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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Chinese spot alumina prices firmed further Monday on the back of stronger domestic aluminum prices and reduced alumina reserves following refinery cutbacks in recent months. Platts ex-works Shanxi alumina spot price stood at Yuan 1,710/mt ($262/mt) full cash payment terms Monday, rising Yuan 15 from Friday, and up Yuan 65 on the week. The current price also reflected an increase of Yuan 85 from a month ago. The front-month aluminum contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed at Yuan 11,145 mt Monday, up from Yuan 10,780/mt a week ago, and also from Yuan 10,830/mt a month ago. Spot alumina offers in Shanxi were heard at Yuan 1,730-1,750/mt cash Monday, up from Yuan 1,720-1,730/mt on Friday, and mostly around Yuan 1,700/mt at the start of last week. Tradeable prices were pegged at Yuan...
Alcoa is keeping alive the dream of a billion-dollar expansion of its Wagerup alumina refinery in the South West after asking the State Government for more time to hold on to the all-important environmental approval. Alcoa of Australia managing director Michael Parker said the process to seek a further five-year relief was under way, a decade since the company was first given the green tick to proceed with expanding Wagerup refining capacity to 4.7 million tonnes a year. However, the expansion was put on hold on economic grounds. Already a world-class asset, the expansion would almost double Wagerup’s refining capacity and generate much-needed jobs in the South West. Mr Parker cautioned that the expansion proposal was still “largely on hold given the market conditions” though it was...
Nabaltec AG, the leading German supplier of functional grade aluminium oxide and aluminium hydroxide for numerous innovative applications, will be further expanding its operations in Asia in the first quarter of 2016 with the formation of a wholly-owned subsidiary based in Tokyo, Japan. Nabaltec Asia Pacific K.K. is to be engaged in marketing and sales for Nabaltec AG's entire product portfolio, working closely with regional sales partners. This will give Japanese customers a direct contact person on-site while at the same time advancing the company's business in the Asian market through this new presence. Johannes Heckmann, Member of the Board of Nabaltec AG stated as follows: "We have been operating in the Asian market for almost two decades, we have been working closely and...
Orbite Technologies Inc. announces it has shipped five additional high purity alumina samples to prospective customers. Four of the five prospective customers have received, for the first time, 5N (99.999%) samples as per their required specifications, while the fifth received a 5N+ (greater than 99.999%) sample. This customer is currently also assessing Orbite's HPA in gamma crystalline form. The samples shipped continue to show the same consistent product quality as previously shipped samples, confirming the stability of and the control Orbite has over its process. To date, Orbite has shipped a total of 22 samples to 16 prospective customers including 3 repeat orders. Additionally, Orbite has successfully commissioned its milling equipment at the Cap-Chat facility and will be shipping...
Rusal expects 12.5 million tonnes of alumina capacity to be closed worldwide this year, an executive from Rusal was reported saying in a recent interview. Rusal's own modernization program, however, will increase its alumina capacity by about 430,000 tonnes when it is complete by May or June, Yakov Itskov, director of Rusal’s alumina division, the executive was quoted as saying.
Gladstone alumina refineries QAL and Yarwun are expected to refine more product this year despite low prices and an already over-supplied market. According to the Resources and Energy Outlook report from Department of Industry, Innovation and Science too much alumina in the market in 2015 pushed the price down by 8 per cent and in 2016 it is forecast to decrease by 18 per cent. It will put pressure on Gladstone's refineries. China was expected to continue to increase production of alumina in 2016 as new and suspended refineries start producing more. But, the report stated, QAL and Yarwun would drive an increase in Australian production. The low Australia dollar is expected to help exports as the overseas buyers can buy it for cheaper. Rio Tinto expects poor quality bauxite in China to...
The critically low alumina price in the interational market has forced Queensland Alumina Limited to axe workers from its Barney Point refinery. The company did not disclose the number of people made redundant, but did say they were in 'support' roles. "As a result of significant pressure on the aluminium industry we are working to reduce costs to make QAL more competitive," said QAL general manager Mike Dunstan. "QAL has been through these cycles before, and there are times when it does get really rough but but this is the roughest we've seen," Mr Dunstan added. The price of aluminium is at its lowest price in 25 years, now at about US$205 per tonne, down from the consistent average in recent years of US$330 per tonne. QAL Management said the changes would eventually make the refinery,...
Odisha-based Navratna PSE Nalco has announced investment of INR 20,550 crore for expansion of its alumina refinery at Damanjodi and setting up an aluminium park at Angul in the state. "Since the entire value chain of Nalco, starting from bauxite mining to aluminium making is based in Odisha, our major focus is to strengthen the investment climate of the state thereby boosting Odisha's industrial upsurge," said T K Chand, CMD, Navratna PSE Nalco. Claiming that Nalco played a major role in Odisha Investors' Meet at Make in India Week in Mumbai, the aluminium major said it was committed for boosting industrialisation in the state. Addressing representatives of different industries, entrepreneurs, bureaucrats, delegates from within and outside the country at the investors' meet yesterday,...
Platts Australian alumina daily assessment closed the week at $209/mt FOB, up 50 cents on the day as the global market gravitated toward a more balanced or tighter position than a few months ago due to margins-led global refining cuts. The Australian assessment rose $1/mt on the week. Low freight rates have also helped to support the FOB alumina price. India’s Nalco awarded to Minmetals at $210.59/mt FOB Visakhapatnam a sell tender on February 3, market participants said. The tender closed on February 2 and called for a 30,000 mt lot to be shipped between February 15 and 20. On Thursday, Nalco floated a new sell tender for another 30,000 mt for shipment between March 10 and 14 from Visakhapatnam. The tender closes February 16, with bids to be valid up to February 18. In the last three...
Owners of UC Rusal have signed an agreement with a Chinese firm for the purchase of Alumina Partners of Jamaica (ALPART), a bauxite mining and alumina processing plant located at Nain, St Elizabeth, in the south of Jamaica. Reliable sources said on Thursday that – in a process likely to be concluded by the third quarter of 2016 – the price had been agreed on and that the Chinese company will now enter into its due diligence phase before the financial close later this year. The source said that full-scale reopening of the plant would mean employment and inflows from the bauxite levy. No development plans were mentioned at this stage. Other sources have named the Chinese company as Jiuquan Iron & Steel (Group) Co Ltd (JISCO) - a producer of carbon steel, stainless & special steel and...
Some of the world’s biggest miners are believed to be positioning themselves for transformational takeover deals, with speculation mounting that Rio Tinto could be circling Alcoa’s $5 billion alumina business and that the coal giant Glencore is poised to buy the struggling Western Australia miner Atlas Iron. Many view Rio Tinto’s move last week to come clean early about its plan to cut dividends as interesting. One theory is that it will be followed by a play for Alcoa’s alumina operation following news of a decision by the company to split its upstream and downstream assets into separate entities. Rio, which is mulling a move to introduce a Chinese partner to help fund its $US1.9bn Amrun bauxite project on Cape York, is the only diversified player in alumina. Alcoa’s alumina upstream...
The list of items to be done before full commissioning of Quebec-based clean-tech firm Orbite Technologies’ new commercial-scale high-purity alumina (HPA) plant can stat has become short and straightforward, chief executive Glenn Kelly said on Thursday, after the company managed to resolve a supplier issue that had held progress back at the project. A dispute with one of its suppliers resulted in a delay in equipment delivery and installation, however, the company advised that after settling the dispute, the withheld parts were delivered and work on installing the calcination system restarted early in January. The project was now back on the correct construction sequence and was progressing according to plan, with installation of all major mechanical equipment, including the calciner and...
Russian aluminium giant Rusal is taking advantage of a slide in the country's currency to boost its alumina production capacity despite a global surplus of the material, an executive said on Wednesday. Ramping up production would allow the company to take advantage of higher margins offered by the currency differential, as their costs are in the weaker rouble, while export sales are made in dollars. Rusal expects to add about 430,000 tonnes to its capacity of alumina, an intermediate raw material to make aluminium, through a $34.5 million modernisation programme due to complete in May or June, said Yakov Itskov, director of the alumina division. Itskov, who did not provide a figure for Rusal's total alumina production capacity, said a slide in the rouble has cut the dollar-denominated...
Metro Mining has extended the takeover offer period for Gulf Alumina Limited by one month to the 15th March 2016. Metro’s offer opened on Christmas Eve 2015, and is progressing in parallel as the company rapidly advancing its own project. The details of the offer include: 3.3 Metro shares for every 1 Gulf share; Ownership Outcome Under Offer 56 per cent Metro / 44 per cent Gulf; Minimum 50.1 per cent acceptance. The merger would create a much larger independent Cape York bauxite company with enhanced market relevance, and would effectively double the reserve base of circa 96 million tonnes. The new entity would also realise significant operational synergies, such as economies of scale and enhanced financing capability given improved economics and enhanced investor appeal.
South32 has warned of job losses at its Worsley alumina operation in the South West after announcing big staffing cuts at its South African manganese operation and flagging a writedown of $US1.7 billion. The BHP spin-off employs about 1800 workers at its bauxite mine near Boddington, its alumina refinery near Collie and port operations at Bunbury. The Perth-headquartered company's Worsley operation is one of the largest and lowest-cost alumina refineries in the world. But sagging commodity prices have forced the company to review its activities worldwide. “Our teams are currently finalising plans that will deliver a meaningful reduction in costs at Illawarra Metallurgical Coal (NSW), Cerro Matoso (Colombia), Worsley Alumina (WA) and Australia Manganese (NT and Tas),” South32 said in a...
China’s appetite for imported alumina is to grow voracious in 2016. SMM expects, it will surpass 5 million mt in 2016 mainly due to two reasons. First, domestic supply of alumina will tighten following output cuts by some of the major Chinese alumina refiners; and second, sea freight charges are at multi-year lows. FOB price of West Australian alumina is just around USD 205/mt at present. Such low price is still lucrative enough for the aluminium smelters that are located near ports. So, that will provide a reasonable traction to alumina imports. In 2015, however, China imported 4.65 million mt of alumina, down 11.8 per cent year-on-year, and imports were 544,100 mt in December 2015, customs data showed. SMM in its earlier forecast had attributed this decline to the production cuts and...
Altech Chemicals published its quarterly activities and cashflow report for the period ending December 31, 2015. The highlights of the report are given below: 1) Altech signed mandate with German KfW IPEX-Bank for project financing • Exclusive project finance mandate with German KfW IPEX-Bank • Mandate for senior debt, including German Export Credit Agency (ECA) insured debt • Approx. US$40m of ECA cover project debt • Balance of approx. $15m senior debt 2) Altech appointed HPA sales & marketing manager (China) Mr Martin Ma to develop the HPA business in China 3) Altech received Letter of Interest (LOI) for German export credit cover 4) Altech received LOI from Euler Hermes for • German ECA cover • Around 55% of plant and equipment sourced from Germany & additional 10% from Europe • Debt...
Orbite Technologies Inc. is pleased to announce that it has entered into an underwriting agreement with Euro Pacific Canada Inc. under which the Underwriter has agreed to buy on a bought deal basis 4,000 units of the company at a price of $1,000 per Unit for gross proceeds of $4,000,000. In addition to the Units distributed pursuant to the Bought Offering, the company has entered into agreements with several of its key suppliers who have agreed to receive an aggregate of 2,938 Units as consideration for outstanding invoices in the aggregate amount of $2,938,000. The company also granted the Underwriter an option, exercisable in whole or in part, at one or more additional closings, at any time within 30 days of the closing of the Bought Offering, to purchase up to an additional 6,000 Units...
