Although China began its trying to curb overcapacity in the primary aluminum industry in 2002, its efforts went nowhere. More than 80 percent of the current facilities were built since the capacity-cutting campaign began.

The underlying reason is that GDP has been the key indicator in the performance appraisals of local government officials.

The new government put capacity control among its top priorities. For instance, it stressed the importance of controlling overcapacity at the first meeting of the new Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee in December 2012.