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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Aluminium giant Alcoa is considering whether to keep alive a long-held plan for a multi-billion dollar expansion of its Wagerup alumina refinery. Senior executives are understood to be trying to mount a case for seeking a second extension to a crucial WA Government environmental approval that allows for Wagerup’s refining capacity to be almost doubled to 4.7 million tonnes a year. If they decide to ask for another extension, they are expected to have to file an application within months. Alcoa’s deliberations come amid heavy headwinds in the form of aluminium’s weak price and concerns over the metal’s most important growth market, China. The US-based giant has been curtailing million of tonnes of refining capacity around the world but has kept its three South West assets. Alcoa is also...
Dubai International Capital (DIC), the private equity arm of Dubai Holding, has announced that it has completed the sale of Almatis, the supplier of premium alumina for the refractory, ceramic and polishing industries to OYAK, Turkey's largest private pension fund. The completion of this sale follows receipt of all relevant regulatory approvals. Taco Gerbranda, CEO of Almatis, said: "We are grateful to DIC for their support and the strong partnership that we formed during their ownership period. "This partnership was critical in allowing us to undertake very ambitious strategic steps that ensured the longer term stability of our company by extending our global presence, increasing capacity and becoming vertically integrated, with the single objective to better serve our customers. Today...
China’s alumina imports will fall in August as Chinese alumina is becoming more attractive in prices, Shanghai Metals Market foresees. Sharp depreciation of yuan has made imports more expensive, which will discourage import activity. Calculated at a CIF price of $ 305 per tonne and USD:RMB exchange rate of 6.4, prices for imported alumina would be 2,380 yuan per tonne (including VAT and port charges). The price is higher than those for Chinese alumina Shanxi and Henan, SMM has learned. China imported 545,200 tonnes of alumina in July, up 144.16% from June and 17.68% from a year ago, customs data showed.
Noranda Aluminum Holding Corporation announced today that it has completed a 31,000 metric tonne shipment of smelter grade alumina from its alumina refinery in Gramercy, Louisiana to an aluminum smelter in China. This shipment, which is part of a multi-shipment export arrangement at market prices, marks the first export shipment outside of North America in Gramercy's 58-year history. "This export shipment is an important step in improving the long-term sustainability of our Gramercy alumina refinery," said Layle K. "Kip" Smith, Noranda's President and Chief Executive Officer. "By demonstrating sustained improvement in its process control and operational reliability, Gramercy generated sufficient production to meet the needs of its existing customers and expand the geographic scope of its...
At the start of 2015, those in the alumina industry had a right to feel like things were brightening for the lightweight metal in global markets. The global industry had been grinding its way through a years-built glut of supply that had depressed prices and forced alumina producers in the West to close dozens of operations. While the excess inventory was being worked down, prices had moved up. Demand for US caustic soda for alumina refining was brightening. But that was then. Today, a surge in alumina production in China has surplus material sloshing through global markets, sinking prices and adding to the oversupply that has weighed on the market for the past several years. Prices for alumina are at six-year lows, down 26% from a year ago and alumina companies are smarting. Several have...
Vedanta Ltd will halve output at its one- million-tonne-a-year alumina refinery at Lanjigarh in Orissa state in about two months, a senior executive said, due mainly to acute shortage of raw material bauxite and weak LME aluminium prices. Job cuts at the refinery, which employs about 2,000 people, are likely to be proportional to output reduction, Abhijit Pati, head of Vedanta’s aluminium business, told on Thursday. This is nothing but a part of the closure process that has already been kicked off by the minerals and metals behemoth in a phased manner. Odisha government, earlier this week, had declined to come to the rescue of the company saying there was inadequate bauxite to feed the big alumina refinery. Hence, the inevitable shutdown and resultant output reduction and job cuts.
Non-availability of bauxite from Odisha and the prevailing turmoil in global aluminium prices have forced Vedanta to initiate the process of shutting down its one-million tonne a year alumina refinery at Lanjigarh. “We ran this unit with all commitment for nearly a decade, despite heavy odds. But with the current market turmoil, which is not likely to improve soon, and in the absence of access to bauxite from within the state, the plant is operating with a daily loss of INR 3 crore. Hence, we are forced to initiate the process of gradual closure,” said K K Dave, chief operating officer, Vedanta. Dave in a meeting said the refinery’s closure would impact nearly 10,000 people directly and the region at large. Yet, Odisha government declined to come to the refinery’s immediate rescue. State...
Macquarie upgraded shares of Alumina (AWC) from a neutral rating to an outperform rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday morning, Analyst Ratings Net reports. Several other analysts also recently weighed in on AWC. Credit Suisse reiterated a neutral rating on shares of Alumina in a research note on Thursday, July 2nd. Morgan Stanley cut Alumina from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Alumina Limited is an Australia-based mining company. Alumina Limited’s sole business undertaking is in the global alumina and aluminum industry, which it conducts primarily through bauxite mining and alumina refining, with some minor alumina based chemicals businesses, aluminum smelting and the marketing of those products. All of those business...
In 2015, AluChem will launch a new line of low and ultra-low-soda aluminas focused toward ceramics and investment casting applications. This new high-purity alumina product portfolio will utilize proprietary purification technology in the production of low and ultra-low-soda calcined, reactive and tabular aluminas, which will complement AluChem’s already-established low-soda AC99 tabular alumina products. The new low-soda operation will further enhance the company’s soda reduction capability by allowing soda removal on a large production-scale basis to levels below 0.05%. This feedstock will be used to produce low-soda calcined, reactive and tabular aluminas, which will expand AluChem’s product portfolio for the technical ceramics and investment casting industries. AluChem’s low-soda...
Extensive market research has revealed that Asia Pacific is the largest market of high-purity alumina (HPA) attributed mainly to the high concentration of allied industries such as semiconductor and electronics equipment manufacturing industries in China, Taiwan and South Korea. It is then followed by North America and Europe. The U.S is the largest regional market of HPA in North America, Germany, Italy and The U.K are the largest market of HPA in Europe. Asia Pacific region is also the fasted growing market of HPA driven mainly by the rising demand of high definition television, smart phones, and rising application of electronic sensors and display in automotive in this region. High-purity alumina, (minimum of 99.99 percent pure aluminum) is the form of non-metallurgical alumina and...
Despite falling alumina prices, China’s alumina output peaked at 4.83 million tonnes in July, SMM data showed. The figure grew 11.6% year-on-year, and was up from June’s 4.72 million tonnes. Large refineries maintained high production due to their cost advantages. China
Alumina Limited (AWC), the leading Australian mineral and metals company, has swung to profit in the half-year to the end of June, and expects to see solid margins in the second half as favourable exchange rates lead to lower production costs. Alumina (AWC) today posted a net profit after tax of $US122 million for the six months to the end of June, an increase of 357 per cent on the same period last year when the firm posted a $US47.4m loss. Alumina, in the prior corresponding period, had taken a writedown charge of nearly $US80m on restructuring its Point Henry smjelter in Victoria. Its half yearly accounts this year were weighed down by restructuring costs with its Suriname operations and its Anglesea power station. The firm operates in bauxite mining and alumina refining through the...
The government of Baishan City, Jilin Province, is planning to spend 2.2 billion yuan ($340 million) in building a project that extracts alumina from coal ash. Coal fly ash, an industrial by-product, is derived from coal combustion in thermal power plants. Coal fly ash is rich in alumina (upto 45%), which makes it a potential substitute for bauxite as prime source of aluminium. With the diminishing reserves of bauxite resources in China as well as the increasing demand for alumina, recovering alumina from fly ash has attracted extensive attentions. Several Chinese players are working on new technology that could produce alumina not from traditional bauxite but from fly ash. This has resulted in alumina import decline in the country in the last one year falling by almost 40 percent from...
Can the alumina price recover in the next six months? This is the question Credit Suisse asks. If China's aluminium smelters ramp up as planned then the shortfall in alumina should peak in the December quarter and push up the price, attracting imports. On the other hand, the broker suspects aluminium smelters need to curtail output by 2.4mtpa this year, bringing forward the peak to the current quarter when prices are falling. If smelter reductions are forthcoming the broker finds little reason for alumina to recover. The alumina price is at its lowest level since 2009. The fall reflects imbalances in the speed of the ramp-up in aluminium smelters and alumina refineries. In the first half of this year China faced a glut in alumina which drove down prices. Alumina refineries have ramped up...
The Exchange had sought clarification from Hindalco Industries Ltd with respect to news article appearing in Financial Express on August 15, 2015 titled "Birla invests INR 7,500 cr in Odisha refinery". Hindalco Industries Ltd has replied stating that Utkal Alumina International Ltd (Utkal) is our 100% owned subsidiary. Utkal has made a total investment of over INR 7500 Crores in its Alumina plant in district Rayagada, Odisha which has an inherent capacity to produce 1.5 mt per annum of Alumina. Shares of HINDALCO INDUSTRIES LTD. was last trading in BSE at INR 90.85 as compared to the previous close of INR 93.3. The total number of shares traded during the day was 874687 in over 8004 trades. The stock hit an intraday high of INR 95 and intraday low of 89.75. The net turnover during the day...
Altech Chemicals closed at $0.10 on Friday last week, more than double the value they were trading at just two months ago. Altech's focus is to transition into a leading producer of 99.99% (4N) High Purity Alumina (HPA) at a low cost. HPA is a high-value product because it is the major source material for scratch-resistant artificial sapphire glass. Sapphire glass is used to produce a range of high-performance electronic applications such as LEDs, semi-conductors, phosphor display screens, as well as new emerging products such as smartphones and tablet devices. Around 70% of HPA demand is in the Asia Pacific region, and Altech’s HPA plant in Malaysia would be well-positioned to benefit. Altech wholly-owns a kaolin deposit at Meckering, Western Australia. Assisting in the re-rating has...
Outotec has purchased the Canadian technical consulting and engineering company Kovit Engineering Ltd from its founders. Sudbury-based Kovit Engineering specialises in surface and underground mine tailings solutions. The acquisition complements Outotec’s existing dewatering and tailings treatment solutions and services. Kovit Engineering, which has annual sales of €5 million–10 million, employs approximately 30 specialists in Sudbury, who will now transfer to Outotec. “Effective and safe disposal of mining wastes presents technical and environmental challenges. This acquisition of Kovit Engineering will further strengthen our position as a provider of sustainable and water-efficient tailings management solutions to the mining industry,” said Outotec CEO Pertti Korhonen.
Odisha government has approved the expansion plans for Utkal Alumina Ltd, an Aditya Birla group firm and Bhushan Power & Steel Ltd (BPSL) in a meeting today. This is considered to be a step towards boosting the industrialization in the state of Odisha. "The State Level Single Window Clearance Authority (SLSWCA) has approved two expansion plans and recommended them to the High Level Clearance Authority (HLCA). The expansion projects will generate an additional employment for 998 people," General Manager of state-owned Industrial Promotion & Investment Corporation of Odisha Ltd (IPICOL) Kalyan Mohanty said. A decision in this regard was taken at the meeting of the SLSWCA chaired by Chief Secretary G C Pati. Utkal Alumina proposed an expansion plan where the estimated cost of the refinery...
