INTERVIEW-Anode firm Sunstone eyes HK listing on aluminium boom

* Sunstone aims to be China's top carbon anode maker in Dec * Sunstone eyes Hong Kong listing via a local company * Sunstone wants to triple capacity to 1 mln tonnes a year By Polly Yam KUNMING, China, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Sunstone Development Corporation Ltd, a major Chinese supplier of anodes for aluminium production, plans to triple capacity and gain a Hong Kong stock market listing next year, its chairman told Reuters. Sunstone makes and trades in prebaked carbon anode, used in the electrolysis process to produce aluminium. Chinese producers require about half a tonne of carbon anode for every tonne of aluminium and China is the leading producer of the metal. Sunstone's chairman Lang Guanghui wants to list in Hong Kong by buying either a listed shell company or a non-listed firm into which the parent firm would then inject assets. "We are going to take the decision in December," Lang told Reuters at the end of an aluminium conference over the weekend in Kunming in Yunnan province. "We hope our assets will be listed in Hong Kong in the third or the fourth quarter of next year." Sunstone Development, a supplier to global aluminium producers Alcoa Inc , Rio Tinto Alcan and Dubai Aluminium, will boost annual capacity to 330,000 tonnes before the year-end from 150,000 tonnes, he said. It plans to further expand to 1 million tonnes with new capacity in China or in the Middle East. He did not provide a timeframe for the expansion, or specify the exact location. Sunstone's website says it has a branch agency in the Iranian capital Tehran. Sunstone Development's parent is Sunstone International Industry and Trade Company Ltd, which is 94 percent owned by Lang and 6 percent owned by Sino-Swiss Partnership Fund. In 2009, the firm is expected to produce 150,000 tonnes of prebaked carbon anode and buy about 30,000 tonnes from other producers for reselling. It would export a total of 150,000-160,000 tonnes this year, Lang said. Carbon anode is produced from petroleum coke, a by-product of oil refining, and coal tarpitch, a by-product of coke production. The two raw materials take up about 65 percent of the production costs at Sunstone Development's plant, Lang said. The firm, the top exporter of the anode in China in 2007-2008, would expand its domestic sales in coming years to around 20 percent of its total production to take advantage of rising demand from Chinese aluminium smelters, he added. Chinese state-backed metals research group Antaike sees new capacity boosting China's production of primary aluminium by 24.7 percent on the year to 17 million tonnes in 2010, a big rise after a 0.2 percent increase expected this year. Antaike forecasts China's demand for prebaked carbon anodes at 7.87 million tonnes next year, up 13.6 percent from 6.93 million tonnes expected this year. Lang said the firm's exports and prices of prebaked carbon anodes had fallen this year due to the global financial crisis. Export prices were $450-$500 per tonne for delivery in the fourth quarter versus $800 in the first half of last year. Chinese prices of anode were now 3,200-3,300 yuan per tonne versus above 5,000 yuan in the first quarter of 2008, Lang said. "Prices are rising following a rise in aluminium production," he said, adding the firm was offering export prices around $500 per tonne for delivery in the first quarter of next year. (Editing by Lincoln Feast)