Aluminium’s surge propels Chinese tycoon to $61 billion fortune

BEIJING – When Mr Zhang Bo took over his father’s industrial empire in 2019, it was already one of the world’s biggest producers of aluminium, the most widely used industrial metal.

Since then, the stock of his China Hongqiao Group has soared 585 per cent, quietly turning him into Asia’s richest metals tycoon with a fortune of about US$48 billion (S$61 billion). 

Mr Zhang, the world’s largest private producer of the metal, has a grip on low-cost output at a critical moment for global demand. He is a supplier to China’s biggest tech firms like Huawei Technologies, Xiaomi and BYD.

Aluminium has spiked over 25 per cent in the past year, fuelled by demand from new energy vehicles, solar panels, wind turbines and more, while geopolitical shocks like the war against Iran have added to volatility. The metal hit a near four-year high on March 9.

The widening Middle East conflict has disrupted local smelters, which account for 9 per cent of global primary aluminium supply. An effective halt on shipments via the Strait of Hormuz, off Iran’s coast, has also choked shipments of the metal. That positions Chinese aluminium producers like Mr Zhang to plug emerging supply gaps if global output slows.

“Their influence and personal wealth expanded because the industrial platform they built reached a scale where the market could no longer ignore it,” Mr Harry Yu, senior partner at family office advisory Fung, Yu & Co, said of the Zhang clan. “Families like this tend to stay low-profile because their power sits in production systems and supply chains, not in branding.”

Chinese aluminium smelters in the past years have grappled with access to bauxite, the ore used to produce aluminium, as political instability in Guinea and export restrictions in Indonesia disrupted shipments. Jakarta’s drive to keep more processing at home further tightened global supply. Mr Zhang and his father, however, had moved ahead of their peers to lock in upstream resources.

Hongqiao began developing bauxite mines in Guinea, the largest mining country for the raw material, around 2014. That has given better access to bauxite than rivals, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Michelle Leung said. Securing upstream resources in the early days has contributed to earnings growth, she said.

The company is now one of the lowest-cost producers globally through power plants in China, bauxite mines in Guinea and alumina plants in Indonesia.

Since Mr Zhang controls a significant share of primary aluminium output – which totalled nearly 73 million tonnes globally in 2024 – his decisions affect global supply and price expectations. Hongqiao’s share placements and refinancing are also closely watched by investors, affecting sentiment for aluminium equities across the region. 

In the last year alone, his family’s wealth has gained 110 per cent, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, placing the clan among the wealthiest in Asia as at 2025.

Since taking over from his father, Mr Zhang has helmed a major pivot by relocating a chunk of aluminium capacity to China’s mountainous Yunnan province to tap cheap green hydropower and align himself with China’s broader energy transition. He later expanded into high-end aluminium products used in electric vehicles as demand from traditional sectors such as property and construction waned. 

Still, the company is highly exposed to aluminium price volatility, while weaker-than-expected economic growth in major economies amid escalated trade and geopolitical tensions poses a major downside risk to demand for the metal. BLOOMBERG