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More domestic aluminium, recycling and energy needed to strengthen US supply chain
With 18 years of experience in the aluminium industry, Charles Johnson brings a deep understanding of the policy, trade and sustainability issues shaping the US aluminium value chain. As President and CEO of the Aluminum Association, he represents an industry seeking to strengthen domestic supply while maintaining reliable access to imports. In this interview with AL Circle, Johnson discusses why the US needs an “all-of-the-above” approach, combining greater primary production, expanded recycling, stronger energy infrastructure and targeted trade enforcement, to build a larger, more resilient aluminium supply base for American manufacturing. AL Circle: How serious is the US aluminium supply gap right now, and which parts of the value chain are feeling the pressure most acutely? Charles...
$150 billion, 12+ countries, one Gulf player: Inside the UAE's ports-to-bauxite web across Africa
Stretch a line from the Red Sea through the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean all the way to the Atlantic coast, and you'll pass through a decade-old network of ports, long-term concessions, roads, and logistics corridors built by a single Gulf state. The common thread running through the United Arab Emirates is bauxite mines, the raw ore behind aluminium production, sit alongside renewable energy plants, and data centres. On 20 September 2026, Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, put a number on that footprint sharing that the UAE investment in Africa is approaching USD 150 billion, with annual two-way trade now exceeding USD 107 billion. He framed the expansion as part of Abu Dhabi’s push to build direct ties with the continent, bypassing traditional Western...
China's 22.87 Mt extrusion market faces a structural shift as 317 GW solar growth counters weak construction demand
The global aluminium extrusion landscape is undergoing a structural transition driven by industrial decarbonisation, global electrification, and the rapid deployment of clean energy infrastructure. Historically anchored by civil engineering and residential real estate, demand for extruded aluminium profiles in China, the world’s dominant manufacturing hub, is decoupling from traditional property sectors. Persistent structural weakness in China’s domestic construction market has slowed the consumption of conventional architectural profiles such as window frames, door sections, and curtain walls. Conversely, advanced industrial applications, specifically solar photovoltaic (PV) racking, battery energy storage systems (BESS), power grid modernisation, and electric vehicles (EVs), have...
India’s 8.25% aluminium duty paradox puts downstream manufacturing under pressure
India is producing more aluminium, but a growing policy debate is asking a different question of how much value is the country actually retaining from every tonne it produces? India is the world’s second-largest aluminium producer, with primary aluminium output reaching around 4.2 million tonnes. Yet, according to the Ministry of Mines’ Aluminium Vision Document, 76 per cent of India’s aluminium exports by volume are primary aluminium, while downstream products account for only 24 per cent. That imbalance has brought India’s aluminium import duty, particularly the effective 8.25 per cent duty on primary aluminium, back into focus. The 8.25% question Primary aluminium currently attracts a 7.5 per cent Basic Customs Duty (BCD), along with a 0.75 per cent Social Welfare Surcharge, taking the...
Novelis cuts nearly one-third of Kingston workforce as US tariffs squeeze aluminium demand
Novelis is cutting roughly one-third of its workforce at its Kingston, Ontario, aluminium facility, with the company citing the impact of US tariffs on aluminium imported from Canada. The company is reducing its salaried workforce by 10 employees and temporarily laying off approximately 70 hourly workers, according to a statement issued by Novelis on Friday, September 18. The cuts affect roughly one-third of the facility's workforce. “These are difficult decisions that affect our colleagues and their families, and we are supporting those impacted through this transition,” Novelis said. Novelis pointed to the Section 232 duties imposed by the US on aluminium imported from Canada as the reason behind the workforce reduction. To know the global production, demand and consumption forecasts of...
Alba runs at 1.3 mtpa as Bahrain smelter navigates Middle East disruptions
Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) is currently producing aluminium at an annualised rate of around 1.3 million tonnes, with the smelter operating at roughly 80 per cent of its pre-Iran war capacity, according to CEO Ali Al Baqali. Alba had a pre-war capacity of around 1.6 million tonnes per year, but production was disrupted after the outbreak of the war and restrictions around the Strait of Hormuz affected exports. The smelter was also hit by an Iranian attack in late March. The Bahrain-based producer is now operating Lines 4, 5 and 6, together representing annualised aluminium production of approximately 1.3 million tonnes, Al Baqali told Reuters on the sidelines of the Fastmarkets Aluminium Conference in Budapest on September 16. Al Baqali described the damage from the Iranian strike as minor...
Metro Mining ships 756,000 WMT of bauxite in August as Ikamba returns to full strength
Metro Mining has ramped up bauxite shipments from its Bauxite Hills Mine in Cape York, Far North Queensland, after its offshore floating terminal Ikamba returned to full strength in late July. The Australian bauxite producer shipped 756,000 wet metric tonnes (WMT) of bauxite in August 2026, marking an 8 per cent increase from July, according to its September 16 operational and marketing update. The August performance also put the spotlight on Ikamba’s ability to operate independently. With the offshore floating terminal back at full capacity, it handled the month’s shipments without the contribution of the TSA Skardon, which was undergoing dry-docking. The TSA Skardon has now completed its dry-docking and is scheduled to return to site in mid-September, just as shipping conditions are...
H1 2026 sees more renewable energy than ever: Here’s a region-by-region guide to renewable energy supply in the recent past
In the first half of 2025, humanity generated more electricity from renewables than from coal for the first time ever. What led to it? It was possible only because of two decades of falling solar panel prices, taller wind turbines, and governments finally treating clean power like an economic opportunity instead of a favour to the planet. But the renewable energy scenario cannot be portrayed as a single global story. To get the full picture, one has to connect dozens of regional stories moving at wildly different speeds. Some countries are already powered almost entirely by sun, wind and water. Others are still warming up. Here is a tour of how renewable energy supply looks across the world’s regions right now, and who is actually leading the charge. The global scorecard: Renewable energy...
Ghana puts bauxite, lithium and iron ore in the spotlight to woo Australian capital
Ghana has stepped up efforts to attract Australian investment into its growing critical minerals sector, pitching the country as a stable and reform-driven destination for mining and value-added mineral development at the 2026 Africa Down Under (ADU) Summit in Perth. The Ghanaian delegation was led by High Commissioner to Australia Doris Brese and Maxwell Yao Akpene Klu, Deputy Chief Executive of the Minerals Commission in charge of Small Scale & Industrial Minerals. Addressing mining executives, financiers and policymakers, Klu said Ghana is looking to move beyond its traditional gold dominance and position itself as a strategic partner in battery minerals and green technologies. “Our country is not just about extracting resources, we are committed to a paradigm shift in mining, one that...
Can Oklahoma reshape US aluminium supply? EGA’s Ziad Fares explains the project
As the US seeks to rebuild its domestic aluminium production capacity, Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) and Century Aluminum are advancing plans for a new primary aluminium smelter in Inola, Oklahoma, targeting more than 750,000 tonnes of annual production. In this exclusive conversation with AL Circle, Ziad Fares, Project Director for Oklahoma Primary Aluminum , discusses the project’s strategic rationale, progress towards a targeted construction start in early 2027, planned smelting technology, power and infrastructure requirements, investment considerations, and its potential impact on US aluminium supply chains. He also addresses environmental safeguards and stakeholder concerns. Fares brings more than 20 years of experience across engineering, strategy, finance, metals and mining, and...
Collapsed Canada tariff talks put Indiana's aluminium jobs back in the spotlight
Indiana has emerged as an unlikely flashpoint in the latest round of US-Canada trade friction, after Washington's now-collapsed negotiations with Ottawa briefly put a proposed cut to aluminium tariffs on the table, one that industry advocates say would have hit the state's fabrication workforce hard. Industry veterans argue that Indiana, one of the last significant strongholds of US aluminium manufacturing, had much to lose in a deal that ultimately fell apart. What was on the table As part of the recent US-Canada trade talks, the Trump administration had proposed cutting the tariff on Canadian primary aluminium from 50 per cent to 25 per cent, while also extending a similar cut to fabricated aluminium products. Those talks broke down in late August, prompting Washington to impose fresh...
Carbonation curing could extend the field life of red mud-based backfill, new study suggests
Chinese researchers show that a few extra hours of CO2 curing can roughly double the wet-dry service life of red mud–CFB ash–MgO backfill, while keeping leaching of hazardous elements low even after weeks of exposure to alkaline red mud liquor. Red mud remains one of the aluminium industry’s largest unresolved waste streams. Global bauxite residue generation has been running well above 175 million tonnes a year, against roughly 140-155 million tonnes of alumina output, and only a small fraction of that residue, commonly cited at around 2-5 per cent, is currently converted into a saleable by-product. The rest continues to swell tailings dams that, by some industry estimates, already hold more than 4 billion tonnes of accumulated material worldwide. Turning red mud into cemented backfill...
NALCO picks EGA’s DX+ Ultra for 0.5 MTPA Angul aluminium smelter expansion
National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO) has signed a Technology Licensing Agreement with Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) to deploy EGA’s UAE-developed DX+ Ultra aluminium smelting technology at its proposed 500,000 tonnes per annum (MTPA) brownfield smelter expansion at Angul, Odisha. The agreement was signed in Dubai on September 7, 2026, in the presence of NALCO Chairman-cum-Managing Director Brijendra Pratap Singh and EGA Chief Executive Officer Abdulnasser Bin Kalban. Biju K, Chief General Manager (Projects), signed the agreement for NALCO, while Abdalla Zarouni, Acting Executive Vice President – Midstream, signed on behalf of EGA. NALCO Director (Projects & Technical) Jagdish Arora and Director (Finance) Abhay Kumar Behuria also attended the signing ceremony. To know the...
Advanced sorting could unlock $2.3 billion in US aluminium scrap value: WBCSD
Advanced sorting technologies could help the US unlock up to USD 2.3 billion in annual domestic aluminium processing value by upgrading mixed scrap that is currently exported or downcycled, according to a new initiative by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). The North America Aluminum Initiative, launched by WBCSD’s Critical Materials Collective, examined how technologies such as X-Ray Transmission (XRT) and Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) could separate mixed aluminium scrap into alloy-specific streams. The initiative also assessed whether complementary demand from different industries could support investment in advanced sorting infrastructure. The opportunity is significant because around 2 million tonnes of US aluminium scrap are exported...
Coal-heavy Australian aluminium vs renewables-led New Zealand: How Oceania is balancing decarbonisation
Oceania’s primary aluminium industry is facing a fragmented energy transition. While Australia, the leading aluminium producer of the continent, has abundant renewable resources and a well-established aluminium value chain, its smelters remain significantly more dependent on fossil-fuel-based electricity than the broader Oceania region. New Zealand, another major aluminium producer in the region, tells a different tale. The International Aluminium Institute (IAI) classifies Australia and New Zealand together as Oceania, but their smelting power profiles are markedly different. In the Australia dataset for 2023, coal accounted for 58 per cent of primary aluminium smelting electricity, compared with 36.4 per cent from hydropower and 5.2 per cent from other renewables. The 2024 Oceania...
Ghana’s 920Mt of bauxite reserves catch global investors’ attention amid aluminium push
International investor interest in Ghana’s bauxite industry has intensified, with Coal India becoming the latest overseas company to evaluate opportunities in the country as it seeks to diversify beyond coal and secure mineral assets abroad. The Indian state-controlled miner’s interest remains at an early evaluation stage. No specific Ghanaian mine, deposit or company has been identified, and there is no indication that formal negotiations with the Ghanaian authorities have begun. Coal India’s Ghana interest forms part of a broader international expansion strategy focused on minerals including bauxite, lithium, iron ore, rare earths and other critical minerals. The company is also working towards establishing its first overseas trading office in Singapore, which could serve as a base for...
India’s alumina trade surplus nearly quadruples to 1.72 Mt in H1 2026 as exports hit 2.5 Mt
India’s alumina trade underwent a sharp shift in the first half of 2026, with exports accelerating to a new high while imports contracted substantially. Data for HS 281820, i.e. aluminium oxide excluding artificial corundum, shows that India exported 2.5 million tonnes in H1 2026, up 51.3 per cent from 1.65 million tonnes in H1 2025. At the same time, imports fell 34.9 per cent year-on-year to 775,362 tonnes from 1.19 million tonnes. The result was a substantial widening of India’s net alumina trade surplus. The country moved from a surplus of about 460,466 tonnes in H1 2025 to 1.72 million tonnes in H1 2026, a nearly fourfold increase. Exports climb to a record level India’s alumina exports have been on a clear upward trajectory since Q2 2024. Quarterly shipments rose from 458,621 tonnes...
Germany aluminium extrusion market outlook H2 2026 after imports fall 3.5% as exports rise 1%, & billet premiums double
Germany’s aluminium extrusion trade enters the second half of 2026 on firmer footing than a year ago, even as Europe's extrusion industry works through plant closures, elevated billet premiums and a shift toward low-carbon, value-added output. Quarterly trade data through Q2 2026, along with AL Circle’s recently updated “ The World of Aluminium Extrusions - Industry Forecast to 2035 ” and other reports on Germany’s aluminium extrusion market sizing, point to a market that is stabilising in volume but being rewritten in composition, with automotive lightweighting, EU carbon border rules, and energy-driven capacity rationalisation the dominant forces heading into H2 2026. Germany's Aluminium Extrusion Trade Pulse (Q2 2024-Q2 2026) Germany runs a large, structural trade deficit in basic...
