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.
Trump asks for EU’s voluntary exports restrictions on aluminium and steel
The European Union seems to be in a difficult spot, as Donald Trump has asked for EU’s voluntary export restrictions on aluminium and steel for granting permanent exemptions from metal tariffs. Initially, while demanding a permanent relief from the US tariffs, the EU had taken a principal stance that it would not want to breach the WTO rules for international trade. This is now making the situation more critical for the EU to give in to President Trump’s demands without losing face. On the other hand, Germany is putting pressure on the EU to move away from a trade dispute with the US, fearing that it might take a toll on both. According to an update from a news agency, Washington and Brussels are working on an informal deal that would cap European steel shipments to the US at 90 per cent...
Ivorian Miner is in talks with Sumitomo for bauxite deposit venture worth $375 million
Lagune Exploitation Afrique in Ivory Coast reported that it is in talks with a unit of Sumitomo Corp. to build a partnership and develop a bauxite deposit and two alumina plants for 218 billion CFA francs (US$375 million). More details are not available yet other than the fact that Lagune is offering 25 per cent stake in the company. Both the Chief Executive Officer of Lagune Exploitation Afrique, Moumoni Bictogo, and General Manager at Sumimoto’s liaison office for West Africa, Masafumi Tanimoto, have declined to make further comments on the nature of talks between each other. In an interview on Monday, May 28, 2018, at West African nation’s commercial capital Abidjan, Moumouni Bictogo shared; the company is already developing 34.5 million tonnes of Benene deposit in the country’s east,...
Sellers show restraint in spot aluminium market in East China: A00 aluminium ingot price dips
According to the update by Shanghai Metal Market, sellers in the spot aluminium market in East China showed reluctance in offloading their cargoes on Tuesday, May 29, 2018. Supply was, therefore, down from the previous day and spot discounts slightly narrowed. The SHFE 1806 contract fell as low as RMB 14, 660 per tonne on Tuesday morning, while on Monday morning, May 28, it hovered at RMB 14775 per tonne. In Shanghai, transactions were seen at RMB 14640-14650 per tonne with spot discounts settled at RMB 60 to 50 per tonne to the SHFE 1806 contract, compared to the transactions at RMB 14680-14690 per tonne with discounts of RMB 70 to 60 per tonne on the previous day (May 28, 2018). Transactions in Wuxi and Hangzhou also plunged from RMB 14680-14690 per tonne to RMB 14640-14650 per tonne...
Chinalco signs a deal with Yunnan government and secures more smelting capacity
China’s largest state aluminium producer Chinalco is all set to close the gap on privately run China Hongqiao Group, the world’s top aluminium producer, as it signs a deal with the Yunnan government, which will give access to the company to more smelting capacity of around 1.6 million tonnes, with another 1.45 million tonnes in the pipeline or under construction. A spokesman for Chinalco confirmed it would be Chinalco’s first aluminium asset in the province. According to a Yunnan aluminium statement on Monday, May 28, 2018, Yunnan metallurgy group, that controls Yunnan Aluminium Co. Ltd., will get merged into China Copper Co., a joint venture between Chinalco and the Yunnan provincial government. Chinalco, officially the Aluminium Corp of China owns 58 per cent of the joint venture, while...
Vedanta & Nalco set sights on trimming aluminium production cost after robust FY17 earnings
The two top aluminium producers Vedanta Ltd. and National Aluminium Company Ltd. (Nalco) are wary about the rise in production costs, even after posting robust earnings from aluminium business in the financial year 2017 ended on 31 st of March, 2018. Vedanta’s cost of aluminium production escalated to US$ 1887 per tonne, which was higher by about 30 per cent from the previous fiscal due to input commodity inflation. However, for the current fiscal, the company has projected to bring down the cost in the range of US$ 1725 to US$ 1775 per tonne, assuming the costs of imported alumina, coal e-auctions and carbon to remain at the average price levels of 2017-18. Each year, Vedanta imports over 1 million tonnes of alumina to power its aluminium smelters. To ward off the sharp price...
China's domestic alumina price estimated to register sharp fall in late June on low stockpiling
Shanghai Metal Market anticipated yesterday on May 28, 2018, that domestic alumina prices in China are going to witness a limited decline on the face of continual low stockpiling that allows sellers to hold their offers firm. Since the beginning of May, China’s domestic alumina prices have fallen RMB 70 per tonne. SMM also believes that the end of June is more likely to mark a sharp fall in domestic alumina prices as continuous declines in international prices would close the windows for exports, and new alumina capacity will come online in July. On top, alumina accumulated across ports in Guangxi province as package removal causes pollution and alumina producers are most likely to complete their deliveries of existing orders by late June. According to SMM, alumina price for four regions...
Alba’s Line 6 Expansion Project to boost GCC’s total aluminium production on completion
According to CEO Tim Murray, Alba would be achieving the aluminium production capacity of 1.5 million tonnes or 25 per cent of total output across the GCC, on completing Line 6 Expansion Project worth US$3billion. In an interview with Oxford Business Group’s online broadcasting channel, Global Platform, Murray said that this new line will not only make Alba the biggest single-site facility in the world but also take the GCC’s total aluminium production to around 6 million tonnes a year, roughly equal to 10 per cent of global aluminium production. In the interview, he also noted that the world consumes around 60 million tonnes of aluminium, while China alone consumes 35 million tonnes. So, considering the production footprint, the GCC stands as the next biggest market, with six million...
Germany seeks an end to EU-US trade dispute over aluminium and steel tariffs: Source says
Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said on Monday, May 28, 2018, that Germany is looking forward to the end of trade dispute between the European Union and the United States. Altmaier said, “We need to try to avoid higher tariffs”, adding that he would discuss the issue with European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom and US General Secretary Wilbur Ross at a meeting of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris this week. This organisation is an intergovernmental economic organisation, founded in 1961 and headed by 35 member countries, to stimulate economic progress and world trade. Trump had imposed a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminium in March but granted temporary exemptions to European Union until June 1. EU is now...
Guinea President reshuffles government overnight on the face of repeated strikes at Bauxite mines
The repeated instances of civil unrest in Guinea, particularly in the mineral-rich region of Boké in the west of the country have been incessantly growing over time. Guineans claim that the mining companies in Guinea failed to contribute to their wellbeing, despite being a country with the highest bauxite reserves in the world amounting to 7.4 billion tonnes. In the initial five months of 2017, bauxite export from the country to China reached 9.4 million tonnes, up 164.5 per cent from the corresponding period last year. In May alone, Guinea bauxite export to China reached 2.2 million tonnes, up 131 per cent from last year. 2018 has also been a kickass for the country as one of its bauxite mining companies La Guineenne des Mines (GDM) announced the shipment of their first bauxite...
China’s aluminium inventory sees an uninterrupted shrink on fewer deliveries: A00 ingot price grows
After reporting a great weak-on-weak decline on Thursday, May 24, 2018, China’s primary aluminium inventory shrinks further today on May 28, 2018, including SHFE warrants, from 2.08 million tonnes to 2.05 million tonnes on fewer deliveries to warehouses at major markets in China, Shanghai Metal Market learned. The inventory today was down 25,000 million tonnes from Thursday, May 24 and 70,000 down from Monday, May 21, which indicates a faster weak-on-weak decline than the previous Monday. Almost all the major Chinese markets witnessed a drop as well like in Wuxi and Jiangsu, the inventory dipped from 853,000 tonnes, as on Thursday, to 844,000 tonnes on Monday and Shanghai saw a plunge from 448,000 tonnes to 446,000 tonnes. Other major cities also saw a decline in inventory because of...
Showa Denko performs aluminium can recycling of 4.81 million in FY2017
Japan’s leading manufacturer of chemical products and industrial materials, Showa Denko and its group companies and their cooperative companies continued to perform aluminium can recycling activity in fiscal 2017, ended on 31 st of March, 2018, by collecting approximately 4.81 million cans, which are equivalent to about 76 tonnes of aluminium when converted at the rate of 15.7 grams of aluminium per can. Showa Aluminium Can Corporation, a consolidated subsidiary of SDK had begun the can recycling activity in 1972, which later on, spread across the Showa Denko Group in 2001 and continuing until today. Employees of the group companies and cooperative companies collect the cans for recycling from households and workplaces, and then report the total number of cans collected. In fiscal 2017, a...
First stage of aluminium hydropower project in Yunnan to begin operations this June
According to the latest update by Shanghai Metal Market, the first stage of a hydropower project to produce and process aluminium in Zhaotong, in Yunnan province, is expected to start from June 1, 2018. A large number of aluminium companies are keen to tap Yunnan’s extensive hydropower capacity to replace their current coal-fired plants for securing power required during the electric-intensive smelting process. According to Jackie Wang, an aluminium analyst at consultants CRU in Beijing, this hydropower capacity, an alternative to coal-fired power generation will help smelters to produce green metal. While the first phase of the aluminium hydropower project is forecast to begin operations this June, the entire project is estimated to start in 2018, with an investment of 3.5 billion yuan....
US weighs imported auto tariffs for national security: EU and Germany fear trade conflict
Amidst prevailing tensions due to the United States imported aluminium and steel tariffs, Trump administration weighed slapping tariffs on imported cars on Thursday, May 24, 2018, over national security concerns. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Wednesday, May 23, that he had initiated a so-called Section 232 investigation on auto trade to determine whether the car imports were weakening the internal economy or impairing the national security of the US. He even said that this would provide him the legal rights to impose tariffs on finding US national security at risk, but certainly after consulting Donald Trump on this matter. The European Union, which had been lobbying with the US for a permanent reprieve from US imported aluminium and steel tariffs, expressed annoyance at this...
A00 aluminium ingot price surges two days in a row: Alumina spot price remains unchanged
Today, May 25, 2018, is the second day in a row that average A00 aluminium ingot price witnessed a surge from RMB 14570 per tonne, as on May 24, 2018, to RMB 14670 per tonne, according to Shanghai Metal Market. The prices are expected to range between RMB 14650 per tonne to RMB 14690 per tonne, with spot discounts to settle at RMB 80 per tonne to RMB 40 per tonne. Primary ingot prices registered a growth of RMB 10 to 100 per tonne across all domestic markets. While in the east, the ingot price soared from RMB 14610 per tonne, as on May 24, to RMB 14670 per tonne on May, 25; in South and North, the prices grew from RMB 14615 per tonne to RMB 14695 per tonne and from RMB 14595 per tonne to RMB 14660 per tonne respectively. The below table shows the aluminium ingot price movement in China...
UC Rusal resumes aluminium shipment to some of its consumers
The news UC Rusal resumed shipping aluminium to some consumers last week has taken the internet by storm. The Russian aluminium giant recommenced the shipment soon after the United States extended the sanctions deadline further from June 5 to October 23, 2018, for companies to wind down contracts with the Russian firm under US sanctions, sources said. The sanctions extension detailed in General Licence 14, issued late April, effectively meant that aluminium produced and sold by Rusal would be free from sanctions until October 23, so long as the deal to buy was signed before they were imposed. A metal industry source reported, “Aluminum is being shipped. Parties who have existing contracts are starting to take deliveries.” The existing deals include those such as Swiss-based mining giant...
Australia Bauxite Ltd. to fund Stage 1 of its bauxite refining project ALCORE
After almost two months, Tasmanian miner, Australia Bauxite Ltd. has made a significant progress with its bauxite refining project ALCORE. In our previous news, we had reported that engineering and cost study for the first stage was finished, including the construction of an engineering validation plant in New South Wales. Now, the update is company board of directors has approved the incorporation of ALCORE limited as a wholly-owned subsidiary to fund and manage the project, leading to the construction of ALCORE production plant to produce annually 50,000 tonnes of aluminium fluoride and core products. The recent developments also include ALCORE to start ALCORE technology for converting raw bauxite worth approximately US$50 per tonne into bauxite products worth more than US$1,000 per...
China’s aluminium inventory reports greater week-on-week decline: A00 ingot price surges
The Chinese market has been reported witnessing a steady downstream consumption against fewer deliveries to warehouses over a period of time. As a consequence of which, primary aluminium inventory is incessantly recording a plunge, indicating a balance maintained between production, supply, and consumption in the market. According to Shanghai Metal Market on May 24, 2018, China’s inventory of primary aluminium, including SHFE warrants has seen a further dip to 2.08 million tonnes, 40000 tonnes lowered from 2.12 million tonnes on Monday, May 21, 2018, and 60,000 tonnes lowered from 2.14 million tonnes a week ago. The week-on-week decline is thus, slightly higher today than the decline of 58,000 tonnes last Thursday. The current inventory status in the major Chinese cities is as follows: On...
China to reduce import car tariffs from July 1: Domestic car manufacturers might get affected
China’s Ministry of Finance declared on Tuesday, May 22, 2018, that the country is going to slash tariffs on most imported cars to 15 per cent, with effect from July 1, 2018. This will include the current 25 per cent tariff levied on 135 items and 20 per cent on four items, down 40 per cent and 25 per cent respectively. This announcement came in soon after China’s Vice Premiere Liu He and US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin led negotiations ended with a mutual agreement to withdraw a trade war. Import tariffs on 79 auto parts, including car bumpers, doors, and seat belts will also be reduced to 6 per cent from the current level of 8 to 25 per cent. The average tariffs on vehicles, after the cut, will stand at 13.8 per cent and 6 per cent on car parts. According to the ministry, slashing...
