The Symbiosis concept pairs a premium aluminium outer shell with a transparent inner bottle, while the partners highlight low-carbon aluminium and future sustainability development. GEKA and AXILONE have partnered to introduce Symbiosis, a luxury beauty packaging concept combining GEKA’s injection blow-moulding technology with AXILONE’s expertise in premium aluminium packaging. The concept will be showcased at Luxe Pack Monaco, presenting a design that brings together a premium aluminium outer shell and a see-through inner bottle. The inner bottle’s transparent windows allow consumers to view the formulation’s colour and texture, adding a sensory element to the packaging. The combination is designed to offer beauty brands a distinctive appearance alongside a tactile product experience....
With the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays approaching, secondary aluminium alloy enterprises have successively finalized their production and holiday arrangements for the festive period. SMM recently conducted a survey on the double-holiday production plans, pre-holiday stockpiling, and raw material procurement of some secondary aluminium alloy enterprises, covering a total capacity of 4.2 million mt. The following is a summary of the survey findings: According to the SMM survey, during the 2026 Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays, secondary aluminium alloy enterprises generally arranged for continuous production or brief shutdowns, though some enterprises extended their holiday duration compared with 2025. Among the 25 sampled enterprises, more than half had...
Grow with
AL Circle
Mexico and Argentina are moving in different directions on aluminium imports from China. Mexico has imposed a new anti-dumping duty on aluminium bars, rods and profiles, while Argentina has dropped its existing anti-dumping order on certain aluminium tubes. Mexico has issued an anti-dumping duty order covering Chinese mainland aluminium bars, rods and profiles classified under HTSMX 7604.10.02, 7604.10.99, 7604.29.01, 7604.29.02 and 7604.29.99. Imports of the subject products will face an anti-dumping duty of USD 1.58 per kg for the next five years. Meanwhile, Argentina has rescinded its anti-dumping duty order on certain Chinese mainland aluminium tubes following sunset and changed-circumstances reviews. The measure covered aluminium tubes, whether alloyed or non-alloyed, produced...
Our current approach can win economic skirmishes, but not the geopolitical conflict. – Part 1 After decades during which the very concept was taboo and the reality swept under the rug, the US has now rediscovered industrial policy. But this rediscovery remains incomplete, as too much of it is reactive, scattered, and driven by whichever crisis has the attention of the moment. This ad hoc approach can win a few economic skirmishes, but it will not be enough to win Cold War II. Simply scaling up more and more ad hoc policies, the trajectory we are now on, will never produce a coherent strategy. This is because what counts is not the number of policies, their aggregate budget, or even how widespread they are. What counts is whether they fit together, effectively support each other, and serve...
Ball Corporation, a global producer of sustainable aluminium packaging, has appointed Darlene J. Nicosia and Sherry L. Buck to its board of directors. The appointments bring additional experience in manufacturing, operations, procurement and finance to the board. Stuart A. Taylor II, Chairman of the Board of Directors, said, “ They are both proven executives with strong financial expertise grounded in operations.” Nicosia is the Chief Executive Officer of Maker's Pride, a US contract packaged food manufacturer, and has more than 30 years of experience in the food and beverage industry. She spent much of her career at The Coca-Cola Company, where she held leadership roles including President of Canada and the Northeast US and Chief Procurement Officer. She started her career at PepsiCo and...
Aluminium cans are under the spotlight among consumers and beverage manufacturers looking for more recyclable packaging, with the material already holding a strong circularity position against plastic and glass. Recorp tunes it further with ReCan85, an aluminium beverage can containing 85 per cent recycled aluminium , aimed at giving manufacturers a higher-recycled-content packaging option. From recycling advantage to higher recycled content The conversation around beverage packaging has already highlighted aluminium’s recycling advantage. Aluminium beverage cans recorded a 74.8 per cent recycling rate , compared with 47 per cent for PET bottles and 41.9 per cent for glass bottles in 2023. With a 75.6 per cent collection rate, aluminium cans are placed at the forefront of recycled...
Vedanta is expanding aluminium, copper and other metals capacity as electric mobility and India's demand for critical minerals reshape the domestic materials market. Vedanta Group is putting INR 210 billion (USD 2.21 billion) into metals production and capacity through FY2026, building a broader materials portfolio aimed at sectors such as electric vehicles, batteries and charging infrastructure. The investment spans aluminium, zinc, copper, steel, nickel, ferrochrome and value-added alloys, while the group has also secured 10 critical mineral blocks covering commodities including copper, nickel-chromium-PGE, tungsten, graphite, vanadium, rare earth elements and potash. The expansion comes as India seeks to reduce its reliance on overseas supplies of critical minerals. Vedanta estimates...
Chinese researchers show that a few extra hours of CO2 curing can roughly double the wet-dry service life of red mud–CFB ash–MgO backfill, while keeping leaching of hazardous elements low even after weeks of exposure to alkaline red mud liquor. Red mud remains one of the aluminium industry’s largest unresolved waste streams. Global bauxite residue generation has been running well above 175 million tonnes a year, against roughly 140-155 million tonnes of alumina output, and only a small fraction of that residue, commonly cited at around 2-5 per cent, is currently converted into a saleable by-product. The rest continues to swell tailings dams that, by some industry estimates, already hold more than 4 billion tonnes of accumulated material worldwide. Turning red mud into cemented backfill...
India’s aluminium smelters operate with some of the highest margins in the value chain, at around 10 per cent, but this profitability is not reflected among downstream manufacturers, where margins are closer to 5 per cent. These companies convert the metal into finished products such as heat sinks, enclosures, connectors, frames and other aluminium components for electronics manufacturers, but are finding it increasingly difficult to compete with imports. This matters because India's electronics industry is growing rapidly, creating a much larger market for aluminium components. Electronics production has increased nearly six-fold to around INR 147 billion in 2024-25, from about INR 24.7 billion in 2014-15, while the sector has created around 2.5 million jobs over the past decade. The...
China's producer inflation accelerated in August as higher energy and non-ferrous metal prices pushed industrial costs higher, while weak domestic demand kept consumer inflation subdued. China's factory-gate inflation accelerated in August, with non-ferrous metal smelting and processing prices rising 20.8 per cent year on year as higher international crude oil and metal prices fed through the industrial economy. The country's Producer Price Index (PPI) rose 3.8 per cent year on year in August, up from 3.5 per cent in July and ahead of the 3.6 per cent increase expected in a Reuters poll, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The increase was accompanied by a more modest rise in consumer prices, highlighting the contrast between stronger industrial input costs and...
Alcoa Corporation is acquiring South32’s key aluminium assets in a USD 3.1 billion deal in cash plus 17,008,960 Alcoa shares, expanding its upstream aluminium portfolio across Australia, Brazil and South Africa. The transaction will also give South32 and its shareholders an equity interest in the enlarged Alcoa business, while backing South32’s broader shift towards copper and other base metals. The update follows Alcoa’s decision to acquire South32’s aluminium value-chain assets with an implied enterprise value of up to USD 5.6 billion. Under the proposed transaction, South32 will initially receive about 6 per cent of Alcoa’s outstanding common stock. At least half of these shares are expected to be distributed to South32 shareholders through an in-specie dividend. Depending on South32’s...
Commodity price volatility continues to create a significant commercial challenge for aluminium recyclers, affecting inventory valuation, purchase decisions, sales commitments and margins. As businesses navigate increasingly dynamic metal markets, understanding how to identify and manage price exposure is becoming an important part of commercial risk management. Against this backdrop, AL Circle is bringing back its specialised “ Hedging for Recyclers: Become an Expert in 6 Hours ” programme for its fourth edition, designed to help recyclers, scrap traders and other metal-market professionals build practical capabilities in commodity price risk management. Price volatility puts recycler margins under pressure For aluminium recyclers, exposure to aluminium prices can emerge at several...
China’s aluminium industry is running close to its limits in 2026. As Shanghai aluminium prices near a three-month high, historically low raw material costs and strong smelter margins encourage producers to operate at maximum capacity. National aluminium output remains above Beijing’s 45-million-tonne cap, projected to reach 46 million tonnes by the ned of 2026. But with the ceiling still firmly in place, Chinese producers are taking projects overseas to Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Angola and Saudi Arabia, strengthening China’s position in the global aluminium supply chain. Domestic capacity leaves little room to grow In August, Chinese smelters were operating at 99.7 per cent of effective capacity, estimated by AZ Global Consulting at 45.26 million tonnes. This is in line with AL Circle’s...
Canadian Energy Metals has demonstrated a process for producing smelter-grade alumina from Saskatchewan black shale and has started a prefeasibility study for its Thor Project. Canadian Energy Metals Corp. (CEM) has taken a step towards developing an alternative North American source of alumina after demonstrating that material derived from its Saskatchewan black shale resource can be converted into smelter-grade alumina (SGA). The company said testing has consistently produced SGA samples meeting the same purity and specifications as alumina made through the Bayer Process, the established industry route for refining bauxite. The result expands the potential development pathway for CEM's Thor Project, where the company is pursuing alumina alongside strategic and critical metals from black...
China's domestic ore prices held steady last week. In Shanxi, a limited volume of relatively lower-grade domestic ore was concluded under long-term contracts at approximately RMB 530 per tonne. In Henan, the expected increase in domestic ore output has yet to materialise, leaving the supply-demand balance broadly tight. Mysteel expects limited price volatility in the near term. On the import side, Guinean 45/3 standard-grade ore prices showed a slight upward bias last week. However, driven by elevated bunker fuel costs inflating ocean freight and a widening spread between alumina prices in northern and southern China, spot transaction levels diverged notably across regions. According to Mysteel, southern alumina smelters sourced Guinean standard-grade cargoes at below USD 71 per tonne...
Futures: The most-traded SHFE aluminium contract opened at RMB 24,470 per tonne in the night session on September 8, reached a high of RMB 24,660 per tonne and a low of RMB 24,420 per tonne, and closed at RMB 24,645 per tonne, up RMB 185 per tonne or 0.76 per cent from the previous close. Futures rose sharply, with moving averages in a bullish alignment and prices trading above all major moving averages. Trading volume slipped slightly during the session, while open interest edged up, driven mainly by bullish positioning. On the technical front, the 4-hour MACD golden cross continued, with the red histogram extending further and bullish momentum is strengthening. On September 8, LME aluminium opened at USD 3,314 per tonne, reached a high of USD 3,358.5 per tonne and a low of USD 3,308.5...
The London Metal Exchange (LME) aluminium price chart continues to record an upward trend across the pricing and contract segments on the September 8 trading session, reporting gains over the September 7 close . Opening stocks remained stable, not reporting any further decline. The LME aluminium cash bid jumped from USD 3,308 per tonne to USD 3,324 per tonne, rising 0.48 per cent. The offer price moved from USD 3,310 per tonne to USD 3,325 per tonne, increasing by 0.45 per cent. Explore- Most comprehensive and forward-looking industry-focused report — Global Bauxite & Alumina Market Forecast to 2036: Supply–Demand, Trade Flows & Price Outlook The LME aluminium three-month bid advanced from USD 3,307 per tonne from USD 3,318.5 per tonne, rising by 0.35 per cent. The offer price surged from...
India's planned transmission investment and renewable-energy expansion could lift aluminium consumption in electrical applications to 4 million tonnes by FY30. India's push to expand its electricity transmission network is emerging as a major potential growth driver for aluminium, with the country's electrical-sector consumption of the metal projected to rise sharply as renewable generation and power demand expand. The Ministry of Mines Aluminium Vision Document projects aluminium consumption in electrical applications to increase from around 2.4 million tonnes in FY24 to 4 million tonnes by FY30, before reaching 12.9 million tonnes by FY47. Transmission and distribution already represent a major source of domestic aluminium demand. Around 48 per cent of aluminium consumed in India is...
Eskay Aluminium Pvt Ltd has obtained 881 shares of Sacheta Metals Ltd through an open-market transaction, taking its total holding in the aluminium company to 132,310 shares. The acquisition was completed on September 8, 2026, and disclosed under Regulation 29(2) of the SEBI (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 2011. Satish Kumar K. Shah, authorised representative of Eskay Aluminium, filed the disclosure with the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). Before the transaction, Eskay Aluminium had 131,429 shares of Sacheta Metals. This represents 0.11 per cent of the company’s total share and voting capital, despite the additional purchase. The post-acquisition diluted shares were also at 0.11 per cent. To know the global production, demand and consumption forecasts of...
China exported 626,000 tonnes of unwrought aluminium and aluminium products in August, with shipments up 17.2 per cent year on year despite a 2.6 per cent monthly decline. China's aluminium exports remained firmly above year-earlier levels in August, highlighting continued strength in overseas shipments even as monthly volumes eased from July. According to data from the General Administration of Customs of China (GACC), exports of unwrought aluminium and aluminium products reached 626,000 tonnes in August, down 17,000 tonnes from 643,000 tonnes in July. Despite the monthly decline, August exports were 17.2 per cent higher than the 534,000 tonnes shipped in the same month last year. To know the production, demand and consumption forecasts on bauxite and alumina, explore the report "Global...
