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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Airobotics, a leading provider of an end-to-end fully automatic solution, has developed an unmanned drone solution, the first of its kind in the global market. The company’s multi-purpose drone will be utilized at an Australian resources operation in a little while. Airobotics Co-founder and CEO Ran Krauss commented: “The launch of Airobotics’ automated drone platform marks an important milestone, being one of the first deployments for Airobotics in Australia.” The fully automated drone will be deployed for scrutinizing machinery and conducting surveying and mapping at South32’s Worsley Alumina operations. The industrial grade automated drone comes with high capacity and cloud based software helps the user to control with one click. South32, a base metal and coal mining company, will use...
Macquarie has upgraded Alumina's recommendation from neutral to outperform and increased its price target by 35% to $2.30, implying upside of 20% to the company's current trading range. Through its ownership of 40% of each of the Alcoa World Alumina and Chemicals (AWAC) entities which form a part of the Alcoa alumina business segment, Alumina is strongly leveraged to movements in the aluminium price. In response to recent disclosures from Alcoa, Macquarie has made material upgrades to its aluminium price outlook and undertaken a remodelling of its earnings estimates for the group, including the potential for growing bauxite export revenues. These revisions have resulted in the broker increasing earnings forecasts for calendar years 2017 and 2018 by circa 16%. Commenting on broader...
Altech Chemicals Limited has provided an update on the due diligence activities associated with the financing of its proposed high purity alumina (HPA) project. The various independent reviews and associated confirmatory pilot plant test work are now well advanced and nearing completion. Altech has been working exclusively with German KfW IPEX-Bank on project finance structuring. The Company is currently targeting US$70 million of project debt; the majority of which is aimed to be subject to German export credit cover (ECA), typically offered at attractive interest rates and terms; the remainder is expected to be available on normal commercial loan terms. On 10 August 2016 the appointment of due diligence consultants by Altech and KfW IPEX-Bank was announced. The consultants are engaged...
Altech Chemicals has just released December 2016 Quarterly Activities Report and cash flow update. The highlights of the report show steady growth of its HPA project. Altech opens Malaysian subsidiary office at Johor HPA site, which is close to site of proposed HPA plant. Applications for various permits and approvals have also commenced for future operations. The company has started soil survey at Johor HPA site. The soil survey drilling plays an important part in the detailed civil design and engineering of the project. Altech confirms that HPA project is making regular progress and is nearing completion. The detailed design is progressing as planned without any major flaw. Permission for the plant construction has been commenced. Altech has also submitted mining proposal for Meckering...
Saudi Arabia, which is home to the GCC's only integrated aluminium complex- Ma'aden Aluminium (a joint venture between the Saudi Arabian Mining Company and Alcoa), is inching towards becoming fully self-reliant in alumina procurement for metal production within the country. Construction at Ma'aden's Al Ba’itha bauxite mine, the first one in the Middle East is progressing at a steady pace. On completion, the mine is estimated to produce over 4 million metric tonnes of bauxite ore per year (mtpy) which will be refined in the GCC's first alumina refinery to produce 1.8 million mtpy of alumina. Much of this alumina will be processed in MA's smelter to produce 740,000 mtpy of aluminium. For now, Saudi has to depend on alumina imports for domestic metal production, but the volume of imports has...
PT Aneka Tambang (ANTM), a mining company, announced on Wednesday that the company was finalizing its next downstream projects using bauxite reserves and nickel ores. For Bauxites, ANTAM is currently developing Smelter Grade Alumina Refinery (SGAR) plant with PT Inalum. The company is also preparing Line 2 and Line 3 ferronickel plant development projects in order to add value to its reserves through downstream projects. These downstream projects can be accomplished through internal funding or collaborating with strategic partners. ANTAM’s President Director Tedy Badrujaman said," We are currently preparing our next downstream projects to enhance the Company’s sustainability. We will also benefit from the momentum of mineral export policy to continue downstream initiatives to expand our...
Alcoa Corporation reported its fourth quarter 2016 results on January 24 and despite net loss, the results reflect profit growth at the combined segment level. Alcoa reported 9% sequential growth in its Q4 revenue of $2.5 billion. The revenue growth was driven by higher alumina pricing to a considerable extent and it could close the quarter with a decent cash balance of $853 million supported by that. Alcoa continued to successfully build its third-party bauxite business and to further streamline its alumina and aluminium portfolio over the fourth quarter. AofA secured its first major bauxite export contract out of Western Australia (WA), and was granted approval to export up to 2.5 million metric tons per annum of bauxite for five years to third-party customers. As a strategic move,...
Further to its press release of January 16, 2017, Orbite Technologies Inc. today provides an update on the company's progress with the production of high purity alumina ("HPA"). In an earlier production run announced on January 16, 2017, close to 2 tonnes of HPA was produced over 3 days. Feedstock material fed to the calcination section of the plant consisted of aluminium chloride hexahydrate ("ACH") with a purity of approximately 4N7 (HPA equivalent), produced in the digestion and crystallization sections of the plant. The purity of the HPA produced using this source material was also approximately 4N7. This indicates that next to no impurities were picked up in the calcination section of the plant, a significant and better than expected result as an increase of impurities in the first...
Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside oil and gas, has seconded 10 young UAE National engineers abroad as part of its preparations for the start-up of its AED 11 billion Al Taweelah alumina refinery next year. EGA’s young engineers have been seconded for five months to Ma’aden in Saudi Arabia, the only operating alumina refinery in the region, to gain experience of a new industrial process for the UAE. In total 27 UAE Nationals are set to be seconded to Ma’aden over the course of this year as part of their training. EGA’s Al Taweelah alumina refinery is the first to be built in the UAE and is currently the largest construction project in the country’s aluminium industry. Once it is in production in 2018, the Al Taweelah alumina...
One of the world's largest aluminium producers UC RUSAL is going to invest over RUB 5 billion in construction of an alumina transshipment terminal in Vanino Bay within the framework of Free Port of Vladivostok (FPV), Russia, reported sources aware of the development. Three more projects are also being lined up for implementation in the Vanino District. The approval of all the projects was obtained from the Committee of FPV Supervisory Board on January 17, Tuesday. Prichal LLC, a subsidiary of Rysal, has been awarded the contract of building the alumina terminal that will facilitate transshipment of 1.5 million tonnes of alumina in a year, on completion. The total investment for the project is expected to exceed RUB 5 billion. Prichal is currently pursuing the procedure of obtaining the...
Rio Tinto’s fourth quarter report for 2016 shows that the workers at Yarwun's Rio Tinto refinery achieved alumina production at record levels. For the fourth quarter of 2016, the metals and minerals company produced 2,104,000 tonnes of alumina, five per cent higher than in 2015. Rio Tinto's alumina refineries situated at Yarwun and Gove turned out 8,192,000 tonnes of alumina in 2016. The alumina refinery had a year-on-year production increase of 11 per cent. According to Rio Tinto chief executive J-S Jacques, "We have delivered strong operational performance in 2016 underpinned by our drive for efficiency and maximising cash flow.” “Our disciplined approach remains in place in 2017, with the continued focus on productivity, cost reduction and commercial excellence. “This will ensure that...
The Odisha government and state-owned Odisha Mining Corporation entered into a partnership on Wednesday, 11 January, that will provide bauxites to the Vedanta’s Lanjigarh alumina refinery, which is not operating to its full capacity. Lanjigarh alumina refinery will get bauxite supplies from Kodingamali bauxite mines owned by Odisha Mining Corporation with total reserves of 81 million tonnes. Vedanta’s Odisha project is facing bauxite shortage after the Niyamgiri bauxite mining project was shut down, following the Supreme Court’s decision and local tribals objections. From then on, Vedanta has been pleading the state government for substitute bauxite mining. After the shutdown of Niyamgiri bauxite mining, the joint venture between Vedanta and Odisha Mining Corporation was terminated by the...
Imerys S.A, the French multinational behemoth dealing in industrial mineral production and processing, will divest one of its newly purchased fused alumina operations in La Bathie in Savoie, France, reported sources familiar with the development. The move comes after the European Commission set out pre-conditions for the French industrial group for its planned takeover of Alteo's fused alumina assets in France. Alteo, the world's leading, fully-integrated supplier of specialty alumina, received an offer from Imerys last year July, for the acquisition of the companies ALTEO ARC and Alufin. Alteo ARC, at that time, was operating a white fused alumina plant in La Bathie in Savoie and a brown fused alumina plant in Beyrède, France. Commenting on the proposed acquisition, Frédéric Ramé,...
Norwegian based aluminium company Hydro has signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) with the state of Pará and also a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Shell Brasil Petróleo LTDA, with the aim to replace a major part of its current fuel oil consumption at the Alunorte alumina refinery in Brazil with more environmentally friendly natural gas. The LoI with the Para Government was signed in Belem, Brazil, yesterday evening, and witnessed by Hydro's CEO, Svein Richard Brandtzæg, and Governor of Pará, Simão Jatene. The LoI aims to develop infrastructure and enable the use of natural gas in the region. Hydro Alunorte would be the first significant consumer of gas, and an enabler for establishing new LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) infrastructure in Pará. Feasibility study to be conducted The MoU with...
Alumina enters 2017 on a positive note. Its price advance last year was ahead of other commodities in the aluminium value chain, and the growing demand from China and Middle East aluminium makers suggests that those gains may be sustained this year as well. {newsStudioGallery} Demand-Supply & Price Outlook: Globally, alumina prices have been improving in the latter half of 2016; over the last couple of months, the prices rose even higher as coal became costlier and alumina supply deficit became clear following Chinese output curtailments. With the world’s biggest aluminium producers firing up new plants and restarting idled capacity to take advantage of high aluminium prices, it is expected that the demand (pull factor) for alumina will rise, keeping prices buoyed up through 2017. On the...
China's leading mining, manufacturing and processing groups and export trading corporation Bosai Minerals Group (or Nanchuan Minerals) has restarted production at its alumina refinery plant in Xianfeng, reported Shanghai Metals Market. The refinery, which brought down its production capacities in early December last year for environmental reasons, resumed operations during the New Year holidays. Bosai Minerals was originally running at 700,000 tonnes per annum capacities but on being inquired about its environmental compliance, it had to slash its production capacities by 350,000 tonnes in December. The plant, which is yet to reach its original operational capacities, is expected to run in full capacity soon, reported SMM. Bosai Minerals owns the country's first privately-owned...
As per preliminary production data released by Shanghai Metals Market in their latest survey report, China's alumina output in December rose 17.4 per cent year-over-year to total at 5471 thousand tonnes. This was higher by 4.28 per cent from the November output volume of 5246 thousand tonnes. The month-on-month rise in production signifies that demand for the mineral in domestic market has grown at a sustained rate. Alumina production in China during January-December period increased 4.05 per cent from the previous year to reach 58710 thousand tonnes. This proves that though there were announcements of smelter owners curbing their aluminium output in 2016, the effect has been minimal on alumina supply side. In January 2017, China is estimated to produce 5511 thousand tonnes of alumina, up...
Global alumina market witnessed a steady demand growth in 2016, driven by the China factor. New smelter starts and old capacity restarts in China coupled with supply difficulties buoyed prices up both in China and ex-China market. In the U.S. too, integrated producers like erstwhile Alcoa Corp., fared reasonably well in the last quarter of the year due to high alumina prices. Alcoa was the top alumina producer in 2016, with a strong first-quarter cost position on the global cost curve. But then, barring Alcoa, the U.S. primary aluminium industry otherwise experienced a significant slowdown in operations and demand as they were faced by severe Chinese aluminium import onslaughts that kept continuing well through the year. This got reflected in the country's alumina trade as well....
