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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Vedanta Aluminium Ltd (VAL) on Thursday restarted its 1 million tonne per annum alumina refinery at Lanjigarh in Odisha, about seven months after the company had shut down the unit due to scarcity of bauxite. "We have started operations of the alumina refinery. We have to limit its capacity utilisation up to 60 per cent capacity now which will stabilise gradually," said Mukesh Kumar, president and chief operating officer of VAL. Sources said, the aluminium major has revived its plant by procuring bauxite from Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat. The refinery was closed due to acute shortage of bauxite. VAL is a unit of Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Resources. "The refinery operations resumed at 9:30 am. First, the captive power plant was put on stream," he said. VAL's refinery which required...
Anticipating trouble from its workers union, the management of the state-owned Aluminium producer NALCO is deliberating whether it should supply a 'trial' amount of alumina to Vedanta Resources' refinery in Lanjigarh, Odisha. NALCO had obtained an advance from its private sector rival for the trial supply of alumina, an intermediate in aluminium making, about four months ago. Meanwhile on Thursday , Vedanta restarted operations at its refinery which has been idle since 5 December, 2012. For now, even as it waits for the state to arrange alternate bauxite supply, it has made alternate arrangements by sourcing ore from the captive mine of BALCO, its associate and other merchant miners. NALCO mines 6mt of bauxite annually from its captive mines and owns a 2.2mt refinery in neighboring...
China’s alumina imports totaled 90,000 mt in June, down 71% YoY and 55% MoM, the lowest level in 21 months. Imports amounted to 1.65 million mt in 1H, also down 33% YoY, data from China Customs showed. China’s imported alumina came primarily from Australia. The CIF price of Australian alumina averaged USD 353/mt during the first five months of the year, against USD 413/mt (including tax). Alumina prices at port averaged RMB 2,560/mt (including port charges) during January-May, but have now risen to RMB 2,580-2,610/mt, assuming the foreign exchange of the yuan against the US dollar is 6.2. The average CIF price of Australian alumina in May was little changed from the USD 351/mt seen during last year’s January-May. China’s alumina imports began to drop in March. The decline in import...
Alumina prices in Guangxi fell to RMB 2,240-2,300/mt in early July, down almost RMB 100/mt from early-to-mid June. Persistently depressed aluminum prices are the major reason behind the decline in alumina prices. Oversupply in Guangxi also contributed to the fall in alumina prices in the region. Guangxi Huayin Aluminum’s alumina output rebounded. Guangxi Tiandong Jinxin Chemical has brought its new 1 million mt/yr in alumina capacity online. Alumina output at Guangxi Xinfa alumina plant and Chalco (Guangxi) has been stable. These brought total alumina capacity across Guangxi to 7.9 million mt/yr. Aluminum capacity in the region, however, is a mere 460,000 mt/yr, with maximum alumina demand at 920,000 mt/yr. The surplus alumina is thus shipped to other regions for sale. Producers are...
Improved margins reported by leading US aluminium/alumina producer Alcoa in the second quarter have given brokers a reason to expect a better performance from Alumina Ltd this year. Alcoa reported a surprise quarterly increase in the alumina division's earnings margin to US$47/t from US$44/t. Costs have fallen faster than realised prices. The better cash flow means Alumina's 40% stake in the AWAC joint venture with Alcoa should deliver more than the guaranteed US$100 million in dividends in 2013. AWAC, the world's largest aluminium producer, achieved US$32m in absolute cost savings in the second quarter from weaker key currencies and productivity gains. Significantly, the Alba dispute could be coming to a conclusion. The US Justice inquiry into alleged corrupt payments for alumina supply...
Dubai Aluminium (Dubal), the owner of the world's largest single-site primary aluminium smelter and Abu Dhabi state investment fund Mubadala have secured the full ownership of Guinea Alumina Corporation (GAC). A leading producer of alumina in West Africa, GAC also mines for the raw material bauxite. Announcing the GAC takeover, Dubal said along with Mubadala it had successfully acquired the remaining GAC stake from US-based Global Alumina Corporation and BHP Billiton, a leading resources company. Dubal and Mubadala are also joint venture partners in Emirates Aluminium (Emal), a leading UAE-based Aluminium smelter at Al Taweelah, Abu Dhabi. The acquisition move comes following the recent announcement of the creation of Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) by Dubal through integration of its...
Global Alumina Corporation is pleased to announce that it has completed the sale by the Company of all of its interest in Guinea Alumina Corporation, Ltd. to DM GAV Limited, pursuant to the terms of the previously announced share purchase agreement entered into by the Company and DM GAV Limited. The board of directors of the Company has determined to distribute the cash assets of the Company, including the proceeds of the Sale Transaction, remaining after settlement of the Company's obligations and liabilities as soon as practicable. The record date in connection with the Distribution to determine the shareholders entitled to participate therein will be July 12, 2013. The Company expects that the Distribution will occur on or prior to July 31, 2013. The Board has determined to liquidate...
ALUMINA'S buddy Alcoa is sticking to its forecast of 7 per cent growth in global aluminium demand this calendar year, in ?essentially balanced'' alumina and aluminium markets. This is despite lower prices for the finished metal and the general industry funk. In fact Alcoa's downstream operations (engineered products) are generating record profitability, which is no mean feat in that the value-add operations account for 57 per cent of Alcoa's total revenues. Kicking off the US reporting season, Alcoa overnight reported a second quarter loss of $US119 million (US11c a share). Excluding a $US195m one off (mainly relating to the closure of smelting assets) the business was profitable to the tune of $US195m. Our businesses showed remarkable operating performance in the quarter with solid free...
Tehran has been importing high-grade refined alumina ore from European countries that are not included in EU’s sanctions but could be used in making armor parts and missile components. Although the latest US sanction effective this month include “raw or semi-finished metals,” Iran has acquired almost 4,000 metric tons of alumina between January 2012 and March 2013 according to figures from Global Trade Information Services. It is believed that high purity or chemical grade form of alumina were bought from France, Germany, Slovenia, Italy, Hungary and Belgium. Analysts acknowledge that Iran has the potential to fabricate armor parts and missile components locally. The amount involved has also led to some suspicions on the destined use of the alumina because “none of the military and...
Cape Alumina's Pisolite Hills project has already been declared a Project of State Significance by the Queensland Government, with the project now delivering 'attractive financial returns'. Signficantly, the study forecasted that at full production it could produce at an FOB cash operating cost of around $23 per tonne of product bauxite (excluding royalties). A major advantage for the project is that the higher alumina content of Cape York bauxite provides a pricing premium when compared to Indonesian bauxite prices. An updated Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) for the company’s Pisolite Hills Mine and Port project (Pisolite Hills), has confirmed the technical and economic feasibility of as a 7.5 million dry product tonnes per annum bauxite mine producing high-quality, export-grade bauxite over...
China is ambitious to build an alumina refinery in Indonesia with an investment up to US$1 billion in two phases. The joint venture refinery began to be formed. To pave the mega investment, domestic company PT Harita Jayaraya teams up with China Hongqiao Group Ltd. to form a joint venture (JV), namely PT Well Harvest Winning Alumina Refinery. Harita Group’s CEO Lim Gunawan Hariyanto said about 70% of PT Well Harvest Winning Alumina Refinery is the portion of China Hongqiao Group Ltd., whereas Harita Jayaraya is only 30% stake. The formation of this joint venture company is done because it could not provide the bauxite processing technology yet. "Therefore, we first partnered with them," he said after meeting with the Minister of Industry MS Hidayat, Thursday (7/4). He added, there will be...
PT Well Harvest Winning Alumina Refinery, a joint venture between PT Harita Group and China Hongqiao, plans to build a smelting plant to process bauxite into aluminum in Ketapang, West Kalimantan. Harita's CEO, Lim Gunawan Hariyanto, said in Jakarta on Wednesday that construction of the smelting plant, which will be built with total investment of about US$1 billion, would begin this month. Harita Group owns 30 percent shares and Hongqiao 70 percent in this joint venture. Lim said that in the first phase of the smelting project, the joint venture would produce about 1 million tons beginning in the middle of 2015, with the second stage of the project would begin in 2016. The alumina smelting grade produced by the joint venture would be used to supply the raw material needs of PT Indonesia...
Global Alumina Corporation has announced the results of its annual and special meeting of shareholders held on July 2, 2013. A total of 126,007,004 common shares were represented at the meeting, representing 68.73% of the issued and outstanding common shares of the Company. All matters presented at the meeting for approval- election of all management nominees to the board of directors of the Company; appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as auditors of the Company for the ensuing year and authorization of the directors to fix their remuneration; approval of the previously announced sale by the Company of all of its interest in Guinea Alumina Corporation, Ltd. to DM GAV Limited; and subject to the completion of the Sale Transaction, approval of the voluntary liquidation and dissolution...
Vedanta Aluminium Ltd (VAL) Tuesday said it has received about 35,000 tons of bauxite from Gujarat to re-start its alumina refinery in Odisha'sKalahandi district at lower capacity. "We have started getting bauxite from Gujarat. We will build a buffer stock of at least one and half lakh tones of bauxite to re-open the refinery," a senior company official told IANS. Another shipment of the same quantity from Gujarat is also likely to reach within the next 10 days, he said. The company had shutdown the one-million-tonne per annum alumina refinery at Lanjigarh, about 500 km from here, Dec 5 due to shortage of bauxite, the key raw material used to produce alumina. VAL requires three lakh tonnes of bauxite per month to run the refinery at full capacity. The official said the company is planning...
Vedanta Aluminium is awaiting Odisha government’s report on long-term raw material supply to its Lanjigarh alumina refinery in the state before resuming operations at its unit, that has been lying closed for the past seven months, say company sources. The aluminium firm had closed its 1 million ton Odisha refinery last December due to shortage of bauxite, the key raw material for aluminium production. “We are awaiting the ministerial group formed by Odisha government to come up with proposals for long-term supply of raw material to industrial units like ours. The report is slated to be out by anytime now. We plan to resume operations after the report comes,” the company source told PTI. The company had, earlier, said it would resume operations by June-end or early July with alternate...
Data from the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association (CNIA) show China’s alumina output from January to May grew faster than aluminum output. China produced 3.72 million mt of alumina in May, and 17.56 million mt during January-May, up 10.87% YoY. Aluminum output in May totaled 1.77 million mt, and 8.735 million mt during the first five months of this year, up 8.25% YoY. SMM believes two reasons can explain why growth in alumina output outpaced that of aluminum output. First, new alumina capacity was commissioning at a fasters pace than aluminum capacity. The coming online of alumina capacity at Guangxi Tiandong Jinxin Chemcial, Yunnan Aluminum Wenshan Alumina and Guangxi Xinfa Alumina pushed up alumina output across China. Second, some aluminum smelters were forced to close for...
Orbite Aluminae Inc. said Friday it has fixed the terms of a previously announced offering of units comprised of class A shares and warrants. The company said in a press release it has reached its financing objectives as it anticipates raising up to $50 million, at a price of 70 cents per unit. Each unit consists of one class A share and one-half class A share purchase warrant, each whole warrant being exercisable at an exercise price of $1 for a period of 36 months following the date that the warrants are issued. Net proceeds of the offering will be used primarily to complete the company’s high-purity alumina plant located at Cap-Chat, Quebec and for general corporate and working capital purposes. On Friday, Orbite shares were unchanged at 75 cents, leaving a market cap of $138.1...
A senior mining ministry official has spurred doubts on prospects for the reopening of the stalled Windalco Kirkvine alumina plant in Manchester, saying it is being scrapped for parts. Oral Rainford, a principal director in the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy, and Mining, told an audience in Mandeville late Wednesday that it was his understanding that parts were being removed from Kirkvine to the active Windalco Ewarton alumina plant in St Catherine. “It does appear that the facility (Kirkvine) is being actively scrapped, so to speak, meaning that the parts are being taken to Ewarton; so it is being cannibalised,” Rainford told the forum organised as part of Minerals Week activities at the Golf View Hotel. “I don't know if there are active plans to replace these parts, but that is...
