The US aluminum trihydrate market strengthened in September 2026 as downstream procurement, rising overseas production costs, and shipping bottlenecks supported prices. In contrast, Bosnia’s market faced a quarterly correction as European buyers drew on accumulated inventories and lower caustic soda costs eased manufacturing pressures, highlighting diverging regional price trends. US aluminum trihydrate market gains on demand and supply constraints US aluminum trihydrate prices increased 2.38% month over month in September, supported by purchases from wire and cable manufacturers, electrical infrastructure compounders, and electric vehicle (EV) component producers. Demand remained particularly resilient for applications involving low-smoke cable compounds and flame-retardant materials....
China-based China Aluminum International Engineering Co., Ltd. (CHALIECO) has won a bid for an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract valued at approximately USD 833 million for a proposed alumina project in Vietnam, adding to investment activity in the country’s mineral processing sector. The project, being developed by Binh Phuoc Ore Mining and Beneficiation Joint Stock Company, is designed to process 2.4 million tonnes of alumina annually. The proposed contract is valued at around CNY 5.595 billion (USD 839.04 million), with completion expected within 27 months of the contract’s effective date. CHALIECO to oversee turnkey refinery development Under the proposed turnkey arrangement, CHALIECO’s responsibilities will cover the full project delivery process, from...
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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is indicating emerging fiscal risks for Jamaica, especially in the bauxite and energy sectors. The organization suggests careful handling of the risks as they might affect the undergoing economic programme in the country. IMF’s latest review of Jamaica's standby arrangement with the fund for Windalco, whose owner, UC, Rusal is under sanction by the United States generated concern. WINDALCO is a joint bauxite/alumina venture between the UC Rusal and the Government of Jamaica. UC Rusal is the majority shareholder (93% stake) and the Government of Jamaica owns the remaining 7% share.The bauxite/alumina operation, which has plants in St Catherine and Manchester, was granted a temporary relief from the sanctions which ended on Monday, November 12. The...
The Australian firm Pure Alumina Limited last week distributed samples from the undeveloped Yenden project to potential customers for assessment. The company originally named Hill End Gold Limited changed its name to Pure Alumina, with effect from 5 November 2018, in order to reflect its focus on the growing High Purity Alumina (HPA) sector. The company distributed product samples to potential buyers on requests coming after its recent marketing forays through Asia and the United States. This would help Pure Alumina’s investors gauge the market’s acceptance for its HPA product, said the firm in a statement. Positive feedbacks will help the company obtain funds for the project and hasten the product’s introduction to the market at large. “We believe Yendon will produce top-quality HPA and...
Vedanta Resources Chairman Anil Agarwal announced on Monday, November 12, about its plan to invest INR 15,000 crore for ramping up the alumina refinery capacity at Lanjigarh to 6 million tonnes per annum and firming up the downstream sector in Odisha in next three years. “The expansion of the Lanjigarh plant in phases would increase the capacity of the refinery from the existing two million tonnes per annum (mtpa) to four mtpa and then to six mtpa in the next three years,” said Mr. Agarwal while addressing the Make in Odisha Conclave. He also said while addressing the conclave and interacting with journalists, “Vedanta has already invested over Rs 50,000 crore in Odisha projects. Fresh investment of Rs 15,000 crore will be made in the next three years for the expansion of Lanjigarh...
Vedanta Ltd’s proposal for expansion of Lanjigarh alumina refinery was recently cleared by the High-Level Clearance Authority (HLCA), the apex body to approve investments in Odisha. The company plans to expand the capacity to six million tonnes per annum from its current 1 million tonnes. “Our Lanjigarh refinery expansion will happen in a staggered manner. In Phase-I, we will scale up capacity to four mtpa and we hope to achieve this by March 2020. At full ramp-up, our dependence on imported alumina will trickle to nil”, a senior Vedanta Ltd executive said. Vedanta imports more than one million tonne alumina each year adding pressure to its total production costs. Vedanta’s aluminium production cost stood at US$2018 per tonne in Q2 FY 2019. Coal availability issues and higher alumina...
According to the latest update from Shanghai Metals Market, alumina production in China increased 0.3 per cent year on year to 6.039 million tonnes in October 2018. The average daily production stood at 195,000 tonnes, down 1.7 per cent from September. China produced 58.144 million tonnes of alumina in the first ten months of 2018, an increase of 1.7 per cent in the first ten months of 2018. Alumina production grew as new capacity at Shanxi Xinfa Chemical and East Hope'sJinzhong Chemical generated more output. Xinfa Group in October had cut operating capacity at its Shanxi Jiaokou alumina refinery in northern China to 50 per cent due to limited bauxite supply and power plant issues. Environmental probes impacted production at some alumina refineries in Lvliang in Shanxi, and bauxite...
Brazilian federal court once again upheld a state court decision forcing Norsk Hydro to operate Alunorte alumina refinery at 50 per cent capacity, according to news reported by Reuters. The refinery has been operating at half capacity since March after state environmental authorities and the court ordered the alumina refinery to reduce production by 50%, federal environmental authorities ordered to stop commissioning of the new bauxite residue area (DRS2) and the press filter and the court also ordered to stop commissioning of the DRS2. Hydro Alunorte, located in the region of Barcarena, is the world's largest alumina refinery and has a nameplate capacity of an annual 6.3 million tonnes. The federal court also upheld a ban on Hydro using a second waste deposit area near the plant. State...
China’s exports of alumina last month were roughly equal to September’s bumper volumes, the president of Aluminum Corp of China Ltd , said on Wednesday. “I estimate that October was more or less the same as September,” Lu Dongliang told Reuters on the sidelines of a signing ceremony at the China International Import Expo in Shanghai. The Chinese company, also known as Chalco, is one of the world’s biggest alumina producers. China this year has been exporting unusually high volumes of alumina, a substance used to make aluminium, amid supply constraints caused by a now-concluded strike at Alcoa’s operations in Western Australia, an outage at Norsk Hydro’s Alunorte alumina refinery in Brazil, and U.S. sanctions on Russia’s United Company Rusal. Exports surged more than fivefold to over...
Altech Chemicals Limited has finalised the site layout and building design for its proposed Malaysian high purity alumina (HPA) plant. The final layout is based on the recently completed site geotechnical survey and feedback from pre-construction consultation meetings between SMS group GmbH, local authorities, and Malaysian permitting consultant WKL & Associates. The final design will serve as the base for the commencement of stage 1 construction. The final site layout comprises three production buildings for Kaolin Beneficiation, Landeach & Neutralisation and HPA Production & HCL Recycle Plant. There are also four ancillary buildings. All processing equipment will be installed in one of the three production buildings. The HPA production buildings will be laid out on the 4Ha site in...
After showing restraint yesterday, alumina spot price has recorded a slight growth today, on November 7, to RMB 3179 per tonne, Shanghai Metals Market found. This marks a growth by RMB 9 per tonne. The average price is expected to remain the same as that of the spot price. The growth has touched all the major markets but coincidentally by RMB 10 per tonne. In the east, the price is at RMB 3190 per tonne, with the average price expected to be at RMB 3170-3210 per tonne. The prices in the central and north are at RMB 3185per tonne, with the same expected average price between RMB 3150-3220 per tonne. Australian alumina FOB price, on the other hand, shows no change since the time it dropped from US$460 per tonne to US$ 420 per tonne on Monday, November 5. However, in spite of the growth in...
According to the report by CARE, India ranks fourth in terms of production of alumina and produces about 5 per cent of the world alumina. The report shows there had been an 8.4 per cent year-over-year increase in alumina production from FY 2015-16 to FY 2016-17. Some of it is consumed internally while the rest is exported. So, having said that, a good number of aluminium producers and cement and ceramic producers in India import substantial amounts of alumina for consumption. According to the global export-import data, India’s import of alumina is rising year-on-year. In 2016, the total amount imported was 1.3 million tonnes, which in the successive year increased by 53 per cent to 2 million tonnes. This year too is likely to follow the legacy and estimated to import around 2.75 million...
Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) announced on November 4 that the bauxite waste management system is ready at its under-construction Al Taweelah alumina refinery in Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi. This is another milestone in the preparation towards production launch of the Al Taweelah alumina refinery in H1 2019. EGA’s goal is to manage the storage and reutilization of the bauxite residue or red mud, the by-product of alumina refining responsibly. The construction of a dedicated storage area for bauxite residue about 30 kilometres from Al Taweelah alumina refinery has been already completed by EGA. Once production starts, bauxite residue will be washed, pressed into a dry cake, and transported to the area for storage using a fleet of sealed trucks. The storage site will be...
Leading global aluminium producer Rusal announced results for the three and nine months ended 30 September 2018. Rusal produced 5.816 million tonnes of alumina in the first nine months of 2018, almost flat YoY. Alumina production stood at 2 million tonnes in Q3 2018, as compared to 1.96 million tonnes in Q3 2017. Sales of alumina dropped by 4.5% to 1.457millio tonnes for the nine months 2018, as compared to 1.526 million tonnes sold through nine months of 2017. Revenue from sales of alumina increased by 34.1% to USD719 million for the nine months ended 30 September of 2018 from USD536 million in the corresponding period of 2017 primarily due to an increase in the average sales price by 40.5%, which was partially offset by a decrease in the sales volumes by 4.5%. Rusal produced 10 million...
The High Level Clearance Authority (HLCA), headed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, on Saturday, November 3, reportedly gave a nod to investment proposals for setting up six mega manufacturing facilities worth INR 25,845 crore. Out of six investment proposals, three are from Vedanta Ltd. and the rest are from Nalco, Hindalco, and Chiripal Poly Films Limited. According to the report by an official, these proposed large-scale manufacturing units would expectedly create total jobs of around 13,700 across Odisha. Vedanta’s proposal to invest around INR 6, 483 crore for expanding its alumina refinery at Lanjigarh district got an approval from the HLCA, said state industries secretary Sanjeev Chopra. Further, the Anil Agarwal-controlled mining company seeks to expand its aluminium smelter unit...
Altech Chemicals published Quarterly Report for September 2018. The company organized the official ground breaking ceremony for Altech’s held at Johor HPA site during this quarter. The Australian High Commissioner and German Ambassador to Malaysia unveiled official opening plaque. The ceremony was attended by partners from Malaysia, Germany, Japan and Australia. The report also says that the initial stage 1 construction works have commenced in the site. Patent was granted for HPA production process from Kaolin clay. A Certificate of Grant for an Innovation Patent from the Australian Patent Office was received during the quarter, for the Company's process of producing high purity alumina (HPA) from kaolin. Altech originally filed the patent titled 'A Method for the Preparation of Alumina'...
The directors of Limerick Alumina Refining Ltd (LARL) that operates the Aughinish Alumina refinery in Limerick, Ireland have stated that its status as a sanctioned entity constitutes a material uncertainty that may cast significant doubt on the refinery’s future. Limerick Alumina Refining Ltd (LARL) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of United Company Rusal. The future of Aughinish has been put into doubt six months back by the US Department of the Treasury's OFAC sanctions on Deripaska and eight companies, including Rusal. The refinery has continued to operate at full capacity while managing the impact of supplies after the extension by US Treasury. Last week, the directors of LARL filed the accounts showing that alumina price increase in last year contributed to the firm recording pre-tax...
According to a report by BusinessLine , billionaire Anil-Agarwal-owned Vedanta has imported some 12.69 lakh tonnes of alumina this year between April and August while on the other hand, over 3000 small and medium enterprises together imported 5.41 lakh tonnes of aluminium scrap as raw material for making aluminium. This marks higher import of alumina by Vedanta than the total amount of scrap shipped in by recyclers. But despite that, Vedanta has been advocating a hike in customs duty on aluminium scrap, along with two other primary aluminium producers Hindalco Industries and Nalco. They have reportedly moved the government as well to hike the import duty on scrap from the existing 2.5 per cent to 10 per cent. Recently, Agarwal even went on record demanding the hike claiming that India was...
According to a report by MTI on Tuesday, October 30, a Hungarian consortium is working on ways to recycle alumina refinery residues, also known as red sludge, in a HUF 1.5 billion project supported by the European Union. The R&D project, which will run until 2021, is supported by more than HUF 1 billion in European Union Funding, said project manager Márton Penk. The consortium in Hungary is led by Martin Metals, which deals into recycling by-products from the aluminium industry. The other members of the consortium include University of Pannonia (Veszprém), earthworks and site development services provider Geovol, environmental services consultancy Golder Associates, and applied research institute Bay Zoltán Nonprofit. Every year, Hungary reportedly generates over 50 billion tonnes of red...
Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) advised ITOCHU Corporation on its $250m sale of its 5% stake in a bauxite mining and alumina refinery in Western Australia. The Japanese general trading company sold its interest in the Worsley Alumina project near Boddington to Press Metal Bintulu, which is 80% owned by Malaysia’s Press Metal Aluminium Holdings Bhd and 20% owned by Japan’s Sumitomo Corp. Worsley is one of the largest and lowest-cost alumina producers in the world. Partner Ian Williams, HSF’s Australia Japan practice head, led the deal team. He was supported by senior associates Natalie McDowell and Melissa Swain-Tonkin; solicitors Jenna Wong and Daniel Lau, and graduate Tatsuki Shiratsuchi. “This deal is another great example of the high level of cross-border investment that we are seeing...
