AlCircle News Edited By "Pratyusha Chatterjee"
A writer with 5+ years of experience in the communication industry, Pratyusha Chatterjee has indulged in content from the business, lifestyle, travel industries and more. Apart from news and content, Pratyusha is immensely fond of participating in cultural events and managing them.
China’s economic crisis hits Indian aluminium hard: Price deflated & trade relations dampened
Indian aluminium market witnesses a 0.64 per cent price drop to INR 270.45 per kilogram, owing to the declining demand from China, which is otherwise the world’s largest aluminium producer cum consumer. Along with deflating pricing in the Chinese market, the SHFE inventory rise of 7.67 per cent has also pressurised the market sentiment. To cushion the aluminium price’s free-fall, the US federal rate cut has weighed in, supporting broader commodity sentiment. Image for representational purposes only Explore- Most accurate data to drive business decisions with 50+ reports across the value chain China is experiencing a structural and cyclical economic slowdown. This is not a typical, short-term dip but a complex deceleration from its previous high-growth phase. Both the country’s overall...
15 countries make it to the headline of Global EV sales 2025 with 90% contribution
World electric vehicle sales in October stood at 1,783,000 units, growing 10.5 per cent year-on-year. The cumulative sales of electric vehicles from January to October 2025 have been calculated to cross 16.5 million with a 23 per cent rise as compared to YTD 2024 (Jan-Oct). In this, China has remained the leading power with 10.3 million sales for the ten months (up 22 per cent), Europe saw 3.4 million sales with a 32 per cent hike, North America sold 1.6 million units, which was 4 per cent higher than the number for the same period last year. The rest of the world registered 1.3 million sales with over 48 per cent boost as compared to YTD 2024, shared RHO motion. Image source: https://www.strategyand.pwc.com/ Explore- Most accurate data to drive business decisions with 50+ reports across...
Investment viability check: Surinamese bauxite’s rise, fall and the prospect of resurgence
Suriname is one of those countries that quietly sits on the world map, half-hidden under a canopy of forests, rivers and rain-soaked roads that rarely make it to global headlines. Yet at one point in the twentieth century, this small nation punched far above its weight in the aluminium value chain. Ask anyone old enough in Paramaribo and they’ll tell you how bauxite once shaped Suriname’s identity just as much as its rivers and rainforest. The irony is that today, those same forests and the difficulty of reaching its interior have become the very reasons investors hesitate. Image source - Drone Suriname by Max Breinburg Explore- Most accurate data to drive business decisions with 50+ reports across the value chain Even now, when you fly into Suriname, you can almost sense the potential...
Amcor broadens its horizon with aluminium, along with plastic, in a year of circular consolidation
Amcor’s FY25 sustainability disclosure arrives at a pivotal moment — not only as its first report after absorbing Berry Global, but also as a quiet but significant inflexion point for aluminium’s role within one of the world’s largest packaging companies. Although plastics still dominate Amcor’s 2.9-million-tonne material footprint, the FY25 report reveals a slow but unmistakable recalibration in how the packaging brand sources, certifies and circularises aluminium across its global operations. Image source: https://www.amcor.com/ Explore- Most accurate data to drive business decisions with 50+ reports across the value chain The newly combined entity ended the fiscal year with 15,000 tonnes of post-consumer recycled (PCR) aluminium, representing 8 per cent of all aluminium used, as...
When recycled AL is the mirror: A month of energy, inequality, and the cost of industrial change
In a year defined by climate alarms and geopolitical rifts, aluminium revealed something deeper about the world: how nations negotiate vulnerability, how industries confront responsibility, and how humanity responds when the numbers stop being abstract and start touching real lives. Across energy maps, recycling gaps, trade battles, and climate negotiations, this metal became a reflection of our collective moral and economic choices. Weekly Recap: Sustainability & Recycled AL by AL Circle Pvt Ltd Explore- Most accurate data to drive business decisions with 50+ reports across the value chain When power maps become human maps Electricity has always been the soul of aluminium, but this year it became its burden. AL Circle’s deep dive into the global smelting landscape showed aluminium...
From Ball Corporation to FACE: AL Circle brings END-USER sector’s insights under one roof
Different images pop into the listeners’ heads as the word aluminium is uttered. Some would think about aluminium wires, some about doors and windows. Some would even instantly visualise an appetising dish being cooked in an aluminium utensil. It is only a notion that proves the mass around the world in their daily routines associate with the lightweight metal in some form or another. And for professionals from different paths of life, aluminium enables cost-saving, lightweighting, infinite recycling, and beyond in diverse sectors like electricity, transportation, aviation, energy, packaging, etc. Explore- Most accurate data to drive business decisions with 50+ reports across the value chain With this thought lingering in our minds, today, we proudly present our latest consumer relatable...
Indonesia’s 900Kt aluminium goal’s reality check: 7 stalled refineries, 24Mt of lost bauxite demand
Indonesia is rich in bauxite. That is no news. It has been exporting bauxite to leading aluminium-producing countries for years. That is no news either. It imposed a ban on its bauxite export back in 2023. While that creates a whirl for a while, the world has re-strategised and found its bauxite (whether the deficit has been completely replenished or not, we will come to that later)! But a product export that once generated over USD 600 million for Indonesia is now running at nil. Au contraire, the nation’s alumina import (a product derived from bauxite and is further refined to produce aluminium) has peaked in the past two years (2023-2024). Image source: https://www.exportgenius.in/ Explore- Most accurate data to drive business decisions with 50+ reports across the value chain In...
Powering aluminium PART 2: Aluminium faces a new energy reality
The energy industry attended ADIPEC 2025 with a familiar problem and left with a sharper one. Every major conversation in Abu Dhabi, whether on investment flows, upstream fuel security, grid volatility or the rapid buildout of digital energy systems, pointed to a structural shift already underway: the cost and carbon advantage of aluminium is no longer determined by the smelter, but by the energy system surrounding it. Image source: https://www.mdpi.com/ Explore- Most accurate data to drive business decisions with 50+ reports across the value chain This is the unavoidable conclusion when the power consumption map from 2023–24 (Part 1 of this series) is layered against the messages coming out of ADIPEC. Smelters are now operating in an environment where energy is both their largest risk...
Powering aluminium PART 1: Inside the global smelting energy map (2023–24)
Aluminium has always carried a contradiction. It is the metal the world turns to for lightweighting, electrification and decarbonisation. And yet producing it remains one of the most energy-intensive industrial activities on the planet. However, that contradiction is finally catching up with the industry. Over 2023 and 2024, as the world’s primary aluminium output edged upward, a parallel battle unfolded behind the scenes in the fight over electrons. What powered the smelters mattered as much as how much they produced. And the global power map that emerges from the latest data is a story of contrasts — between coal and hydro, between gas-rich Gulf producers and hydro-blessed Scandinavia, between Asia’s ambitious new expansions and Africa’s slow-moving grids. This is the first of a...
Trade and economic loss unveiled owing to US’s longest government shutdown in history
From air traffic controllers leaving their posts to federal workers missing pay cheques for the second time in a row, the 43-day-long US federal government shutdown has taken a toll across all sectors. The crisis has dealt a double blow to the economy — first from tariffs and now from halted government operations. As trade slows, diplomatic ties fray, and even neighbouring allies distance themselves, the situation reeks of broader loss of confidence. With a national debt nearing USD 38 trillion as of early November 2025, the prolonged deadlock is now rippling through the country’s economy, trade, and transportation systems. Image for referential purposes only Explore- Most accurate data to drive business decisions with 50+ reports across the value chain Why did the government shut down in...
Here’s why COP30, along with previous climate meetings, matter for the lightweight metal value chain
Born from the 1992 UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) treaty and signed at the Rio Earth Summit, the COP (Conference of the Parties) completes three decades of climate commitment meetings. The 30 th COP or the ‘2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference’ is being held at the heart of the Amazon (Belem, Brazil) and is currently in progress. Yet, when it comes to evaluating the achievements as opposed to targets or goals, the mass notion is that the majority of the countries have failed to achieve the agenda of the climate meets and only 15 have achieved the deadline set by the latest Paris agreement for 2025 (which was inscribed at the COP21). Let’s explore what is the ground reality of COPs versus aluminium in the past thirty years. Image source:...
Can the recycling industry scale for the 2030 goals? We ready to shift to an all-aluminium recycling world?
Market research collated in early 2025 places the global aluminium scrap processing pipeline at roughly 38 million tonnes in 2024, with forecasts pointing to about 57 million tonnes by 2030 (a 7 per cent CAGR from 2024–2030). That projection is built on expected growth in automotive, packaging and building applications and on investments in sorting and remelting technologies. Image depicts recycled aluminium usage by end-user spectrum (Source: AL Circle Report ) Also read: 80% of waste, including aluminium packaging, goes into landfills in Greece For context at the national level, U.S. Geological Survey Publications states that in the United States, recovered aluminium from purchased scrap in 2024 was about 3.27 million tonnes, of which new (manufacturing) scrap accounted for roughly 56...
Century Aluminum Q3 2025: Higher prices lift financial performance
A year’s gap and the performance of Century Aluminum, the US-based leading primary aluminium producer, has gone opposite ways. Though the aluminium manufacturer is still in the safe zone in terms of financials, the shipments and sales figures tell an altogether different tale. Image source: https://centuryaluminum.com/ Explore- Most accurate data to drive business decisions with 50+ reports across the value chain The year has been defined by energy volatility and thin inventory conditions across the aluminium chain, and now Century Aluminum has entered the final quarter of 2025 with a relatively clearer air and a stronger footing. The company’s third-quarter number state steady plant performance where it matters, responsive cost management, and a market that is finally giving US smelters...
Hindalco takes a close to $650 million brunt post Novelis' fire impact
All eyes are on Novelis’ New York (Oswego) unit reopening in December, which halted production after the September 16 fire incident. Why? Stakeholders are hit financially on both ends of the Atlantic. Hindalco, the parent company of Novelis, is suffering a negative free cash flow from the unfortunate incident. Novelis, whose own financials are jolted, is also a wholly-owned subsidiary (a company whose 100 per cent share capital is owned) by parent company Hindalco and is also a major contributor to the latter’s consolidated financial results. Image for representational purposes only Explore- Most accurate data to drive business decisions with 50+ reports across the value chain Financial impacts on Hindalco Novelis along with Hindalco are prepared for their free cash flow for the current...
Ball Corporation Q3: A 144-year legacy holds with victorious survival amidst 2025 trade gusts
Just after Ball Corporation celebrated 90 years in the can manufacturing business, stakeholders cautiously rejoiced yet again as its third quarter felt a lot less like a wobble and more like a careful pivot wherein numbers whispered “steady” if anyone listened closely. Explore- Most accurate data to drive business decisions with 50+ reports across the value chain Why cautious? The turmoil of tariffs is yet to blow off. Then why rejoice? For the third quarter of 2025, which ended on September 30, 2025, Ball Corporation reported net earnings attributable to the company of USD 321 million, or total diluted earnings per share of USD 1.18 on sales of USD 3.38 billion. Dig beneath the headline and you find the shape of a business that is squeezing more activity from the same...
Is the US fighting hard enough to keep its aluminium in-house from competitors like China?
Aluminium industry leaders say the United States is unwittingly ‘leaking’ a strategic resource by exporting vast quantities of scrap metal even as domestic makers scramble for feedstock. The Aluminum Association’s new “Scrap The Exports” campaign notes that the US currently exports roughly 2 million tonnes of aluminium scrap each year, nearly half of what the country recycles. Image source: https://www.aluminum.org/ Explore- Most accurate data to drive business decisions with 50+ reports across the value chain “Scrap aluminium is a vital feedstock for American manufacturers, especially at a time when US aluminium firms are investing and need reliable and affordable access to metal like never before,” says Charles Johnson, president and CEO of the Aluminum Association (AA). By losing...
African entity plans to boycott externals & empower local processing for aluminium value-chain
During the swearing-in ceremony of the new President of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), George Elombi set the tone for what could be Africa’s next industrial revolution. “No more Nigerian bauxite, or Gabonese manganese, or Cameroonian bauxite, or South African bauxite, raw. We are not interested,” Elombi declared, adding, “We will focus on domestic processing. This has numerous benefits.” Image source: https://www.indiamart.com/ Numbers talk truth and so you should follow them from our exclusive industry report ' A Comprehensive Analysis of Bauxite Residue - Red Mud ' to stay ahead! Africa has long faced a familiar paradox in its metals and mining complex — abundant raw-material endowment, yet limited downstream value capture. With Afreximbank launching a dedicated financing...
GDP and AL industry included, here’s how the world could double prosperity while using less energy
There’s a neat paradox at the heart of the clean-energy debate: richer societies typically use more energy, yet the latest modelling from the Energy Transitions Commission (ETC) suggests we can (provided that we choose to) have a lot more of the good things that energy delivers (travel, cooling, manufacturing) while using less energy overall. The ETC’s October 2025 briefing argues that smart electrification, appliance efficiency and material recycling could let the global economy more than double by 2050 while cutting final energy demand by about 24 per cent compared with today. Image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/ Also read: High time to invest in Africa’s solar potential! Why? It records the highest ‘sunshine’ on Earth That claim is startling because it rewrites a default storyline:...
