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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China is sitting on a huge inventory of alumina. Despite the fact that the Chinese government has recently come down heavily on the alumina refineries (and smelters) and mandated that they reduce capacity by 50 per cent in order to support the Centre's fight against pollution, the low-cost capacity addition in recent times seems to be making up quite well for the supply shortage for some time now, at least. In addition to the new refinery starts, there are alumina imports which have remained reasonably high over the years. {newsStudioGallery} However, the General Administration of Customs data released on February 24, shows China's alumina imports in February 2017 have declined 47.64 per cent year-on-year. The total alumina import for the month was estimated at 265,766 tonnes. China...
Alcoa’s Operations Centre Group Leader Sharron Freitas has taken out a major industry award for her contribution to the mining industry when she was named the 2017 Outstanding Operator/Technician/Trade Woman in the Chamber of Minerals and Energy’s Women in Resources Awards. The prestigious awards recognise individual excellence and outstanding contributions to the state’s resources sector and serve to promote positive role models to young women considering a career in the industry. Ms Freitas, a North Yunderup resident, started as a trainee at the Pinjarra alumina refinery only five years ago, then obtained her process plant operator qualification four months ahead of schedule. “I’ve always been fascinated to try new things and after raising three children, owning a small business,...
Aluminum Corporation of China (Chinalco) has proposed to make an investment on alumina powder production project in Iran, Chinalco vice president Zhang Chengzhong announced in a meeting. He revealed about the company’s plan to invest in infrastructures for an alumina production plant in Hormuzgan Province. This investment on alumina project is likely to hike its annual production capacity from 300,000 tons to 800,000 tons. The project is a joint investment with IMIDRO and the proposal will be submitted to IMIDRO within the coming month. Zhang Chengzhong also stated that the company will provide the necessary required technology for installing 800,000-ton alumina powder production plant. The meeting was attended by Mahdi Karbasian, Managing Director of Iranian Mines and Mining Industries...
Shares of South32 Ltd and Alumina Ltd jumped by more than 9% on Thursday March 2 as news about China imposing curbs on steel, aluminium production started circulating in the market. Beijing released a new draft earlier this week which proposed 30% aluminium capacity cut and 50% alumina capacity cut in “Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, and surrounding areas” in order to curb pollution in Northern China, mostly in winter season. Earlier than this, Chinese government enforced a shut-down on production plants in 2008, to cut pollution levels. The production cut however is expected to be implemented not any time before November 2017. An investment information service, Barron’s noted that, the global markets has reacted positively to the news as supply cut in China can alter the global market dynamics...
Noranda Alumina that operates an alumina refinery in Gramercy, US, gets financial support from the Siena Lending Group LLC, a finance company offering asset based loans. Siena Lending Group LLC has also provides $30 million asset-based revolving credit facility for New Day Aluminium LLC to repay certain indebtedness. The financial assistance will help the company to expand its business. The company produces up to 1.2 million metric tons of alumina per annum. Noranda Alumina LLC operates as a subsidiary of Noranda Aluminium Holding Corp. Monte Schaefer, Chief Financial Officer of New Day and Noranda Alumina, said, “We continue to execute on our plan to solidify our financial model and grow Noranda Alumina’s business.” “This facility provides the company with financial security for its...
Further to its February 2nd press release, Orbite Technologies has provided an update on the Company's progress on its high purity alumina ("HPA") production. Temperature ramp up of the calcination section was completed successfully, subsequent to which installation of the fluidization bed material was completed Injection of aluminum chloride hexahydrate ("ACH") crystals into the calcination system ommenced, as planned, intermittently and at low rates for equipment response and testing purposes Injection rates and HPA production, on a continuous basis, were then successfully increased over the course of the last two weeks and are approaching the Company's intermediate production target of 1 tonne per day of HPA. During this period, in excess of 4 tonnes of HPA was produced. Purity of the...
The week ended February 25 saw many major aluminium producers, with and without integrated operations, losing their last quarter or full year margins to alumina prices. Alcoa's Australian partner Alumina Limited who reported full year result for 2016 on February 23, registered a loss of $US30.2 million ($A39.3 million) down from a $US88.3 million ($A114.8 million) profit in 2015. The loss, although attributed mainly to restructuring-related write-offs, was also due to lower alumina prices in the first half of the year, and lower volumes after curtailing capacity across its refineries. Century Aluminum Company also reported a net loss of $168.5 million ($1.93 per share) for the fourth quarter of 2016 proving analysts' projections of it staging a turnaround wrong. Results were negatively...
Aditya Birla Group owned Hindalco Industries has planned big investment worth INR 500-700 crore on de-bottlenecking its Utkal alumina refinery project in Odisha's Rayagada district. The company has now applied for clearance up to 2.25 mtpa from 1.5 mtpa for its Utkal alumina refinery. During the recent conference call after its 3 rd quarter results, Satish Pai, managing director of Hindalco said, “...I think in 2017-18 we would have got the complete engineering and the de-bottlenecking sorted out.” “ So, really it is a question of whether you put in a completely new train or just de-bottlenecking and to be clear, our preference right now is to de-bottleneck and that is why we have applied for clearances to go up to about 2.25 (million tonne) as a first range.” The de-bottlenecking on...
The small island country of Bahrain together with four other Gulf countries- the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Qatar, has changed the face of the Gulf from being a solely oil driven economy to a manufacturing hub accounting for 10 per cent the world's total production of aluminium. About 40 per cent of the total aluminium production (5,229,115 tonnes) in GCC today is utilized by the downstream aluminium industries here while the rest 60 per cent gets exported to different parts of the world. Bahrain's prime aluminium producer Aluminium Bahrain (ALBA) is one of the world's largest aluminium smelters and is known for its technological strength and high quality aluminium. {newsStudioGallery} Alba operates 5 potlines and its total hot metal production capacity stands at 971,420 tonnes per...
Alcoa's Australian partner Alumina Limited has reported full year result for 2016 and registered a loss of $US30.2 million ($A39.3 million) down from a $US88.3 million ($A114.8 million) profit in 2015. The loss is attributed to restructuring-related write-offs and lower prices and volumes. Impairment charges related to shutting down capacity in its Alcoa World Alumina and Chemicals (AWAC) joint venture with metals giant Alcoa has also contributed to the loss. Alumina holds a 40 per cent stake in AWAC and the company had to pay a charge of $US115 million pertaining to the share which was partially offset by gains on the sale of the Dampier-Bunbury gas pipeline. Commenting on the result, chief executive Peter Wasow said , "Net cash distributions from AWAC were higher than the previous year...
Altech Chemicals Limited has announced that it has reached an agreement with its appointed engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor M+W Group on a framework for a fixed price EPC contract for the construction of the Company’s proposed Malaysian high purity alumina (HPA) plant. A fixed price EPC contract insures the risks during the construction phase of the project like completion risk (cost and timeline)and project operability risk (at completion and handover). The contract will offer throughput performance guarantees and warranty periods, a performance bond, warranty bond, liquidated damages for delay in completion and a bonus for early completion. The process guarantee remains with Altech and the technical risks have been minimised through extensive test work and...
Century Aluminum is projected to post profits in its fourth quarter of 2016 fiscal year. According to the consensus estimates compiled by Thompson Reuters, analysts expect the North American primary aluminium producer to post adjusted earnings before interest, tax, deductions and amortization (EBITDA) of US$10.4 million in Q4 2016. However, with alumina prices escalating, it is likely that Century’s profitability will be hurt moderately, observe analysts. Century Aluminum’s projected EBITDA will rise from the last quarter’s (Q3 2016) loss of US$5 million and up from -US$10 million in the corresponding period previous year. The rise in profitability is likely to get a logical boost from aluminium prices which have improved significantly in Q4 2016. However, input costs, especially alumina...
India has an installed alumina capacity of 6.5.million tons, out of which plant capacity of 6.2 million tons reported alumina production in 2015. The reported production of alumina stands at 4 million tons in 2014-15 which increased by about 6% YOY. NALCO continues to be the leading producer of alumina in India accounting for about 45% of the total production. The company produces 2 - 2.1 million tons of alumina annually. According to the latest reported volume, exports of alumina in India stand at about 1.5 million tonnes in 2014-15. Mr Tapan Kumar Chand, CMD, Nalco recently said in an interview that the company is pinning a lot of hope on its Alumina business for the coming quarters. In the 4th quarter of the current financial year, it plans to sell around 4 lakh tonnes (4,00,000...
UC RUSAL, the leading global aluminium producer, has announced its operating results for the fourth quarter 2016 and full year 2016. As reported in the results, in 4Q16, total alumina production increased 4.0% from last quarter to stand at a total of 1,939 thousand tonnes. Russian operations accounted for 34% of the total alumina output. The Nikolaev refinery has reported a 12.3% growth in production from last quarter attributed to the capacity upgrade last year. The rest of the Company’s alumina assets performance was largely in line with the production plan. For the full year 2016, alumina output totalled 7.52 million tons registering a growth of 1.7% YoY. The production increase was driven by the Russian refineries namely Urals and Bogoslovsk and also by the Ukrainian Nikolaev...
India's leading manufacturer and exporter of aluminium and alumina, National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO) remains upbeat about its Alumina business for the rest part of the current financial year as well as for the next fiscal. In its recently declared financial results for the 3rd quarter ended December 2016, the company registered production growth in Alumina along with other verticals. Nalco produced 15.27 lakh tonnes of alumina hydrate, against 14,37 lakh tonnes achieved in the corresponding period of the previous year. Alumina sales volume for the quarter reached 3.11 lakh tonnes (3,11,000 tonnes), up seven per cent quarter-on-quarter and realization per tonne from the commodity improved by around US$18 or eight per cent from the previous quarter of the current fiscal. The...
Hindalco Industries reported a standalone net profit of INR 321 crore for Q3 2017. Although, aluminium revenues grew 19%, and alumina production reported an increase due to added output from Utkal Alumina International Ltd (UAIL). The total alumina production (including Utkal Alumina) for Q3 2017 stands at 7,44,000 tons which registers a 5% increase from 7,05,000 tons in Q3FY16 and about 2.5% increase from 726,000 tons in Q2 2017. Utkal Alumina International Ltd produced 3,93,000 tons of alumina in Q3 FY17 compared to 3,64,000 tons in Q3 FY16. UAIL EBITDA during the current quarter stands at INR 140 crore. It is to be noted that Utkal Alumina has been fighting with environmental and worker issues since it started trial production from its 1.5 million tonne alumina refinery in 2013. Now...
Alumina d.o.o Zvornik, the key alumina producer and the biggest exporter of mineral-based detergents in Bosnia, said that it has signed a deal with the local state-controlled brown coal mine Banovici. Under the deal, the latter will supply 160,000 tonnes of coal worth some 16 million marka ($8.7 million/8.2 million euro) to be used for Alumina's production in 2017. Alumina is engaged in the production of a wide variety of hydrates, not to mention alumina, the prime component in the electrolyte used for aluminium smelting through the Hall-Héroult process. Alumina is produced by refining and further processing the bauxite ore. Other products of the firm include zeolites and sodium silicates. Alumina and Banovici have been working in close cooperation since last five years. The key end user...
The global demand for alumina, the prime raw material for aluminium is growing like never before with faster growth in aluminium production. Recently Alcoa, during its earnings announcement said that it expects a 4 per cent growth in global aluminium demand in 2017. The world will continue to see strong demand growth for alumina particularly in China and the Middle East countries. It opens up new trading opportunities for the alumina producing countries around the world and especially for the net exporters of alumina. Australia is a substantial producer of alumina, accounting for over 20% of world production. The major players in the Alumina Production industry are vertically integrated, with Alcoa, Rio Tinto, and South32 all having interests in the upstream Bauxite Mining and downstream...
