
While Hydro’s Alunorte alumina refinery operates at 50% of its capacity, the prices seem to be rising over the course of March. According to Metal Bulletin, spot alumina prices gained 27.8% over the course of March, with buyers forced to pay up for units in a tighter market.
Metal Bulletin’s benchmark daily FOB Australia alumina index settled at $447.30 per tonne on Thursday March 29, up from March 1’s calculation of $349.88 per tonne.
{alcircleadd}“There was definitely more length in the Pacific [at the time of the force majeure announcement] but the available Australia units got tied up pretty quickly and since then people have started to panic,” a producer source is quoted by Metal Bulletin.

As Brazil is not a major alumina supplier to China, this has not affected alumina prices in the country. According to Shanghai Metals Market data, average domestic spot alumina price stands at US$ 432.35 per tonne as on today April 3. The price stood at 448.42 on March 2, 2018.
Average imported alumina price CIF China stands at US$477.21 per tonne today. This again was a drop from US$ 549 per tonne in the beginning of March.
Hydro was forced to cut 50% output from its Alunorte refinery after it failure to fix leakage in its bauxite residue deposit DRS1. Hydro subsequently declared force majeure at Alunorte, which has an annual capacity of 6.3 million tonnes, on March 2.
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