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 Pará State Environmental Secreteriate (SEMA) has reinstated Alunorte's environmental operational license for loading of alumina at its port, Vila do Conde, with effect as of 3. April 2014. This results in the resumption of loading of alumina with immediate effect. The resumption of alumina loading is a result of a constructive process between Alunorte and SEMA. The production of alumina at Alunorte has not been affected by the temporary halt in the port loading operations.
Is Alumina Ltd (AWC) about to shake investor apathy? China's aluminium production industry is becoming more rational and CIMB considers this will benefit the pricing of alumina. CIMB's analysis suggests there's now much less chance that alumina prices will ease over the medium term. The broker forecasts earnings for AWAC - the joint venture between AWC and Alcoa - will expand to US$80/t in 2015 from US$45/t in 2013, driven by a weaker Australian dollar, slightly lower costs and about 10% higher realised alumina prices. This should allow for a substantial dividend from AWC and the broker suggests a yield of 6-7%. Should the historical correlation continue between AWC's share price and the distributions the company obtains from AWAC, then CIMB is flagging a substantial re-rating of the...
As Cape Alumina advises its shareholders to reject a 0.6c-a-share takeover offer, suitor MetroCoal warned on Wednesday that it would not increase its bidding price. Cape Alumina said the price was significantly lower than share prices prior to the offer being made, and that it failed to attribute value to the company’s bauxite projects. Cape Alumina directors labelled the offer “opportunistic” and warned shareholders that if the offer were accepted, no superior offer could be accepted, if indeed such emerged. MetroCoal currently holds a 46.04% shareholding in Cape Alumina after shareholders Resource Capital Fund III and Resource Capital Fund IV accepted a takeover offer. The offer was expected to expire on May 5, but could be extended, MetroCoal said. MetroCoal has previously said that by...
Outotec has agreed with Orbite Aluminae Inc. on the delivery of a new calcination system for Orbite's high purity alumina production facility located in Cap-Chat, Québec. The contract value is below EUR 10 million and it has been booked in Outotec's 2014 first quarter order intake. Outotec's scope of delivery includes engineering and proprietary equipment for a specialized fluidized bed application of decomposing and calcining high purity alumina. The plant is scheduled to be commissioned in the beginning of 2015. This delivery complements the technology package Outotec has delivered to Orbite Aluminae during an earlier stage of this project in 2012. High purity alumina, produced from aluminous clay, is used in a variety of high-end technology applications. Half of the world's annual...
The Pará State Environmental Secreteriate (SEMA) has suspended Alunorte's environmental operational license for loading of alumina at its port, Vila do Conde, with effect as of 1 April 2014. This results in the suspension of all loading of alumina with immediate effect. The production of alumina at Alunorte continues unaffected. SEMA argues that Alunorte has not fulfilled one of the conditions under the license, which is to present a plan to reduce emissions of alumina dust in the port loading operation. Alunorte believes it is already using one of the best available technologies for alumina loading and disagrees with SEMA's understanding that the license condition is not fulfilled. Alunorte will continue its dialogue with SEMA and expects that the matter will be resolved and that the...
Lithuanian lender Ukio Bankas, which has recently taken over Vilnius-based Birac Europe, seeks to return its control over two subsidiaries of Bosnia's alumina plant Birac - Alumina and Mehanika, news service Capital.ba reported. State-controlled Ukio Bankas took over the management of Birac Europe in January 2014 and appointed a new executive board. The new board has decided to restore the ownership of Birac Europe over the two Bosnian firms as it believes they were taken away from it last year under "an odd procedure", the head of Bosnian law firm Sajic - Aleksandar Sajic told Capital.ba. Therefore, Birac Europe has authorised the law firm to initial proceedings at Banja Luka's commercial court for annulling the previous decision, under which Alumina and Mehanika were taken from Birac...
Orbite Aluminae Inc., today provided a general update on its activities and announced that it had finalized negotiations with Outotec and executed the calcination system supply contract. As communicated in its March 17 HPA project update, Orbite selected Outotec to supply and deliver the new calcination system for its HPA facility. Detailed contract negotiations have been finalized and the supply contract, which includes penalties related to performance and late delivery, has been executed. The contract also foresees incentives for enhanced performance and early delivery. Subsequent to the execution of the contract and as contemplated, the funds from the previously announced interest free loan from Economic Development Canada are being received over the next few days. Orbite continues to...
State-owned miner PT Aneka Tambang (Antam) is mulling over plans to obtain up to US$250 million in fresh funds this year to finance its Pomalaa ferronickel plant expansion in Southeast Sulawesi, which is expected to boost the company’s nickel output by nearly 40 percent. The $573 million expansion project, which is being developed gradually in eight stages, was 33 percent complete at the end of last year. Antam expects to fully commence all operations in Pomalaa in the second quarter of 2015 and to increase output to between 27,000 and 30,000 tons of nickel in ferronickel (TNi). It currently produces 18,000-20,000 TNi in the plant, according to the company’s annual report. The publicly listed company was deliberating to source the funds from either issuing bonds, offering a rights issue...
MetroCoal has acquired a strategic 46.04% interest in Cape Alumina through the purchase of 95,059,489 shares priced at $0.006 each under the former’s takeover offer. The two companies had previously shelved a proposed merger in November last year. MetroCoal’s unconditional cash offer is targeted at diversifying its asset base and risk profile to provide it with both a stronger near term (bauxite) and long term (coal) project pipeline. On gaining control of Cape Alumina, the company plans to use its surplus cash to fund Cape’s bauxite projects and in particular the Bauxite Hills project in Western Australia during a period of strong global bauxite markets. It had $7.48 million in cash as of the end of 31 December 2013.
Following heavy and unusual trading that occurred late in the day today and yesterday, Orbite confirms it is unaware of any undisclosed material changes or corporate developments in its operations that would account for the recent variations in share price or increased trading volumes. A formal investigation request has been sent to relevant regulatory authorities. Orbite Aluminae Inc. is a Canadian cleantech company who’s innovative and proprietary processes are expected to produce alumina and other high-value by-products, such as rare earth and rare metal oxides, at one of the lowest costs in the industry, and in a sustainable fashion, using feedstocks that include aluminous clay, kaolin, nepheline, bauxite, red mud and fly ash.
Qatalum presented its Aerated Distribution System (ADS) to over 4,300 industry leaders at the annual Minerals, Metals & Materials Society meeting in San Diego. The Aerated Distribution System (ADS) at Qatalum has been in operation since 2009 and has seen significant process stability. It is designed to distribute alumina from the Secondary Alumina Silo at the Fume Treatment Plant to the different cells in the potrooms. The Material Distribution System was started as scheduled and is still running under full production capacity. Through key findings and improvements made by the end user (Qatalum) and by joint coordination with the technology providers, the system's performance has met expectations and operational needs. The first electrolysis cells at Qatar were started in 2009 and by 2011...
Operations at Rio Tinto’s Gove bauxite and alumina site have returned to normal, the miner told Metal Bulletin on Friday March 21. Rio Tinto had suspended all operations at its Gove site in Australia following the death of a worker on Tuesday February 25. "Gove operations have returned to normal. The internal investigation into the recent safety incident is continuing," a company spokesman told Metal Bulletin through email. Gove produces over 8.2 million tonnes per annum of bauxite and 2.7 million tonnes per annum of alumina. Output from the alumina refinery was 673,000 tonnes in the fourth quarter of 2013, down 1% year-on-year. The alumina refinery at the site will move to care and maintenance in July this year.
Credit Suisse restated their outperform rating on shares of Alumina Limited in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, AnalystRatings.NET reports. Credit Suisse has also modified their ratings on a number of other stocks in the few days. The firm initiated coverage on shares of Williams Partners L.P.. They issued a buy rating on that stock and set a $55.00 price target. Also, Credit Suisse downgraded shares of Aluminum Corporation of China from an outperform rating to an underperform rating. Finally, Credit Suisse downgraded shares of Yingli Green Energy Hold. Co. Ltd. from a neutral rating to an underperform rating. A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on AWC. Analysts at Deutsche Bank reiterated a buy rating on shares of Alumina Limited in a research note on...
Finnish thin film coating specialist Picodeon Ltd Oy says that its laser technology can be used to create aluminium oxide (Al2O3) coatings. The ultra-short pulsed laser deposition (USPLD) surface coating technology can create either porous or dense coatings on heat-sensitive substrates for use in a range of industrial metallisation applications. Porous Al2O3 layers can be used for instance as filters and electrical insulation layers. Dense Al2O3 is used as a barrier layer and is also an optical coating with high transmittance properties. The Picodeon process enables micro-structural control of Al2O3 coatings by managing the coating process parameters on the comapny’s Coldab batch process coating equipment. “This development has enormous potential for new applications of dense and porous...
An oversupplied market with extra pressure from tighter credit and falling aluminium prices are forcing Chinese aluminium producers to stop taking any current shipments and cut sport import of alumina, sources said. A cut in the alumina shipments to top alumina buyer of the world will help balancing inventory levels eventually with output as well as stabilize prices but could crumple margins in the interim at alumina producers of the world such as Alcoa Inc. and BHP Billiton. Many Chinese banks have cut down lending to the oversupplied industries from aluminum to steel by about 20%, hardening the bid of Beijing to tackle the surplus capacity that it has fought with little success in the past decade. The aluminium market in China is in excess now with stocks on the Shanghai Futures...
Chinese alumina prices were down again this week as demand from local smelters remained depressed amid production cuts and aluminium prices approached a five-year low. Alumina was offered at $318 per tonne fob Australia this week, compared with $320-321 per tonne last week, according to market participants. "We have no interest to buy until the price falls to $315 per tonne at least," a major trader said. China port prices for alumina ranged between 2,550-2,580 yuan ($414-419) per tonne fot in Lianyungang of Jiangsu province, compared with 2,570-2,590 yuan per tonne last week. On the local spot market, alumina was trading at 2,230-2,540 yuan per tonne, compared with 2,290-2,550 yuan per tonne on Friday March 14. Production Cuts Market sources pointed that smelter Henan Shenhuo Group is...
UC RUSAL a leading, global aluminium producer, is set to complete a project to switch the Aughinish alumina refinery, Europe’s largest alumina producer, from heavy fuel oil to gas as its main energy source. The two steam generators designed to generate a total of 300 tonnes per hour of reliable, high-pressure superheated steam will replace the existing oil-fired boilers and are scheduled to produce their first steam at the end of May this year. Energy savings are expected to reach up to USD12 per tonne depending on gas and fuel prices. RUSAL is investing approximately EUR 15 million in the gas project which is part of a large-scale modernization programme being carried out at the Aughinish refinery. The shift from oil-fired boilers to gas-powered steam generators will reduce carbon...
Orbite Aluminae Inc. will sign a turnkey contract for key equipment for its Gaspé high purity alumina (HPA) project in a few days, pushing for commissioning at year-end and commercial operation early in 2015, CEO Glenn Kelly said Monday. Outotel OYJ, a Finnish-based global leader in the design and manufacture of minerals and metals-processing systems, will build at its German subsidiary the calcinator for Orbite’s HPA plant at Cap-Chat in the Haute-Gaspésie region, he said. Delivery is due in August and Outotel will supervise installation and startup. Calcination is part of the purification process and Outotel will replace poorly-performing equipment that helped to delay the HPA project by a year. “It’s a big piece, costing $12 million, and including installation that’ll be $15 million,”...
