Australia is the top bauxite producer in the world with about 81million tons of bauxite production and that has induced some of the top aluminium companies invest on alumina refineries in Australia, especially Western Australia.
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According to the data from International Aluminium Institute, Australia produced 20.7 million tons of alumina in 2014 and 20.3 million tons in the year 2015. For the year 2016, Australia produced 15.6 million tons of alumina till date.
Most of the alumina produced in Australia is exported around the world. In 2014, Australia exported 20 million tons of alumina globally. The amount dropped slightly to 19.6 million tons in 2015. For 2014 and 2015, the total value of alumina export was USD 6.5 billion and USD 5.7 billion respectively. For the year 2016, Australia is estimated to export 13.8 million tons of alumina. Alumina is estimated to deliver USD $3.4 billion revenue to the exporters.
The trend shows that Australia alumina industry is purely export driven. About 95% of the total alumina produced in Australia gets exported to the smelters belonging to the owners of the alumina refineries and a number of other countries.
The top aluminium importers from Australia are South Africa and India. South Africa Imported 1.3 million tons of alumina in 2014 and it dropped to 773 thousand tons in 2015. India is a consistent importer of alumina from Australia importing 730 and 710 thousand tons in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
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Queensland Alumina Limited is one of the largest alumina refineries in the country by alumina production capacity located in Gladstone, Australia. Operating since 1967, the refinery has a capacity to produce 3.95 million tonnes of alumina annually. Another large alumina refinery is Worsley Alumina owned by South 32 with 4.6 million tpy capacity. Alcoa World Alumina and Chemicals (AWAC) owns the Kwinana, Pinjarra and Wagerup alumina refineries contributing a total of about 8.7 million tons of alumina. Rio Tinto owns Yarwun refinery in Queensland with a capacity of 1.4 million tpy.
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