AlCircle News Edited By "Debanjali Sengupta"
Debanjali Sengupta is a passionate content writer with 10 years of experience in Business writing, Web Content writing, Blogging, Editing and Research. She is responsible for generating and editing content for AlCircle Newsletter and other online and offline content for enhancing the brand value and its visibility among global users.
Sweden’s aluminium scrap export in Q1 2018 drops from a year ago; Germany remains the top importer
Metal recycling and aluminium, in particular, is gaining a significant importance attributed to increasing industrialization and urbanization, rising income, and spending capability of people in developing economies such as China, Brazil, and India. According to the Global Recycled Aluminium Market Outlook to 2020 data, increased recycling activities in the Asia Pacific region, especially China and India, will contribute significantly to the global recycled aluminium market. Having said this, it is to be mentioned that Sweden is one of the aluminium scrap exporting countries to several parts of the world, including India and China. According to the global export-import data, Sweden is estimated to export approximately 5684 tonnes of aluminium scrap to India and 10528 tonnes to China. The...
Harley steals the show with its aluminium-subframed new FXDR performance cruiser
Harley Davidson once again grabs the attention of all the bike lovers out there by unleashing its new FXDR performance cruiser. But this time, Harley shows a stunt with unimaginable light weight features. Hence, the new, street-fight style two-wheeler does not just boast Harley’s latest torquey Big Twin engine but win the show with an updated, lighter version of new Softail frame that gives it the best handling of any Harley Softail. To slim down the chassis, Harley has used lighter, aluminium swingram, which beats over 4.6kg unsprung weight. The forged aluminium, 19in front wheel used in the new range further reduces the weight due to its super-skinny spokes. The seat base and sub frame are also made of aluminium tubing, saving over 3kg on the steel subframe of a standard Softail. The...
Primary aluminium inventories extend W-o-W drop in China on limited supplies and active downstream purchases
Limited arrivals to the warehouses and active downstream purchases still continue in China, resulting in a week-on-week decline in primary aluminium inventories across eight major consumption areas. Stocks, including the SHFE warrants, shrank 23,000 tonnes from last Thursday, August 16, to stand at 1.74 million tonnes as of today, August 23, Shanghai Metals Market found. This marks a faster week-on-week drop compared to 14,000 tonnes last Thursday. Stringent availability of railroad cars in Xinjiang province could be responsible for the narrow delivery of aluminium ingots from the area. Alongside, active participation from downstream consumers for purchasing primary aluminium, on the event of reduced aluminium prices at the beginning of the week, also contributed to the plunge in...
Century credits US tariff on imported aluminium for the restart of Hawesville smelter
The US President Donald Trump’s decision to impose 10 per cent higher tariff on imported aluminium seems to now creating a positive impact on the domestic market as one of the renowned American aluminium producers Century Aluminium marks the ceremonial restart today, on August 22, at its Hawesville smelter. The smelter is reopening three potlines that were dormant since 2015. By the end of the year, the smelter is expecting to return to its full capacity with this recommencement and create nearly 300 new American jobs. The officials of the company believe that this could be possible because of the Trump administration’s higher tariff on imported aluminium that sparked the 115 million dollar investment into the Hawesville plant, which is Century Aluminium's largest location. Century’s...
Global alumina price surge supports Brazil’s alumina export to the US in H1 2018
After China and Australia, Brazil ranks as the third largest alumina producer in the world and plays a dominating role as alumina supplier. Hydro’s Alunorte that located at Para, Brazil, is known to be the world’s largest alumina refinery that exports almost 86 per cent of its total production to the world and the rest 14 per cent to Brazil’s domestic market. {newsStudioGallery} The United States is one of the major importers of alumina from Brazil and according to the international export-import data, it is found to import higher volume year-on-year. The below graph shows that in the first five months of the calendar year 2018, Brazil exported a total volume of 308,483 tonnes of alumina to the United States, up 40 per cent from 184,358 tonnes in 2017. The reason could be the rise in...
Work on building new aluminium alloy wheels plant at Fort William smelter is on progress: Reports GFG Alliance
The preparations for building a new plant to produce alloy wheels for the automotive industry at Fort William aluminium smelter are reportedly progressing well. GFG Alliance, the expertise of world-class industrial, natural, and financial resource, was granted the responsibility to plan for the project early this year. It now reports that the plan is right on track and the building work should be initiated soon. A spokesman for the multinational firm said: “We’ve erected project offices next to our aluminium smelter, with five full time project-management staff already in post and a further eight due to join the team over the coming months. He also updated that the site clearance work is under process and is steadily working through conditions attached to the planning approval....
Aluminium alloys price breaks restraint to record a growth on active downstream consumption over the weekend
Aluminium alloys (ADC12) price in the Chinese spot market was found to record a significant hike of RMB 100 per tonne on August 21, 2018, to gain back the scale it had before a plunge on August 16, 2018, according to Shanghai Metals Market. The price thus, hovered at RMB 15650 per tonne on August 21, after displaying a restraint from August 17 to August 20, 2018. As of today, August 22, the alloys (ADC12) price has shown no further movement and still hovers at RMB 15650 per tonne. Aluminium alloy (A356) and aluminium alloy (A380) prices neither laid back to register a hike on August 21 but showed no progress as of today, August 22. While the price of aluminium alloy (A356) is standing at RMB 15250 per tonne for past two days in a row after climbing RMB 200 per tonne, the price of...
Ghana must review the recent bauxite agreement with Sinohydro: Says Dr. Baezie
Dr. Camynta Baezie, a former Chief Executive Officer of the State Enterprises Commission suggests the Ghana government should review the US$2 billion worth of bauxite agreement that it recently inked with China. Late July, Ghana’s Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta had announced a US$2 billion deal with Chinese engineering firm, Sinohydro Group Limited, in the parliament. The deal says the Chinese company would fund the infrastructure projects in Ghana, including roads, bridges, interchanges, hospitals, housing, rural electrification in exchange for refined bauxite. This means Ghana would leverage its bauxite reserve at Atewa forest for the amount from China. However, Dr. Camynta Baezie thinks that this deal is poorly negotiated and is not in the interest of Ghana. He shared this observation...
Turkey urges for dispute consultation with the US at WTO
According to the latest report from a trade group on Monday, August 20, Turkey has urged the World Trade organisation (WTO) for dispute consultations with the United States regarding the doubling of duties on certain imported aluminium and steel products. The WTO said, “Turkey claims that the measures are inconsistent with a number of provisions of the WTO’s Agreement on Safeguards and the General Agreement on Tariffs & Trade [Gatt] 1994.” On August 10, the Trump administration had declared to double the import tariffs from Turkey from 10 per cent to 20 per cent on aluminium products and from 25 per cent to 50 per cent on steel products. On August 13, the duties went into effect. The WTO also reported if Turkey and the US failed to resolve the dispute in next 60 days from August 20 then...
A00 aluminium ingot price records a sweeping growth today in the Chinese market
Backed on continued price growth of alumina and steady movement of other input costs, A00 aluminium ingot spot price today, on August 21, has recorded a sweeping surge to RMB 14550 per tonne, Shanghai Metals Market found. Yesterday, on August 20, the price had shown a little bearish sentiment plunging RMB 40 per tonne from RMB 14360 per tonne to RMB 14320 per tonne. That could be because of the limited arrivals to the inventories but active consumption among the downstream consumers over the weekend. However, today in contrast, the price has recorded a significant growth of RMB 230 per tonne. The average prices are expected to range between RMB 14530 per tonne and RMB 14570 per tonne, with spot discounts to settle at RMB 70 to 30 per tonne. All the major markets in China have witnessed a...
Vedanta secures approval for its Lanjigarh alumina refinery expansion worth of INR 5,600 crore
Vedanta Resources Plc reported that it received approvals for expansion of its alumina refinery at Lanjigarh in Odisha, and inked contracts with Emirates Global Aluminium for bauxite. The present capacity of the refinery is 2 million tonnes per annum which are expected to expand by 2021, said CEO Ajay Dixit to Economic Times India. The total investment required for this expansion would be INR 5,600 crore. According to the report, the Anil Agarwal-led natural resource major is also eyeing 6 GW of stressed thermal power plants for captive use. Dixit confirmed the company obtained all the required approvals for the expansion, while Sanjeev Chopra, Odisha principal secretary industries said the single window clearance was given last year. Dixit also alleged the local protests that had...
Bambang Susigit shares his observation on cancellation of export permit for four miners
According to the report published in Kontan.co.id, the ministry's mineral business supervision director Bambang Susigit confirms that the government has temporarily revoked four concentrate export permits as the four mining companies have failed to fulfil commitments to develop smelters as part of the permit’s requirements. Those companies include three nickel miners and one bauxite miner PT Lobindo Nusa Persada, based in Bintan, Riau Islands. However, the government will reinstate the exports permits if the companies show their commitments to fulfil the requirement, says Bambang further. “It depends on the company. If they submit their reports, we will clarify and review them immediately. If the reports are valid, we will reissue the permits. Otherwise, we will issue their final warning...
Alba receives GE delegates and briefs them about its Line 6 Expansion
Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), the Bahrain-based aluminium smelter, reports that mid of last week August 15, the company received a high-level delegation from General Electric (GE) Power. The delegation was led by the President and chief executive officer of GE Gas Power Systems (GPS) Chuck Nugent and comprised of top officials of the company. Alba’s deputy chief executive officer Ali Al Baqali, chief marketing officer Khalid A Latif, chief power officer Amin Sultan, chief administration officer Waleed Tamimi along with other officials of Alba received the delegates from GE and briefed them about Alba’s historical background, its achievements and importance to Bahrain’s economy. Al Baqali also briefed about the progress on Alba’s Power Expansion project to GE officials. He said, “Our flagship...
A00 aluminium ingot price drops in China due to steady consumption and limited supplies to inventories
According to Shanghai Metals Market, primary aluminium inventories across major consumption areas in China continued to decline over the weekend ended on August 20, 2018. Stocks, including SHFE warrants, shrank around 20,000 tonnes from last Thursday, August 16, to stand at 1.74 million tonnes. The fall could be attributed to the limited arrivals to all the warehouses and steady downstream purchases. Hence, it indicates that there has been a balance maintained between supply and consumption over the weekend in the market. Compared to last Thursday, inventory in Wuxi and Jiangsu dropped 9000 tonnes to stand at 739,000 tonnes today, while Nanhai and Guangdong, and Gongyi and Henan recorded fall by 3000 tonnes and 8000 tonnes to stand at 237,000 tonnes and 148,000, respectively. For more...
Rusal says its board approves domicile change from Britain to Russia
Russia’s sanctions-hit aluminium giant Rusal (0486.HK) declared on Friday, August 17, that its board had approved a change of domicile from Britain’s Jersey to Russia for taking some advantage of new special tax regulations. The announcement arrived a day after Russian energy-related company En+ Group announced that it was considering re-domiciling to one of Russia’s new offshore zones. However, Rusal’s decision to change domicile can only come off if shareholders also give consent to it. Russia has created two special administrative regions where companies enjoy benefits such as a zero tax on profits received by way of dividends - an arrangement similar to foreign offshore tax havens. The company said its board member had decided to change the domicile because they thought that it could...
1400 Alcoa workers unanimously voted for indefinite strike at bauxite mines
According to the latest report on August 18, around 1400 workers have voted almost unanimously in favour of an indefinite strike that started last week for 20 months of negotiation. Workers from the Huntley and Willowdale bauxite mines, Bunbury Port, and the Kwinana, Pinjarra and Wagerup refineries went on this strike after they failed to come to an agreement with employers over an Enterprise Bargaining Agreement. AWU West Australian Branch president Andy Hacking said the situation was escalating after all bar four of the striking employees voted at a meeting in Pinjarra on August 17 for the strike. Some feel they had come too far to back down now. “All but four out of 1400 voted for indefinite industrial action and the feeling among most of the guys is we’ve come too far to go back,” he...
Granges halts its new joint venture plan with Mitsubishi Aluminium
The Sweden-based aluminium engineering and manufacturing company Granges has reportedly put on ice on its plan to form a new aluminium manufacturing joint venture in the United States with Japan’s Mitsubishi Aluminium Co. According to the report, the project is less attractive in current circumstances. The company said in its statement on Friday, August 16, “Granges has decided to halt the plans for a joint venture in North America, as the project isn’t sufficiently attractive for Granges from a risk-reward perspective given the current circumstances.” Although it did not specify what circumstances it was referring to though a Granges spokeswoman later said they were related to the feasibility of the project and nothing to do with the US tariffs on aluminium imports. Pernilla Grennfelt,...
Lian Li unveils New Lancool One Chassis with tempered glass and brushed aluminium
Lian Li Industrial Co. Ltd. once again takes pride in announcing the official launch of the Lancool One chassis combined with brushed aluminium, tempered glass, and modern RGB lighting to recreate elegance and aesthetics functionality all in one. With Lian Li being known as the best and most experienced brand in working with aluminium, the Lancool One has high expectations for it. And thankfully, it continues the legacy featuring stylish aluminium front panel with a latest twist of impressive RGB lighting that serves as an accent piece for the front panel and an ambient lighting for the internal chamber giving it a two-in-one function. Besides, the chassis boasts a special design to have optimized airflow so that users can maximize cooling whenever they want to and has integrated...
