity projects in Wenshan County, Yunnan. According to an article published in 2020 by Binzhou’s Development and Reform Commission, this relocation reduced coal consumption by 10 million tons in Binzhou.

China Hongqiao’s 2025 annual report shows that by the end of 2025, the company had put into operation about 4.03M tons of electrolytic aluminum capacity in Yunnan. This also means that the transfer of indicators is basically completed.

Special contributor to Southern Weekend, Lin Yu

Editors: Feng Ye