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 Parish of Manchester is located in west-central Jamaica, in the county of Middlesex which used to be a business hub and housed the major alumina plants that drove the economy. However, during recession time in 2008, the plants closed and the parish became prone to various crimes. Recently, the Manchester Police have assured businesses and residents that crime is under control and that the parish is open for new business investments. "Manchester has seen migratory criminals coming in from time to time to the south side from Clarendon and Kingston and posing a problem…"Manchester is open for business and the police stand ready to continue the excellent policing," said Donovan Graham (Assistant Commissioner of Police, (ACP) ) who heads Police Area Three, in which Manchester falls. The...
According to a recently published report by Persistence Market Research (PMR), the global high purity alumina market was valued at US$ 1.2 billion in 2014 and is projected to expand at a CAGR of 6.9 per cent during the forecast period to reach US$ 3.6 billion by the end of 2021. High purity alumina or HPA is a high-end product of the non-metallurgical alumina market. It is a high-value product that serves as a base material for the manufacture of sapphire substrates used in various applications such as scratch-resistant artificial sapphire glass, light emitting diodes (LEDs), and semiconductor wafers. Manufacture of synthetic single crystal sapphires (used as a base substrate for manufacturing LEDs) is a major application of HPA. LEDs are used in traffic lights, LED-backlit LCDs,...
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The United Steelworkers (USW) union announces that it has reached an agreement with the Sherwin Alumina management regarding preseravtion of pension plan and gains severance pay and other benefits for the USW members after the comapny's alumina refinery in Gregory shuts down officially on Friday, November 4. The agreement marks an end to the several months of bargaining that USW has been doing with Sherwin Alumina since it made clear that it would close its operations at the Gregory plant. The court approved the settlement in Sherwin's Chapter 11 bankruptcy case today after a short hearing. Commenting on the development, USW District 13 Director Ruben Garza said, "While the USW ultimately is deeply troubled by the company's decision to shut down the plant, we are proud of the way these...
Australian mineral development company Moly Mines is expecting to close its Gulf Alumina deal by this year December, reported a source aware of the matter. The ASX listed company is known to be trying to get its proposed buyout of the bauxite miner approved in the company’s shareholders’ meet scheduled in December. Moly Mines, in its last quarterly update, had set a deadline for receiving internal approval for the proposed acquisition before the end of 2016. At the year-end meeting when the shareholders meet to take important strategic decisions they are expected to vote on the transaction. The miner aims to relist the company on the ASX through the acquisition of the Gulf Alumina bauxite project at Skardon River, Australia. Last month, Australian government had asked Federal Treasurer...
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Alumina prices in China major markets will stay firm over the short term though the upward momentum is showing signs of slackening after logging continuous growth for some time now, said analysts at the Shanghai Metals Market. According to the latest market update, nearly 5.5 million tonnes of new and closed-down aluminium capacities are awaiting operation (re)-starts in the fourth quarter of the current fiscal and early next year. In comparison to that, new alumina capacity addition is estimated at only 6 million tonnes in the end of 2016 and 2017 beginning. Hence, there is going to be a clear deficit in alumina supply in the market. The weighted average alumina price in China's four major markets was 2,533 yuan/tonne in the week ending October 30, up 0.86 per cent from the previous...
The European Commission has approved French minerals company Imerys’s proposal to acquire alumina producer Alteo ARC and Alufin GmbH Tabularoxid. The takeover is subject to certain conditions. The Commission said on Friday that Imerys, as well as the businesses it was planning to acquire, were all in the operating state. The entities are into supplying various specialty alumina varieties in key markets of Europe. Post merger, Imerys, Alteo ARC and Alufin, together combined, will be the most dominant player in the European alumina market with limited competition in terms of value and volume of production. The clearance for acquistion is therefore conditional on Imerys divesting Alteo ARC’s entire white fused alumina business and related businesses in Alteo’s plant in La Bathie, France....
Orbite Technologies Inc. announced on October 26 that, further to its press release of October 13, 2016, production activities continue as planned at its high purity alumina ("HPA") plant. Highlights: • Feedstock digestion, which commenced on September 30, is now operating automatically, smoothly and as anticipated, and production times have come down, as planned.14 digestion batches have been completed, and batch production times have decreased to four hours per batch, well within design parameters. • The digestion liquors continue to be transferred to the crystallisation circuit for the production of Aluminum Chloride Hexahydrate (ACH) crystals, the precursor to High Purity Alumina (HPA). To date, 35 tonnes of ACH crystals have been produced, corresponding to close to 10 tonnes of HPA,...
CME Group, the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, today announced that the first Alumina FOB Australia (Platts) Futures contracts were traded on Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2016. A total of 60 futures contracts, equivalent to 6,000 metric tons, were traded across the January through June 2017 contract months. "We're pleased to see early support for our new Alumina futures contracts," said Young-Jin Chang, CME Group Global Head of Metals Products. "Together with our existing suite of aluminium products, these new contracts enable customers to effectively manage price risk both up and down the aluminium value chain. We look forward to continuing to work with the industry to meet the evolving needs of our customers." "We're enthusiastic about brokering the first trades of these...
CBIX largely flat (up 0.5% to US$45.7/dmt) with some higher Value-in-Use (ViU) priced cargos from Ghana and Australia offset by lower ViU-priced material from South America. Malaysia’s Minister for Natural Resources and Environment, Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar was quoted in the Malaysian Reserve on 20th October as saying the bauxite mining ban in Pahang (Kuantan) could be further extended, stating that, as long as stockpiles remained, the ban would stay. Dr Wan Junaidi claimed 4.15 million tonnes of material still needed to be cleared, and 38 special approval permits (AP) had been issued to clear the bauxite, but these had not been fully utilised. He further stated the issuance of APs has been carefully controlled to avoid any one party monopolising the situation. Dr Wan...
BHP Billiton spin-off South32 announced sharp rise in alumina hydrate production at its Worsley Alumina operation in Western Australia in the first quarter of the 2016-2017 financial year against the previous quarter. The total output of aluminium hydrate in the quarter ended September 30, 2016, stood at 980,000 tonnes, said the Australian-headquartered miner and metals producer in their latest update. The company said it is focused on achieving its target of annualised rate of alumna hydrate production at the Wosely operations, and this surge in output only reaffirms the fact. South32 was listed in May 2015 to own a collection of assets, including aluminium smelters that BHP wanted to do away with as it narrowed its focus to fewer and larger operations. The company has since grown in...
Norsk Hydro has reported its third quarter 2016 results. Though, Hydro's underlying EBIT declined to NOK 1,477 million in Q3 from NOK 1,618 million in Q2 2016, the quarter was brightened up by record-high alumina production of 6.5 million mt.\ Commenting on the positive alumina production, President and CEO Svein Richard Brandtzæg said, "I'm pleased to see the positive operational development in our bauxite and alumina production. Both Paragominas and Alunorte produced above nameplate capacity in the third quarter, with Hydro Alunorte alumina production reaching a record-high production level. This is a demonstration of long-term dedication by a highly competent and committed organization in Brazil. We have succeeded in lifting the bar and will continue these efforts to stabilize...
Metro Mining Ltd has announced its intention to make an offer to buy out all of the shares of Gulf Alumina Limited including those which it does not already own. The Board of Directors of the mineral company said that it considers the offer is far better than oly Mines Ltd's highly conditional offer for Gulf. Currently, Metro has a 39.3 per cent stake in Gulf and owns the Bauxite Hills project located in the adjoining areas of Gulf’s bauxite project at Skardon River, Cape York. A media release by Metro says the company considers that its offer 'provides the logical opportunity to unlock over $200 million in synergies from combining Metro’s and Gulf’s complementary projects, as estimated by Grant Thornton and Xstract Mining Consultants in Gulf’s independent expert report dated 13 May...
Noranda Aluminum Holding Corporation today announced Court approval for the sale of the Company's alumina refinery in Gramercy, Louisiana and bauxite mining operation in St. Ann, Jamaica. Following a competitive auction, New Day Aluminum LLC, an affiliate of DADA Holdings LLC, was selected as the winning bidder for the Company's alumina refinery and bauxite mining operation, with a purchase price of $24.4 million in the form of a secured note. A hearing is scheduled for November 4, 2016, to approve Noranda's previously announced global settlement agreement with its secured lenders and the Unsecured Creditors Committee and a motion to dismiss Noranda's Chapter 11 cases. Subject to court approval, the global settlement agreement governs the handling of the Company's remaining obligations...
PT Shaanxi Youser Indonesia, a part of the Shaanxi Youser Group is planning to construct an alumina refinery in East Kotawaringin district, Central Kalimantan in collaboration with a Chinese investor. The Chinese firm is ready to build the refinery at a cost of Rp16 trillion. "We want to build it next year but it will take at least two to three years in Indonesia. In China, it can be built in one year because they (Chinese workers) are ready to work nonstop," Director of PT Shaanxi Youser Indonesia, Steven Ugo, said in Malaysia on Thursday October 20. The company’s executive board also visited the Kotawaringin district capital of Sampit to inspect the site and to understand the relevance of building an alumina refinery in the district. As a standard, Indonesian bauxite is of good quality....
Orbite Technologies Inc. today announced that, further to its press release of October 3, 2016, production activities continue as planned at its high purity alumina ("HPA") plant. The first batch of feedstock digestion commenced on September 30 and was followed by subsequent batches, as planned. These batches of liquor, produced in the digestion circuit, were subsequently transferred to the crystallisation circuit for production of Aluminum Chloride Hexahydrate (ACH) crystals. ACH crystals are the precursor to High Purity Alumina (HPA). Purity levels of the ACH crystals, produced in the first batches, are already in excess of 5N, ahead of expectations. This would correspond to HPA purity levels in excess of 4N5. Based on the excellent results to date, ACH purity levels in excess of 5N8,...
Alumina output in China surged in September boosted by production restarts. Analysts at Shanghai Metals Market expect the trend to continue in October as well. According to a survey conducted by SMM, China’s total alumina output increased 4.79 per cent year-over-year (down 0.66 per cent from August) to 4.94 million tonnes in September. The average daily mineral output rose 2.65 per cent from August, driven by production recovery at Xiangjiang Wanji Aluminum and Shanxi Huaxing Aluminum. China’s total alumina output is slated to rise 7.83 per cent YoY to 5.3 million tonnes buoyed by rising alumina prices, SMS observes. Alumina producers in Shandong have started resuming production and Chalco (Shanxi) too has restarted production, the recent survey showed. China’s total aluminium output also...
Mining and metals company Alumina today reported results for the quarter ended September 30, 2016. The Australian alumina refiner received US$91.8 million by way of distributions, dividends and capital returns during the period under review as its share from the joint venture AWAC that it has with lightweight metals leader Alcoa. Alumina holds a 40 per cent stake in the AWAC joint venture, which reported a flat quarterly production of alumina vis-a-vis last quarter's 3.2 million tonnes. Alumina chief executive Peter Wasow said, "Since the end of September, we have seen some rebound from the recent lows in API (alumina price index) prices which had reduced margins in the third quarter." "The positive impacts of portfolio restructuring and cost improvements have continued to drive cash...
Altech Chemicals Limited has announced the estimation of a maiden Ore Reserve based on the production of high purity alumina (HPA) using feedstock from its 100 per cent-owned Meckering Kaolin Deposit (M70/1334), Western Australia (Meckering). The Ore Reserve was derived from Mineral Resources estimation at Meckering, which was delineated for the purpose of HPA production. A maiden Ore Reserve is estimated at 1.2 million tonnes @ 30 per cent Al2O3 (alumina) in the minus 300 micron (µm) kaolin fraction with a cut-off grade of 25 per cent Al2O3. The Ore Reserve at Meckering is more than sufficient to support the proposed HPA processing operation (ore delivery rate of 41,000tpa) for the initial stage 1 mine-life of 30 years. A Mineral Resource estimated 12.7 million tonnes @ 29.5 per cent...
