ASSA ABLOY has agreed to acquire Brazilian aluminium solutions manufacturer Rometal, strengthening its manufacturing presence in Latin America while expanding its portfolio of door systems, furniture fittings and aluminium products. Announced on November 12, 2026, the proposed acquisition would bring an established Brazilian business with approximately 500 employees into the Swedish group's Americas Division. Rometal recorded sales of approximately BRL 332 million (USD 59 million) in 2025, equivalent to approximately SEK 580 million (USD 57.57 million) in ASSA ABLOY's announcement. The purchase price has not been disclosed. ASSA ABLOY described the company's EBIT margin in 2025 as strong and expects the transaction to be accretive to earnings per share from the start. Rometal acquisition...
Finland-based renewable heat technology developer Coolbrook has joined Australia’s Heavy Industry Low-carbon Transition Cooperative Research Centre (HILT CRC) as an affiliate partner, bringing its electrified heating technology into research aimed at decarbonising alumina refining and the wider aluminium industry. The collaboration would explore how high-temperature electric heating can support next-generation alumina refineries, reducing reliance on fossil fuels. Coolbrook would work alongside major alumina and aluminium producers, including Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), Alcoa, Rio Tinto, South32 and Hydro, as well as research organisations of CSIRO and Adelaide University. Initially, it would focus on HILT CRC’s Alumina Refineries’ Next-Generation Transition (AlumiNEXT) project,...
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While Hydro’s Alunorte alumina refinery operates at 50% of its capacity, the prices seem to be rising over the course of March. According to Metal Bulletin, spot alumina prices gained 27.8% over the course of March, with buyers forced to pay up for units in a tighter market. Metal Bulletin’s benchmark daily FOB Australia alumina index settled at $447.30 per tonne on Thursday March 29, up from March 1’s calculation of $349.88 per tonne. “There was definitely more length in the Pacific [at the time of the force majeure announcement] but the available Australia units got tied up pretty quickly and since then people have started to panic,” a producer source is quoted by Metal Bulletin. As Brazil is not a major alumina supplier to China, this has not affected alumina prices in the country....
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its final determination finding current fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions standards for light-duty vehicles model years 2022-2025 are not appropriate. US environmental regulators decided that the emissions standards for cars and trucks set by Obama administration were “too high”. They announced on Monday that they would ease emissions standards for cars and trucks and set up new standards. The agency believed the regulations “presents challenges for auto manufacturers due to feasibility and practicability, raises potential concerns related to automobile safety, and results in significant additional costs on consumers, especially low-income consumers”. Automakers, environmentalists and metal producers and associations...
As updated by Shanghai Metal Market, pre-baked anode prices are experiencing a decline on 4th month in a row. As per the update, Weiqiao Group has negotiated with its suppliers to lower the purchasing price by RMB 300 per tonne for April and closed it at RMB 3,590 per tonne. This indicates that an oversupplied pre-baked anode market is lessening prices due to growing demand for raw materials from smelters and falling of refined aluminium inventory post winter heating season. Following Weiqiao's move, other smelters are getting involved in negotiation with their respective suppliers and lowering prices by some RMB 300 per tonne. Prices are expected to be cut by another RMB 200 per tonne in May and likely to fall below average costs based on current input cost. On the other hand, other raw...
After Easter holidays LME aluminium opened higher today. Shanghai Metals Market expects it to rise and test support at the five-day moving average today and trade at US$2,005-2,030 per tonne. On Thursday, March 29, London Metal Exchange aluminium hit a near eight-month low, closing the week just above $2,000 a tonne. SMM expects LME aluminium to hover around the US$2,000 per tonne level this week and trade at US$1,995-2,020 per tonne with limited upward room given US-China trade tension and higher inventories. SME and SHFE Aluminium Price Trend The benchmark aluminium price on Shanghai Metal Exchange increased from US$ 2187 per tonne on April 2 to US$ 2227 per tonne on April 3, while LME was closed and trading in China market started picking up. SHFE aluminium regained lost ground and...
Australian Bauxite Limited, the Tasmanian miner reported a consolidated net profit of $170,000 in CY 2017, after a net loss of $160,000 in 2016. The chairman and former Labour state premier Paul Lennon says that the miner has potential to become a “significant corporation” and the venture is worth “pursuing aggressively”. In the company’s annual report, Mr Lennon said they are investing on the R&D of high-value products from the company’s bauxite production and they would plan to build it into “a highly profitable business that is relatively unaffected by the sudden geo-strategic market impacts that have occurred on the seaborne bauxite trade in recent years”. According to him, the company is targeting niche markets and long-term relationships with reliable customers in order to develop a...
Old Bridge’s Vantage Equity Fund and Raisonneur Capital jointly subscribed to the entire anchor portion of IPO, issued by Maharashtra based company MMP Industries Ltd. The company was formed in the year 1983 and primarily engaged in manufacturing aluminium powder and paste since then. The total anchor book reserved in the Initial Public Offering was INR 24.09 crore by the company, out of which Vantage invested INR 20 crore and Raisonneur Capital INR 10 crore, resulting in an over-subscription to the anchor portion by about 1.25 times. The company will now issue 45 lakh equity shares at a price band of Rs. 186-188 per share. The minimum lot price is fixed at 600 equity shares. The issue, which will close on April 4, 2018, will mop up INR 85 crore on the upper price band. So far, many...
The closure of 50% operations in Hydro’s Alunorte Refinery recently will have a significant effect in the alumina market in 2018. Hydro’s Alunorte is the world's largest alumina refinery and is located in Pará, Brazil. On average, 14% of its production goes to the domestic market and the other 86 % goes for export. When we see the table above, we see the top alumina producers are China, Australia and Brazil. However, China exports a very insignificant portion of its alumina production and consumes most of it domestically. Jamaica has restarted Alpart alumina refinery and it has started shipping to China. Jamaica, Australia, Vietnam remain the top alumina supplier to China and continue to remain so in 2018. For ex-China world, Australia and Brazil play a dominating role as alumina...
General Manager of Integral Coach Factory S. Mani declared on Saturday 31st March, 2018 that the company will start manufacturing aluminium coaches from 2020. This is going to be a significant step towards crafting light-weight rail coaches, at par with international standards. At an event to mark the achievement of 2,500 coaches in 2017-18, Mani made an announcement that ICF rolled out a total of 2,503 coaches of various capacities on March 31, 2018, adding that the company will export the coaches to Sri Lanka. According to ICF higher officials, the manufacturing unit of Indian Railways crossed 2,500th-mark for the first time. “We had manufactured 2,277 coaches in 2016-17. That feat remained as our top performance until we crossed 2,500 today (Saturday). Our 2500th coach with 102 seats...
After a winter heating season between November 2017 and March 2018, which had literally resulted in a temporary manufacturing halt, aluminium extrusion producers in North China are gradually recommencing their productions. As reported by Shanghai Metal Market, one company in Hebei province has begun operating its three out of five machines and receiving orders for April close to a maximum capacity. Shanghai Metal Market is thus expecting the aluminium processing companies to have a rise in their productions month-on-month in April due to a delayed downstream consumption recovery. However, regulations on heat and pollutant emissions from manufacturers will continue to be enforced by the Chinese government during the non-heating season from April 1, 2018 to November 15, 2018 for keeping air...
After the limited allowance of ore export in Indonesia, state-owned diversified miner PT Aneka Tambang (Antam) has obtained a new permit recommendation from Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry for bauxite and nickel exports. This will support their plans to boost production and sales of bauxite and nickel in 2018. Antam announced on Wednesday that they received one-year recommendation to export 840,000 wet metric tons (wmt) of washed bauxite with an aluminium oxide content of 42%or more. The permit also allowed export of 2.7 million wet metric tons (wmt) of low-grade nickel ore. A year ago in March 2017, Antam had obtained a one-year recommendation to export 2.7 million wmt of low-grade nickel ore and 850,000 wmt of washed bauxite. The company secured another one-year recommendation...
The London Metal Exchange is closed on Friday and Monday for the Easter holiday. On Thursday, London Metal Exchange aluminium hit a near eight-month low, closing just above $2,000 a tonne. SMM expects LME aluminium to hover around the US$2,000 per tonne level this week and trade at US$1,995-2,020 per tonne with limited upward room given US-China trade tension and higher inventories. SME and SHFE Aluminium Price Trend The SHFE 1805 aluminium contract touched a high of RMB 13,955 per tonne following the strong performance of the ferrous complex on Friday night. The SHFE 1805 contract opened at RMB 13,700 per tonne in the morning and plunged to a low of RMB 13,630 per tonne before it rebounded and closed at RMB 13,770 per tonne. SMM expects it to trade at RMB 13,800-13,950 per tonne with...
China’s refined aluminium inventory has been exhibiting a drop for past two weeks owing to more and more consumption of downstream products in the market. According to the Shanghai Metal Market data, China’s aluminium inventory including SHFE warrants hovered at 2.23 million tonnes on Monday April 2, 2018, down from 2.24 million tonnes on Thursday March 29 and 2.29 million tonnes on Monday March 19. The inventory has dropped for two weeks in a row, with the transactions of 900,000 tonnes of aluminium in Wuxi and Jiangsu, 444,000 tonnes in Shanghai, 421,000 tonnes in Nanhai and Guangong, 195,000 tonnes in Gongyi and Henan. However, deliverable Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) aluminium stocks recorded a price rise of about 1 million tonnes, while the metal declined by 10.7 per cent in the...
U.S. President Donald Trump is girding for a trade war with China. After slapping tariffs on steel and aluminum imports this month, he announced plans last week to levy tariffs on up to $60 billion (374 billion yuan) of Chinese goods. In retaliation, Beijing said it will impose tariffs on $3 billion of American goods, most of which are fruits. Both sides hope to settle the disputes through negotiation. It remains unknown where the talks will lead. Yet regardless of the outcome, the impact on foreign automakers operating in China will be limited. For global automakers, the Trump administration is likely to obtain two concessions from Beijing. One is looser restrictions on the stake foreign automakers are allowed to hold in local joint ventures. Under existing rules, foreign automakers must...
According to Shanghai Metal Market, a major producer of aluminium plate, strip and foil in Guangdong province witnessed orders jump this month, as compared with the contemporary period of the last month. Similar to the trading growth of aluminium rod that jumped up to RMB 500 per tonne in Shandong province, Guangdong province saw a rise in aluminium strip, plate and foil production, as it expanded to lower-tier cities, reported by SMM. Besides a rise in production, the expansion to lower-tier cities also led to a rebound in aluminium supplies, which likely to lift the company’s operating rate right from 80 per cent in March to 100 per cent in April. But despite all kind of optimistic growth in production and supply, there are still a few smaller aluminium processing plants in the province...
A number of small scale end user industries in the U.S. will end up increasing the cost of their products to adjust Donald Trump's 25% and 10% tariff on steel and aluminium import. As we have said earlier, craft beer or cider industry fears they would have to increase the price of beer and cider cans if imported aluminium becomes expensive. Justin Heilenbach, president and co-founder of Citizen Cider, Burlington says if the cost of aluminium cans goes up, that could be passed on to the consumers. The same goes for the price of kegs, which are made out of steel. Andrea Gagner, CEO of 14th Star Brewing in St. Albans cans most of the beer they produce and they are still not sure how they would manage the extra cost if their can suppliers increase the prices Gagner said if aluminum prices go...
Executives from major automakers raised concerns at the New York auto show this week about the possibility of a trade war after the Trump administration imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports earlier this month, especially at a time when U.S. sales of new vehicles are in decline. "Protectionism doesn't have winners," Hinrich Woebcken, Volkswagen AG's North American chief executive, told Reuters. "When you start to raise bars, you are bringing an imbalance of trade that will not produce any winners." U.S. President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on aluminum and steel imports that industry experts and manufacturers say could lower profits for companies making everything from pickup trucks to canned soup, or result in higher prices for consumers. Trump has criticized Germany for levying...
As reported by Shanghai Metal Market on March 28, 2018, aluminium rod witnessed a trading growth due to stringent supply and rise in processing charges, which jumped up to RMB 500 per tonne ex-factory in Shandong province. Some major sources at aluminium rod producers informed SMM that they were unable to deliver the new orders on the same day. They also reported that supplies of aluminium rods tightened and fell from a year ago, totalling 600,000 tonnes, especially after annual capacities, in Shandong, Henan and Inner Mongolia. Nevertheless, consumption of aluminiun rods surged as demands for cables in Hebel saw a steady growth after the heating season and shipments began to the State Grid in the second half of March.
After a sharp hike in A00 Aluminium Ingot prices in China from RMB 13660 per tonne to RMB 13740 per tonne yesterday, it again witnessed a slight decline today March 30, 2018. According to Shanghai Meta Market, the average prices have reduced to RMB 13620 per tonne. The prices are expected to range within RMB 13600 to 13640 per tonne and spot discounts are expected to settle at RMB 100 to RMB 60 per tonne. However, despite the dip in prices, Shanghai Metal Market is optimistic about the future. It anticipates that aluminium prices will witness gain, as China plans to regulate captive power plants at aluminium producers with some support from higher power costs. In order to snip thermal power capacity, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has already issued The Regulation...
