India is moving to establish a formal market for mineral trading, with the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) inviting applications from eligible companies to set up new mineral exchanges by November 2. The exchanges can initially facilitate trading in iron, chromite, bauxite, limestone and manganese, either individually or in combination. Other minerals may subsequently be added with prior approval from IBM, subject to exclusions specified under the rules. The proposed platforms are intended to support trading in minerals, concentrates and processed forms, including metals, while creating a more transparent and efficient mechanism for price discovery and dissemination. Bauxite is among five minerals eligible for trading The move could provide bauxite with a formal exchange-based trading...
Since ALUMINIUM 2024, Hydro has entered several long-term renewable power agreements, invested in new production and recycling capacity in Europe, entered new partnerships with brands like Mercedes-Benz and CHANEL Fragrance and Beauty as well as customer agreements covering close to 360,000 tonnes of low-carbon aluminium for Europe’s electricity infrastructure. The aluminium products from Hydro are critical to energy infrastructure, mobility, and building and construction as they contribute to future proofing customers. Value chain transparency, documentation, low-carbon and recycled content, and the way Hydro works with customers to deliver circular solutions demonstrates how aluminium is part of the solution. The commitments come as aluminium is increasingly recognised as a critical raw...
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AMAG Austria Metal AG, the biggest company in the Austrian Aluminium Industry sector, has achieved a record annual result for 2022, exceeding the previous year’s mark. The company’s 2022 revenue superseded the former year’s EUR 1,259.4 million by registering a growth of 37.1 per cent. In 2022, AMAG reportedly earned revenue of EUR 1,726.7 million despite restrained shipments at 442,000 tonnes compared to 442,300 tonnes in 2021. The company’s net income after taxes also increased by 69.1 per cent Y-o-Y from EUR 64.6 million to EUR 109.3 million in 2022, a record figure until now. The revenue and net income growth could be attributed to higher global aluminium benchmark prices, premium levels, and consistent price adjustments due to higher energy and raw material costs. Personnel and plant...
The sustainable development strategy of the RUSAL United Company aims at making, by decoupling our business growth from the environmental footprint, sustainability affordable across the entire aluminium value chain and creating a new class of assets in the non-ferrous metal sector. This means building by 2035 such a business model that is future-fit and addresses the needs of low carbon and circular economy, is based on an agile, fair, safe and inclusive supply chain, and is built on the most advanced technologies. Irina Bakhtina, Chief Sustainability Officer at Rusal Therefore, a sustainable supply chain is at the heart of the Company's ESG transformation. Understanding our suppliers and the degree of their ESG maturity is the key element to start with. RUSAL is sourcing raw materials,...
The Jawaharlal Nehru Aluminium Research Development and Design Centre (JNARDDC), Nagpur, has created Poly Aluminium Chloride (PAC) from aluminium dross, a step towards achieving zero waste in the aluminium industrial sector. PAC can be used in water treatment facilities to treat wastewater. Dross, a hazardous waste product of the aluminium industry, may now be recycled using JNARDDC's technology to produce PAC. “The smelting process in the primary aluminium industry generates around 2% to 5% of dross, which is a complete waste. Similarly, in the secondary processing industry, it increases by 5% to 10%, which is again disposed off in landfills,” said Dr Upendra Singh, Senior Principal Scientist and Principal Investigator of the project. According to Dr Anupam Agnihotri, Director of JNARDDC...
Climate change around the world is causing great catastrophes, with no continent left untouched. The heatwaves, droughts, typhoons, and hurricanes are causing mass destruction around the world with disasters such as the heatwave in the UK, the West’s water crisis, hurricane Ian in the US, and many more. Mohan Agarwal, MD, CMR Green Technologies Ltd Countries around the globe are now shifting their focus on sustainability with real and measurable actions. The focus is now on developing sustainable products and services and supply chain practices to increase revenue, satisfy investors and regulators, and improve their reputation. Countries as well as companies are allocating funds to addressing environmental issues. McKinsey and Company recently said that India can increase green...
ASI was incorporated in 2015, making 2023 the ninth year of our collective journey. We are proud now to number 275 ASI Members across our 6 membership classes. There have been 238 ASI Certificates issued to certifying Members for both Performance and Chain of Custody. But what is the direction and purpose for this increasing scale of implementation? In October 2022, the ASI Board held a full-day workshop to reflect on ASI’s strengths, opportunities, aspirations and desired results and review the existing framework for change as part of ASI’s annual strategy processes. ASI’s new Strategy on a Page below illustrates our ‘theory of change’ – the mechanisms through which we aim to contribute to sustainability-enhancing changes in the aluminium sector. ASI’s four strategic foundations...
As the world faces a climate crisis amidst a shortfall of energy supplies and critical metals, difficult decisions are being made to meet growing supply gaps without risking new dependencies on unsustainable producers or compromising for geopolitical factors. Best resource practices shouldn’t be dictated by current events, but that’s not always simple. A hard lesson being learned in the aluminium industry with the effects of short-term thinking has been felt. In addition to the increases in inflation, energy cost rise and supply shortfalls, we have seen the EU import ban on Russian oil, the USA’s proposal for a potential 200% tariff on Russian aluminium, European production closures (see below), and more scrutiny than ever on ESG credentials for investment. European Production Closures...
Green, carbon footprint, energy optimization, net-zero are currently key topics across meeting rooms in most industries, particularly in our aluminium sector. While a lot of great dialogue and action has been happening in the recent past, AlCircle started to build one of many roads towards sustainability for the aluminium industry over a decade ago. Started in 2010 with a vision to bring the global aluminium value chain online, AlCircle has since established a worldwide presence, shown proof of concept and continues to innovate around how not just AlCircle, but the entire industry can work towards reducing their carbon footprint through adopting digital tools and processes. With a vision of ‘Think Aluminium, Think AlCircle’, we are growing each day towards our ultimate goal of promoting...
China’s domestic A00 aluminium ingot price has opened the week on Monday, February 20, with a hike of RMB 230 per tonne to RMB 18,690 per tonne, found the Shanghai Metals Market. This brings the price week-on-week higher by RMB 220 per tonne or 1.19 per cent from RMB 18,470 per tonne but stands low compared to RMB 18,980 per tonne on January 20. According to SMM, the average prices are estimated to range between RMB 18,670 per tonne and RMB 18,710 per tonne, with spot contract likely to trade at a discount price of RMB 100-60 per tonne. In Foshan, the ingot price has climbed up RMB 240 per tonne to stand at RMB 18,700 per tonne, followed by the rise of RMB 225 per tonne in Wuxi and Hangzhou to RMB 18,680 per tonne and RMB 18,685 per tonne, respectively. In Shenyang and Tianjin, A00...
LME aluminium opened at US$2,413 per tonne last Friday and closed at US$2,390 per tonne, a decrease of US$28 per tonne or 1.16 per cent. On Friday, February 17, both LME aluminium cash bid price and LME aluminium official settlement price moved down by US$6.5 per tonne or 0.27 per cent to halt at US$2,334.50 per tonne and US$2,335 per tonne. 3-month bid price and 3-month offer price slipped by US$9 per tonne or 0.37 per cent and US$8 per tonne or 0.33 per cent to stand at US$2,372 per tonne and US$2,374 per tonne. LME aluminium opening stock halted at 591950 tonnes. Live warrants and Cancelled warrants came in at 451875 tonnes and 140075 tonnes. LME aluminium 3-month Asian Reference Price pegged at US$2,398.24 per tonne after recording a growth of US$4.24 per tonne or 0.17 per cent. SHFE...
Theodore Levitt once said: ‘Creativity is thinking up new things, innovation is doing new things.’ As it relates to the electrification process of industrial vehicles, it’s a bit of both. The task is the same whether the vehicle uses a conventional diesel engine or an electric one, so you need creativity to discover the technological breakthroughs that will ensure it works just as well in application and an innovative approach to organizing its workflow to ensure its success. This article takes stock of why 2023 seems to be the right time for an aluminium producer, Rio Tinto, to undertake an ambitious project like the electrification of an Anode Hauler fleet and the motivation behind embracing this change and the challenges of switching from diesel to electric engines from theory to...
Leading grain refiner specialist MQP – which is set to present new technical research at TMS 2023 in the US this month – has committed to the advancement of sustainable manufacturing by making the production of its super-efficient Optifine 5:1 125 a ‘closed loop’ process. John Courtenay, Chairman and CEO, MQP The award-winning British company is now not only producing its 125% efficiency grain refiner with low carbon aluminium but is recycling customers’ scrap to make the cost-saving product – which customers can then buy back and improve their sustainable roadmap. MQP chairman John Courtenay, who will be presenting the pioneering research behind Optifine 5:1 125’s incredibly high efficiency at TMS, said: “Making vehicles lighter and creating electrical infrastructure and solar panels,...
The Austria-Vienna headquartered global refractory leader RHI Magnesita's CEO Stefan Borgas has stated that the company is investing INR 3,600 crore in the Indian market over the next two-three years to expand its production capacity and modernise facilities. However, Borgas also said that a portion of the company's capital investment of INR 3,600 crore was used to buy two refractory assets in India. The CEO said, "The capital infusion will be through the subsidiary RHI Magnesita India Ltd." "We have earmarked an INR 3,600 crore investment in India. This would go towards organic and inorganic capacity expansion and modernisation of the Indian manufacturing facilities." The company recently acquired Dalmia OCL and Hi-Tech Chemicals' refractory business for INR1,708 crore and INR 621 crore,...
As a result of the shortage of hydropower in Yunnan after the Chinese New Year holiday, a new round of power rationing is likely to be introduced again to impede aluminium production. In addition, some aluminium smelters are already planning to halt their electrolytic cells. The rumours of electricity restrictions did not surprise aluminium smelters . Several of them had already planned ways to reduce their energy usage, although the formal announcement regarding power rationing has yet to be made. A fresh wave of power restrictions is reportedly set to begin in Yunnan from February 13 to February 15, and aluminium producers will have to reduce their capacity by around 650,000 tonnes annually before reducing it further depending on the water level, as reported by SMM. However, on February...
On Friday, February 17, Hindalco Industries Limited further slashed its aluminium ingot and aluminium products prices to match the global aluminium benchmark price. According to the price chart revealed by the company on February 17, Hindalco cut its aluminium wire rod price by INR 3,750 per tonne to sell the product at INR 234,100 per tonne versus INR 237,850 per tonne on February 14. Hindalco also reduced its aluminium billets price by INR 3,750 per tonne to INR 237,100 per tonne, which previously stood at INR 240,850 per tonne. Aluminium ingot price was no exception but slipped from INR 226,750 per tonne on February 14 to INR 223,000 per tonne on February 17. Hindalco links its aluminium ingot and aluminium products prices to the three-month futures of aluminium on the London Metal...
Worldwide shipments of aluminium aerosol cans by AEROBAL members increased by 6.8% in 2022 to close to 6 million units. A multinational organisation called AEROBAL represents companies that make aluminium aerosol cans. According to AEROBAL, the rise in exports was mainly brought on by an increase in demand from the personal care, hairspray, and pharmaceutical industries of 13%, 17%, 14%, and 42%, respectively, over the previous year. One of the Huawei Mate50 Pro's proprietary products is a chassis made of an aluminium alloy with fine engravings performed by CNC machines. Trivium Packaging bagged the Best-in-class title for its intense craftsmanship in making Rexona Now United Aerosol Antiperspirant. Three Pack Global Awards—one for Best-in-Class in the Package Innovation Technical Design...
Apart from the Q3FY23 results from companies like Bharat Forge Golkonda Aluminium, the industry also recorded two special award-winning moments. On February 3, 2023, Hyundai Motor Group presented Novelis with the "2022 Supplier of the Year" award at the company's annual "Partnership Day" event in South Korea. ElvalHalcor, the sole Greek manufacturer of flat-rolled aluminium products, secured second place at the "Business Awards HRIMA 2022," held on February 10, 2023. Under the market scenario, Bharat Forge, an Indian multinational company that produces automotive components and engages in forging, reported an EBITDA loss of INR 62 crore in the December quarter (Q3FY23) due to problems with new products associated with the expansion of aluminium forging capacity in Germany and the United...
The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM), which deals with all the matters relating to the management of Govt. of India investments in equity, including disinvestment of equity in Central Public Sector Undertakings, has rejected any disinvestment agenda for the state-owned National Aluminium Company (NALCO). Tuhin Kanta Pandey, the secretary of DIPAM, has flowed this information concerning Nalco. In Budget 2023, the government froze a much lower disinvestment target of INR 51,000 crores for FY24. DIPAM's secretary added, "The goal of the divestment is to follow a calibrated strategy and not distort the market. However, the divestment strategy did not include NALCO ." Nirmala Sitharaman, the Finance Minister of India, said in her budget speech, "It is proposed to...
This week the primary aluminium industry witnessed some prominent events. From top companies like Ma'aden, Nalco and Hydro announcing their fourth-quarter results to LME aluminium price hitting a 5-week low due to rising stockpiles in LME-approved warehouses dampened investor mood. As per the results, Ma'aden, the state-owned mining firm of Saudi Arabia with its headquarters in Riyadh, announced an increase in net profit of more than 87% for the entire year of 2022, boosted by increased sales and higher average prices. National Aluminium Company Ltd (Nalco), a state-owned integrated aluminium corporation in India, reported a net profit of INR 274 crore for Q3 FY 2022–2023 on February 10, 2022, an increase of 61% over the prior quarter. Apart from the financial results, another significant...
