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.
Aluminium Extrusion production picks up in Hebei after the winter heating season
After a winter heating season between November 2017 and March 2018, which had literally resulted in a temporary manufacturing halt, aluminium extrusion producers in North China are gradually recommencing their productions. As reported by Shanghai Metal Market, one company in Hebei province has begun operating its three out of five machines and receiving orders for April close to a maximum capacity. Shanghai Metal Market is thus expecting the aluminium processing companies to have a rise in their productions month-on-month in April due to a delayed downstream consumption recovery. However, regulations on heat and pollutant emissions from manufacturers will continue to be enforced by the Chinese government during the non-heating season from April 1, 2018 to November 15, 2018 for keeping air...
China’s aluminium inventory dwindled again for the second week; SHFE recorded a price rise
China’s refined aluminium inventory has been exhibiting a drop for past two weeks owing to more and more consumption of downstream products in the market. According to the Shanghai Metal Market data, China’s aluminium inventory including SHFE warrants hovered at 2.23 million tonnes on Monday April 2, 2018, down from 2.24 million tonnes on Thursday March 29 and 2.29 million tonnes on Monday March 19. The inventory has dropped for two weeks in a row, with the transactions of 900,000 tonnes of aluminium in Wuxi and Jiangsu, 444,000 tonnes in Shanghai, 421,000 tonnes in Nanhai and Guangong, 195,000 tonnes in Gongyi and Henan. However, deliverable Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) aluminium stocks recorded a price rise of about 1 million tonnes, while the metal declined by 10.7 per cent in the...
Major aluminium processor registers a slight rise
According to Shanghai Metal Market, a major producer of aluminium plate, strip and foil in Guangdong province witnessed orders jump this month, as compared with the contemporary period of the last month. Similar to the trading growth of aluminium rod that jumped up to RMB 500 per tonne in Shandong province, Guangdong province saw a rise in aluminium strip, plate and foil production, as it expanded to lower-tier cities, reported by SMM. Besides a rise in production, the expansion to lower-tier cities also led to a rebound in aluminium supplies, which likely to lift the company’s operating rate right from 80 per cent in March to 100 per cent in April. But despite all kind of optimistic growth in production and supply, there are still a few smaller aluminium processing plants in the province...
Elevated processing charges lend support to aluminium rod trading
As reported by Shanghai Metal Market on March 28, 2018, aluminium rod witnessed a trading growth due to stringent supply and rise in processing charges, which jumped up to RMB 500 per tonne ex-factory in Shandong province. Some major sources at aluminium rod producers informed SMM that they were unable to deliver the new orders on the same day. They also reported that supplies of aluminium rods tightened and fell from a year ago, totalling 600,000 tonnes, especially after annual capacities, in Shandong, Henan and Inner Mongolia. Nevertheless, consumption of aluminiun rods surged as demands for cables in Hebel saw a steady growth after the heating season and shipments began to the State Grid in the second half of March.
A00 Aluminium Ingot Prices again dip in China: SMM shows optimism for the future
After a sharp hike in A00 Aluminium Ingot prices in China from RMB 13660 per tonne to RMB 13740 per tonne yesterday, it again witnessed a slight decline today March 30, 2018. According to Shanghai Meta Market, the average prices have reduced to RMB 13620 per tonne. The prices are expected to range within RMB 13600 to 13640 per tonne and spot discounts are expected to settle at RMB 100 to RMB 60 per tonne. However, despite the dip in prices, Shanghai Metal Market is optimistic about the future. It anticipates that aluminium prices will witness gain, as China plans to regulate captive power plants at aluminium producers with some support from higher power costs. In order to snip thermal power capacity, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has already issued The Regulation...
Shanxi willing to ramp-up aluminium smelting capacity with preferred access to bauxite
The government of one of China’s Northern provinces declared in the early part of this week that it would likely to go for the barter choice cuts of its bauxite stores for companies that move aluminium smelting capacity to that area, as reported by Aluminium Insider. Shanxi’s provincial government have already approached Aluminum Corp of China (Chinalco), Shandong Xinfa Aluminium Group, and Xinjiang East Hope Ferrous Metals Co., Ltd. and offered the deal as per the province’s just-released yearly plan for the non-ferrous industry. According to the document, reported by Aluminium Insider, Shanxi’s bauxite bounty “will be prioritised for those companies that are transferring electrolytic aluminium capacity to our province.” This is because, in spite of having a prosperous alumina-refining...
India directly approaches US for aluminium and steel tariffs impunity
Not many days ago, India urged the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to exempt it from the recently-enacted US aluminium and steel tariffs. While already by now, the country has directly approached the United States for the exemption, with a supportive reasoning that its aluminium and steel exports could no way pose a security threat to the US, reported by three government officials. Last week, the US president Donald Trump relieved Argentina, Australia, Brazil, South Korea, Canada, Mexico and the European Union from its heavy duties on imported metals and said that until May 1, 2018, the other countries seeking for an exemption should correspond with Washington. Therefore, India’s Trade Ministry has written to the US government, asking for the tariffs impunity. According to the report by...
Aluminium battles with steel over electric vehicle market
There was a slight drift in the use of metal when the electric carmaker Tesla Inc. decided to use steel instead of aluminium in its first mass-market model last summer. Aluminium has always been the key metal to redress the weights of batteries and increase consumer acceptance for electric vehicles. However in the recent time, in order to invade a bigger market, the battery-powered car maker invited a little change in the use of metals and embraced some technological developments in batteries and components, due to which, the price of Tesla's mass-market orientated Model 3 is around half of the £70,000 luxury Model S. “Before the aim was 'Let's get the [electric vehicles] developed', now it's 'Let's get them developed at the right price point, said Mauro Erriquez, a partner at McKinsey &...
China aluminium inventory dropped considerably as downstream consumption rose in the domestic market
China’s refined aluminium inventory witnessed a further drop on Thursday March 29, 2018, as was expected by the analysts that refined aluminium inventory in China would start reducing between March and April this year after a rise in downstream consumption in the domestic market. According to the Shanghai Metal Market data, China’s aluminium inventory including SHFE warrants dropped to 2.24 million tonnes, down from 2.26 million tonnes on Monday March 26 and 2.28 million tonnes on Thursday March 22. According to SMM, since trading became active in the physical market in east China but relatively less in the Guangdong market on Wednesday March 28, transactions in Shanghai, Wuxi and Hangzhou started hovering at RMB 13,650 to 13,670 per tonne with spot discounts of RMB 70 to 60 per tonne...
Hydro to initiate a shutdown at Alunorte refinery by mid-April
After being forced to reduce alumina production substantially under a judicial order last month, the Alunorte refinery in North Brazil, owned by Norway’s Norsk Hydro, has to now start closing down half of its alumina capacity in the next two weeks to preserve equipment, said two people familiar with the matter on Tuesday. Some anonymous sources further reported that the company will be forced to completely shut down three of its seven alumina lines in case the judicial order is not lifted. The steep reduction in alumina production after the company declared force majeure has already led to a hike in alumina prices. They increased by about 13 per cent last week to close at US$438 per tonne, according to the MB pricing. Analysts are of the opinion that the possibility of a protracted outage...
Israeli Government asks for a relief from aluminium and steel tariffs
Yet another country asks for a relief from the US's high customs duties on imported aluminium and steel. The Israeli government is pressing the United States of America to exempt it from the tariffs as they are affecting the small businesses. As reported by “Globes”, Israel’s Ministry of Economy and Industry Foreign Trade Administration has already corresponded with the International Trade Administration in the US Department of Commerce seeking an exemption from the restrictions on aluminium and steel exports to the US. Israel’s official has put up a reason for the request that its metal exports to the US are too marginal (a total of US$25 million a year) to pose any kind of threat to the US economy. At the same time, limiting aluminium and steel exports from Israel to the US by imposing...
China’s demand for aluminium and steel tariff compensation from US steers WTO showdown
After considering a 15 per cent tariff on US products, China is now asking for compensation from the US for lost trade due to the aluminium and steel tariffs by Donald Trump. This may lead to a great dispute between the two nations at the World Trade Organisation. In two filings with the WTO on Monday, China dispersed the US proclamation that the tariffs were introduced on national security ground, arguing that they were nothing but the safeguard measures and temporary trade restrictions for protecting domestic producers. According to the data published by the Peterson Institute for International Economics, China’s aluminium and steel exports to the US are likely being affected by about US$689 million due to the tariffs imposition. In response to a such great loss, China threatened to...
Nalco eyes opportunity for bauxite assets in Guinea
Realising the fact that Guinea, being the world's largest bauxite reserves with an estimated 7.4 billion tonnes of high-grade bauxite, is a house of irresistible opportunities for aluminium smelters, National Alumininum Company (Nalco) is eyeing the possibility of gaining access to bauxite deposits in the West African country. T.K. Chand, chairman and managing director of Nalco said, “If we get mining rights, we can think of setting up an alumina-refining facility there. Nalco will shortly send a team to Guinea to evaluate the possibilities.” Guinea’s bauxite is considered to be the best in the world owing to containing a very low amount of reactive silica that removes the need for beneficiation or washing of ore. But, due to a lack of proper infrastructure, the country is unable to...
India likely to urge WTO for US aluminium and steel imports tariffs
Like many other countries, India too is perturbed about the US aluminium and steel imports tariffs and thus, decided to approach the WTO’s dispute settlement body to question the duty hike, especially after an exception made for the European Union, Australia, Canada and Mexico by the US on late Thursday evening. Until the time the European Union was exempt from the US imports tariffs, Indian government thought to go along with the EU and approach the WTO. But now since the EU is outside the ambit of the hike, India has to design a new strategy by its own, said an incognito official. Brazil, South Korea, Japan and EU already questioned the US action (without naming it) when trade ministers and envoys from over fifty countries met in the Capital on Tuesday. Among them, Norway was the only...
Australia Bauxite Ltd reports progress on ALCORE bauxite mining project
According to the report, Tasmanian miner, Australia Bauxite Ltd has pulled up its socks to inaugurate its bauxite refining project ALCORE, at Bald Hill near Campbell Town. The work is progressing in full swing and is expected to supersize the miner’s profits from bauxite once established. Chief Executive of Australia Bauxite Ltd. Ian Levy thinks that this project, which is going to refine aluminium fluoride from Bauxite, would be a game-changer for the company. As he says, “ALCORE is looking more exciting at every stage and would increase the profits from our very clean type of bauxite by a factor of 10 to 30 times.” In fact, the company reports that it has made a significant progress with ALCORE project so far, led to the “development of bauxite beneficiation and refining technology to...
Liberty Group submits acquisition bid for French Aluminium Wheel Firm
British Indian billionaire Sanjeev Gupta’s Liberty Group submits a bid for the French aluminium wheel manufacturer, AR Industries (ARI). This is not the first time Mr. Gupta’s group is attempting to acquire an aluminium firm. Earlier also, he had brought one of Europe’s biggest smelters Aluminium Dunkerque from Rio Tinto at a cost of $500 million. Gupta lives with a dream to create a €2 billion business in northern France to produce components for the automotive industry, reported by Financial Times. According to the report, Sanjeev Gupta’s global industrial group GFG Alliance, led by Liberty Group, has submitted the bid to the court administrators for AR Industries at Chateauroux in the Centre-Val de Loire region of France. “ARI fits perfectly into our plans for the creation of an...
China pounds back on Trump for imposing tariffs on Chinese aluminium and steel imports
China, being the largest aluminium exporter to the US, has decided not to remain silent about Trump’s $3 billion tariffs imposition on Chinese aluminium and steel imports. The country has unveiled its plan today (23rd of March, 2018) to consider a 15 per cent tariff on US products including dried fruit, wine, and steel pipes, and 25 per cent on pork products and recycled aluminium, said the commerce ministry in a statement on its website. The ministry further added that China has made a list of 128 US products in total that could be targeted, unless both the countries come to a mutual agreement on trade issues. This, they say, will implement in two stages: first the 15 per cent tariff on 120 products including pipes and wine worth $977 million and later, the 25 per cent tariff on pork and...
Vedanta to invest INR 12.4 bn on Jharsuguda smelter to elevate aluminium capacity
Vedanta has proposed to invest INR 12.4 billion on its Jharsuguda unit (Odisha) to elevate the capacity of aluminium smelter from 1.6 million tonnes to 1.8 million tonnes per annum. The proposal underwent a scrutiny of the State Level Single Window Clearance Authority (SLSWCA) yesterday (March 22, 2018). After a round of scrutiny by SLSWCA, the proposal is now referred to a higher body, the High Level Clearance Authority (HLCA) for an approval, since the former is entitled to approve an investment proposal of up to INR 10 billion only. An investment proposal presented by diversified conglomerate ITC Ltd. for expanding a product line at its existing unit Khurda at a cost of INR 630 million envisioning creating an employment for 100 heads, along with a proposal by wires and cables...
