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...
Grow with
AL Circle
Platts Australian alumina daily assessment at $204.50/mt FOB gained $1.50/mt from Monday, January 22nd, as the market continued to gravitate from a long to a more balanced position. Global refining cuts in response to poor margins, and recent consumer restocking and dip buying have put a floor under the market. There appears to have been a creeping up of buying inquiries in the last couple of days. In the past week, consumer and trader sources have noted that offers were harder to come by. Stockholders have said they were in no hurry to offload. A stockholder said he was anticipating demand to pick up in coming weeks. In the meantime, there was the option of storing the tons in China, he said. A Chinese smelter affirmed that sellers were eyeing more than $215/mt CIF China. Platts assessed...
According to the data revealed by Brazil’s foreign trade ministry, alumina exports of the country remained nearly stable year-on-year in December 2015. A total of 699,456 tons of alumina (aluminium oxide powder refined from bauxite) was shipped abroad last month, a rise from 698,969 tons in December 2014, the figures showed. Revenues generated from alumina exports declined 11.8% to $190 million on a fob basis, in the same comparison, last month, MDIC data showed.
Nashtec LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, is a joint venture company between Nabaltec (which holds 51% of the membership interests in Nashtec) and Allied Alumina LLC (which holds 49% of the membership interests). On Monday January 11, 2016, Nashtec’s supplier of aluminum hydroxide required for the production of APYRAL® 40 CD, Sherwin Alumina LLC, filed a petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Corpus Christi, Texas, for relief under chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Sherwin is continuing to operate its business in the ordinary course while under bankruptcy court protection. At the Nashtec facility, this will also cause no supply limitations to the customers. Sherwin’s filings with the bankruptcy court included a proposal to sell its alumina production plant and all of its...
A foreign tax dispute and sagging commodity prices could lead a St. James Parish manufacturing plant to close, leading to the loss of 444 jobs. Noranda ships bauxite that it mines in Jamaica to its plant in Gramercy, where alumina is extracted. That material then goes to the company's smelter facility in Missouri and is turned into aluminum. Noranda is attempting to reach an agreement with the Jamaican government over the production fee the company pays the country for exporting bauxite. A previous deal expired at the end of 2014, and the parties have been in arbitration since then trying to reach new terms. John Parker, Noranda's vice president for investor relations, said Jamaica is seeking fees that established in its original production agreement with the company, which he likened to...
Alumina prices in China are building up upward momentum after a slump in December, SMM sees. The price rally will be driven by alumina production cuts, stocking before the 2016 Chinese New Year holiday due in early February, SMM aluminium analyst explained. China’s alumina output fell 1.17% month-on-month to 4.66 million tonnes in December, SMM data statistics showed. Production cuts have allowed stocks to drop at Chinese alumina producers, SMM has learned. It should be noted, though, that a pileup of cheap imported alumina will limit the upside of domestic alumina prices. Imported alumina traded around 1,700 yuan per tonne (including VAT, self pickup) at the Port of Lianyungang in mid-January.
According to a recently published market research report, the global high purity alumina (HPA) market was valued at US$ 1.2 billion (bn) in 2014 and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.9% during the forecast period to reach US$ 3.6 bn by the end of 2021. HPA is a high-end product of the non-metallurgical grade alumina market. It is a high-value product that serves as a base material for the manufacture of sapphire substrates used in a wide range of applications such as light emitting diodes (LEDs), scratch-resistant artificial sapphire glass, and semiconductor wafers. According to the market assessment, global packaged LED production which is currently witnessing a significant annual growth rate of 9%-11%, is expected to be a major demand driver for HPA....
Large alumina refineries in China have begun to slash output due to rock bottom prices of aluminium, which has 80% of the country's domestic alumina industry operating with negative cashflow, state-backed research house Antaike said on Friday. "Domestic alumina refineries have halted 9.10-million tonnes per year capacity... around 2.30-million tonnes per year alumina capacity will be closed in the near term," Antaike said in a release. Most of the product cut happened in the high-cost regions of Shandong and Henan, it said. China is the world's biggest producer of glut-stricken aluminium.
Global mining behemoth Rio Tinto reported growth in production in its alumina operations in FY 2015. Alumina production from the company's QAL and Yarwun plants in 2015 totalled 6.61 million tonnes (mt), an increase of 355,000 tonnes from the 2014 total of 6.256 mt. The QAL plant produced 3.747 mt, up from the 2014 total of 3.568 mt, and the Yarwun plant produced 2.864 mt, up from the previous year's 2.688 mt. Total global production of alumina including the company's alumina plants in Brazil and Canada in 2015 was 11.837 mt. The 2014 total was 1.212 mt, but that included the company's Gove plant in the Northern territory which was closed down in May 2014.
Sherwin Alumina Co., the bankrupt unit of commodities giant Glencore PLC, made its bankruptcy-court debut in Corpus Christi, Texas, Wednesday and got preliminary access to $40 million in financing from another Glencore affiliate. Judge David R. Jones approved access to $500,000 of the loan and set a hearing for final approval of the loan on Feb. 10 in Houston, Texas, where he also hears cases. Joshua Sussberg of Kirkland & Ellis LLP said the loan, from Glencore affiliate Commodity Funding LLC, was the only financing available to Sherwin and that any shutdown of the company’s alumina smelting activities would be very costly to restart. Mr. Sussberg also noted that while the company has “serious labor issues”--having had its 455 unionized employees off the job since October 2014-that was an...
Orbite Technologies Inc. today announced that it has been advised by the Federal Service for Intellectual Property (ROSPATENT) that its Russian patent application No. 2014131946 pertaining to its red mud monetization technology and titled "Processes for Treating Red Mud", has been deemed allowable. Further to its September 28, 2015 press release, patent No. 2,862,307 titled "Processes for Treating Fly Ash" has been granted by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office ("CIPO") and received by the company. Additionally, the United States Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO") recently advised the Company that its patent application No. 14/413,940 titled "Processes for Preparing Titanium Oxide and Various Other Products" has been found allowable. Furthermore, Australian patent No. 2012231686...
Altech Chemicals is stepping up the pace of marketing and sales for future high purity alumina (HPA) product to be produced from Altech's HPA plant with a key initiative for the Chinese market. Martin Ma has been appointed as the company's sales and marketing manager for China and tasked with establishing offtake agreements. Ma has experience in sales management of high purity feedstock materials to Chinese industries such as the lithium battery and electrical vehicle industries. Altech has completed a Bankable Feasibility Study for the construction and operation of a 4,000 tonnes per annum HPA processing plant at Tanjung Langsat in Malaysia. The company clinched support of an export credit insurance scheme which could cover most of the total capital cost of the company’s proposed...
Alumina shares rose the most in almost seven years after Citigroup upgraded the stock, citing expectations that global production cuts can drive a recovery in prices. The Melbourne-based producer, partner of Alcoa in the world's largest alumina producer, rose as much as 13 per cent in Sydney, the most since March 2009, and closed 11 per cent higher at A$US1.095, trimming its decline in the past 12 months to 44 per cent. Alcoa, the largest US aluminium producer, forecasts an alumina deficit of 2.8 million tonnes in 2016 as a result of global production curbs, including at the Point Comfort refinery in Texas. The Alcoa World Alumina & Chemicals venture has taken about 3 million tons of capacity out of the market, Citigroup analysts including Sydney-based Clarke Wilkins wrote in a note dated...
Melbourne’s Alumina is expected to continue to pay dividends despite the crash in prices for its namesake intermediate aluminium product. The impact of the crash in alumina prices hit home yesterday with the release of Alcoa’s fourth (December) quarter results in the US, with Alcoa the manager of the 60-40 global alumina alliance (AWAC) with Alumina. The Alcoa result of $US65 million ($93m) was better than expectations but was down from $US432m in the previous corresponding period, due mainly to savage alumina and aluminium metal price falls. Citi noted that Alcoa’s alumina earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation margin in the fourth quarter was $US57 a tonne, down from $US95 a tonne in the third quarter and $US100 a tonne in the first half of 20125. Third-party...
Lightweight metal major Alcoa reported fourth-quarter and full-year 2015 results yesterday. Despite lower alumina and aluminium prices, the Upstream verticals remained profitable. In the face of a 24 percent alumina price decline, after tax operating income (ATOI) was $98 million in the fourth quarter, down $114 million sequentially from $212 million and $80 million lower year-over-year from $178 million. Sequentially, cost reductions slightly offset the impact of lower pricing related to both the Alumina Price Index and London Metal Exchange-based contracts and unfavorable foreign currency movements. Adjusted EBITDA per metric ton decreased $38 from third quarter 2015 to $57 in fourth quarter 2015 and decreased $28 year-over-year.
Sherwin Alumina Co., the troubled U.S. unit of commodities company Glencore Plc, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy Monday as a protracted slump in the price of aluminum and a labor lockout strained the alumina plant operator’s finances. Sherwin entered bankruptcy with a plan to sell its assets to another Glencore unit called Corpus Christi Alumina, in exchange for forgiveness of $95 million in debt plus $250,000 in cash. Commodity Funding LLC, another Glencore unit affiliated with Corpus Christi, has also agreed to provide $40 million to Sherwin to fund its operations during the bankruptcy case. The company hopes to gain court approval of a plan to test that offer at auction on March 23 and ultimately exit bankruptcy by March 31, according to court documents. “Glencore is supportive of the...
Australian company Alumina, the junior partner in the AWAC joint venture with Alcoa, said lower alumina and aluminium prices and unfavourable currency movements had negatively impacted margins during the final quarter of last year. The comments came as Alcoa, the first major US company to report fourth quarter results, said its revenues slumped 18 per cent in the period amid sharply lower aluminium prices. Alumina chief executive Peter Wasow said higher production at the group’s Australian refineries, along with productivity gains, energy savings and a clamp down on costs had somewhat offset the margin declines. “AWAC continues to adjust its portfolio to improve its cost position and ensure continued competitiveness in the prevailing market conditions,” Mr Wasow said. AWAC’s production of...
Speculations are all over that Chalco (Shanxi), Shanxi’s top alumina producer, has submitted to the local government a report titled “Report on Production Cuts or Complete Shutdown at Chalco (Shanxi)." An official surnamed Li at Chalco (Shanxi) confirmed that the company has submitted this report to local government. However, the report does not mean that Chalco (Shanxi) will close immediately and in fact the company is trying to maintain normal operations by cost reductions, Ms Li said. Chalco (Shanxi) will resort to production cuts or closures only when situation worsens to a level that it cannot bear, Li added. Submitting such report to local government simply acts as a warning so as not to make local government ill-prepared in case it does shut down, Li explained. Chalco (Shanxi) has...
The three alumina refineries in Western Australia’s southwest operated by the Alcoa and Alumina-operated AWAC joint venture have been spared in the latest production cuts made by AWAC in response to the crash in prices. The 60:40 per cent-owned AWAC joint venture operates the Kwinana, Pinjarra and Wagerup refineries. Fears had grown that the operations could be hit hard by alumina’s 12-month price fall from $US350 a tonne to $US200 a tonne. But it is AWAC’s Point Comfort refinery in Texas that is to take the big hit, again, with Alcoa (AWAC’s manager) saying its remaining 810,000 tonnes of capacity would drop out by the end of the June quarter. All up, AWAC is to idle one million tonnes of capacity. Where the additional 190,000 tonnes of capacity that is to be idled will come from was not...
