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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Bauxite mining operations, which was delayed by up to one week due to arrival of Tropical Cyclone Nora, is now scheduled to commence the week of 9 April 2018. It is not expected that this delay will have any impact on the 2018 production target, Metro Mining updated. The company said that there were no personnel injuries or damage to the site or equipment as a result of tropical cyclone Nora which passed Bauxite Hills on Saturday. The workforce is re-mobilising to site and clean-up activities are underway. Metro Mining Managing Director and CEO Simon Finnis said: “We are very pleased with the efforts of all personnel in preparing for the cyclone and implementing the orderly evacuation of the workforce from site. We congratulate and thank all those involved.” Metro Mining’s Bauxite Hills...
China’s aluminium giant and the world's biggest aluminium producer Hongqiao Group Ltd announced its results for 2017 on Friday. The company reported 25.3 per cent drop in its 2017 net profit due to capacity shutdowns and rising raw material costs. In a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange, the company reported a full-year net income of RMB 5.12 billion ($811 million), down 25.3 % from RMB 6.85 billion in the previous year. However, revenues increased 52 per cent to RMB 93.3 billion. Hongqiao attributed the fall in profit primarily to the production capacity closure following to Beijing’s direction. The filing referred to the mandatory capacity cut as “the group's response to the relevant policies and plans for the supply-side reform of the aluminium industry. Hongqiao did not divulge a...
Emirates Global Aluminium, the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside oil and gas, has passed 20 million hours work on its Al Taweelah alumina refinery construction project without a single Lost Time Injury. This is the equivalent of one person working in construction for more than 7,000 years without an accident that leads to time off work. Al Taweelah alumina refinery, located next to EGA’s Al Taweelah aluminium smelter in Abu Dhabi, is one of the largest industrial construction sites in the UAE, with more than 11,000 people working on site. The alumina refinery is the first to be built in the UAE. Alumina is the feedstock for aluminium smelters. Abdulla Kalban, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of EGA, said: “Safety is the first priority of everyone...
Norwegian aluminium producer Norsk Hydro today announced that the company is in talks with the environmental authorities of Pará to resume normal operations at Alunorte alumina refinery in Brazil. Alunorte alumina refinery is currently operating at 50 per cent capacity. “In addition, Alunorte is seeking an agreement with the public prosecutor, Ministério Público. Ministério Público has on 26 March 2018 published their counterproposal for an agreement. This proposal will be evaluated by the company,” Hydro said in a statement. “Inspections conducted by several local, state and federal authorities, including environmental regulators IBAMA and SEMAS, have confirmed the integrity of the bauxite residue deposits and that there have been no spill or overflow. This was later re-confirmed by...
After considering a 15 per cent tariff on US products, China is now asking for compensation from the US for lost trade due to the aluminium and steel tariffs by Donald Trump. This may lead to a great dispute between the two nations at the World Trade Organisation. In two filings with the WTO on Monday, China dispersed the US proclamation that the tariffs were introduced on national security ground, arguing that they were nothing but the safeguard measures and temporary trade restrictions for protecting domestic producers. According to the data published by the Peterson Institute for International Economics, China’s aluminium and steel exports to the US are likely being affected by about US$689 million due to the tariffs imposition. In response to a such great loss, China threatened to...
China’s imports of aluminium alloy have come down 27 per cent year-on year in February 2018.China's purchase of aluminium alloy from the global sellers reduced to 4506 tonnes last month, according to the import-export data released by General Customs. The country’s total aluminium alloy import for the 2-months period stood at 10,068 tonnes, down 1.98 per cent YoY. Data Source: www.metal.com China’s imports from the United Arab Emirates were increased 57 per cent YoY in February. The United Arab Emirates exported 2,093 tonnes of aluminium alloy. Other top countries which supplied aluminium alloy to China were Taiwan (China), Russia, Venezuela, Malaysia, South Korea and others. China’s aluminium alloy export volumes dropped 10 per cent year-on-year in February 2018. China shipped 26,205...
China has started retaliating against the tariffs imposed by the U.S. on Chinese steel and aluminium products. The China’s Ministry of Commerce has proposed to levy a 25% tariff on aluminium scrap imports from the US in order to offset the losses brought by the newly announced US tariffs. 30% of China’s aluminium scrap imports come from the US and the extra tariff may increase procurement costs for Chinese secondary aluminium plants. SMM believes it is too early to make a conclusion on the after effect. The average price of imported Zorba scrap stood at US$1600 per tonne today. The prices stood at US$1550 per tonne in the beginning of March and it saw a jump on March 12. While primary ingot prices are dropping, imported scrap prices are on the rise leading to an increase in the price of...
Realising the fact that Guinea, being the world's largest bauxite reserves with an estimated 7.4 billion tonnes of high-grade bauxite, is a house of irresistible opportunities for aluminium smelters, National Alumininum Company (Nalco) is eyeing the possibility of gaining access to bauxite deposits in the West African country. T.K. Chand, chairman and managing director of Nalco said, “If we get mining rights, we can think of setting up an alumina-refining facility there. Nalco will shortly send a team to Guinea to evaluate the possibilities.” Guinea’s bauxite is considered to be the best in the world owing to containing a very low amount of reactive silica that removes the need for beneficiation or washing of ore. But, due to a lack of proper infrastructure, the country is unable to...
China Zhongwang, world’s leading aluminium extrusions product manufacturer, announced its fourth quarter results. The company’s net profit jumped in the fourth quarter as it ramped up sales of new products for the transportation sector, according to news published by Reuters. China Zhongwang reported net income of 1.524 billion yuan ($241.12 million) for the fourth quarter of 2017, according to Reuters calculations. The company had posted net income of 1.08 billion yuan ($163 million) during the third quarter of 2017. Zhongwang’s annual profit stood at 3.87 billion yuan, up 33.1 per cent. For the full year of 2017, the company generated revenue of 19.46 billion yuan, an increase of 16.6 per cent. “The group developed and launched large-sectional aluminium parts for passenger cars and...
LME aluminium continued to weaken overnight and closed the first trading day of the week at US$2022 per tonne on Monday March 26, and SMM expects this downward trend to continue today. SMM sees it trading at $2,035-2,060 per tonne today. According to Reuters, most base metals prices climbed on Tuesday, lifted by hopes that a trade war between top metals consumer China and the United States may be avoided. However, downward pressure will continue in case of LME aluminium. As on March 26, LME aluminium cash (bid) price stands at US$ 2021.50 per tonne, LME official settlement price stands at US$ 2022 per tonne; 3-months bid price stands at US$ 2047 per tonne, 3-months offer price is US$ 2048 per tonne; Dec 19 bid price stands at US$ 2098 per tonne, and Dec 19 offer price is US$ 2103 per...
Century Aluminum made a second attempt to get power rate relief from the S.C. General Assembly for its Mount Holly smelter and failed again. The company has a few months left before it will have to close the plant and its 300 jobs. The public utilities subcommittee of the House Committee on Labor, Commerce and Industry last week voted 4-2. The negative vote stopped Century from buying all of the electricity for its Berkeley County operation from the open market. Century currently gets 75 per cent of its power from open market and other 25 per cent from state-owned Santee Cooper. Century's current contract with Santee Cooper expires at the end of this year. Mike Bless, the president and CEO of Century said Mount Holly needs to start negotiating its open-market power deals by summer....
Like many other countries, India too is perturbed about the US aluminium and steel imports tariffs and thus, decided to approach the WTO’s dispute settlement body to question the duty hike, especially after an exception made for the European Union, Australia, Canada and Mexico by the US on late Thursday evening. Until the time the European Union was exempt from the US imports tariffs, Indian government thought to go along with the EU and approach the WTO. But now since the EU is outside the ambit of the hike, India has to design a new strategy by its own, said an incognito official. Brazil, South Korea, Japan and EU already questioned the US action (without naming it) when trade ministers and envoys from over fifty countries met in the Capital on Tuesday. Among them, Norway was the only...
According to the latest USGS release on Bauxite and Alumina in the Fourth Quarter 2017 ; imports of alumina by the U.S. in the fourth quarter of 2017 stood at 355,000 tonnes. The volume was 3% less than the amount of 364,000 tonnes imported in the third quarter of 2017 and 34% more than that in the fourth quarter of 2016. Alumina imports for the full year 2017 stood at 1.33 million tonnes. This registers a 17% increase over the volume in 2016 but 87% less than those in 2015. This indicates increasing domestic aluminium production in the U.S. in 2017, in comparison to 2016. The leading sources of imported alumina in the fourth quarter of 2017 were Brazil (44%), Australia (28%), and Jamaica (13%). Exports of alumina during the fourth quarter of 2017 were 121,000 tonne, 17% more than the...
SBDT (Société des Bauxites de Dabola–Tougué) company established and located in Republic of Guinea (Conakry) has put up an announcement in relation to operational requirements for their Leguetera bauxite mine in Dabola. Guinea’s Société des Bauxites de Dabola-Tougue (SBDT) is constructing a bauxite mine that would allow it to exploit its large, untapped reserves of bauxite in Dabola. The company has put up a call for quality evaluation of EPC+F/EPCF contractors to participate in an international tendering for transferring Bauxite Ore through pipeline from the Leguetera mine to the port in Republic of Guinea. The Scope of Work: 1. Bauxite mine engineering design and supply of equipment for the Leguetera mine in Dabola. 2. Engineering design, supply of machinery and construction works of a...
The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) announced that Devinder Ahuja, senior vice president and chief financial officer (CFO), Novelis Inc., has been named to the NAM Board of Directors. Ahuja will join the NAM Board to advance a manufacturing policy agenda that promotes growth and prosperity for all Americans. Founded in 1895, the NAM, guided by its Board of Directors, is the largest industrial trade association in the United States with 14,000 members and is the nation’s most influential advocate for manufacturing. The NAM’s membership includes some of the world’s most iconic brands and many of the small manufacturers that power the U.S. economy. More than 90 percent of our members are small and medium-sized businesses. The NAM is at the forefront of every important policy...
According to the report, Tasmanian miner, Australia Bauxite Ltd has pulled up its socks to inaugurate its bauxite refining project ALCORE, at Bald Hill near Campbell Town. The work is progressing in full swing and is expected to supersize the miner’s profits from bauxite once established. Chief Executive of Australia Bauxite Ltd. Ian Levy thinks that this project, which is going to refine aluminium fluoride from Bauxite, would be a game-changer for the company. As he says, “ALCORE is looking more exciting at every stage and would increase the profits from our very clean type of bauxite by a factor of 10 to 30 times.” In fact, the company reports that it has made a significant progress with ALCORE project so far, led to the “development of bauxite beneficiation and refining technology to...
Continuing with its downward pressure, LME aluminium is hovering at its lowest since late December. Metal prices also came under pressure amid mounting investor concerns that growing trade tensions would hurt the equilibrium in the global economy. LME aluminium saw weaker performance than its SHFE counterpart. LME aluminium closed the last week at US$2049 per tonne on Friday March 23 after registering a slight gain on Thursday’s closing. SMM expects LME aluminium to stay rangebound at lows with trading range at $2,045-2,065 per tonne today. As on March 23, LME aluminium cash (bid) price stands at US$ 2048 per tonne, LME official settlement price stands at US$ 2049 per tonne; 3-months bid price stands at US$ 2070 per tonne, 3-months offer price is US$ 2072 per tonne; Dec 19 bid price...
China’s refined aluminium inventory saw a first dip last week to 2.28 million tonnes since the start of February. According to SMM data, China's aluminium inventory including SHFE warrants dropped further to 2.26 million tonnes as of Monday March 26. This is down from 2.28 million tonnes on Thursday March 22 and from 2.29 million tonnes on Monday March 19. According to SMM senior analyst Liu Xiaolei, Pressure on aluminium prices will emerge if China’s inventory grew over 2.4 million tonnes. In the Copper and Aluminium Summit in Shanghai on Friday March 23, he projected a turning point for the increasing inventory to appear in late March based on positive downstream demand outlook. Liu expected new aluminium capacity and restarted production to put pressure in the aluminium prices. He...
