China has called on central and provincial authorities to stop approving the construction of new aluminium smelting capacity as over-capacity in the industry is expanding.

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Nine ministries and departments jointly issued an urgent circular reinforcing the policy to restrict aluminium capacity expansion. The circular was published on the website of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Wednesday.

Capacity could reach 30 million tons by 2015, from 23 million tons at the end of 2010, if 23 planned projects were approved, the circular said.