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.
Japan’s rubbish heist crisis: Why aluminium can theft is surging in broad daylight
In a quiet alley in Fukuoka’s Minami Ward, what began as a routine garbage patrol turned into a tense showdown. “You’re not allowed to take that!” howled a Fukuoka city employee, catching a man red-handed with a bag of non-burnable waste stuffed with aluminium cans. The man lunged, shoving the official and trying to flee in a small car. After a brief scuffle, two city workers managed to pin him down and hand him over to the police. His backseat? Crammed with five bags of stolen aluminium cans. This wasn’t his first offence. The man, in his 20s, had already received three warnings, both written and verbal. But the lure of aluminium had proven too strong. From trash to treasure Aluminium theft in Japan is no longer a petty nuisance. It is becoming an organised, nationwide problem. In...
Energy cold war? Energy sanctions, BRICS resistance — a fracture in the global power grid
In a sharply worded communique, the BRICS bloc — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — has fired a warning shot at the West’s growing reliance on sanctions as an instrument of energy policy. At the latest BRICS Energy Ministers’ Meeting held under Russia’s presidency, the five-nation grouping condemned what they call “unilateral sanctions” and “arbitrary restrictions,” signalling an urgent geopolitical realignment that is beginning to redraw the contours of the global energy map. “We express concern about unilateral sanctions and arbitrary restrictions on energy trade and investment in the energy sector that disregard international law... and pose a threat to the security of the critical energy infrastructure,” the BRICS group said in a joint statement. This declaration comes...
Can EGA buck the closure trend? A feasibility deep-dive into smelting amid US power crisis
Emirate Global Aluminium’s recent announcement of setting up a primary aluminium smelter in Oklahoma, close to the Tulsa Port of Inola, is going to be the first new primary aluminium plant built in the US in 45 years. The USD 4 billion investment by the Middle Eastern business will strengthen domestic aluminium production and support supply chain resilience. But, in the heartland of America, a silent battle is unfolding — wherein at stake is the future of US aluminium smelting, an industry once thriving but now teetering under the weight of soaring electricity costs and the insatiable energy demands of Big Tech’s data centres. Now, the Aluminum Association estimates that a new US smelter would need a minimum 20-year power contract at a price of not more than USD 40 per MWh to be viable at...
China’s downstream aluminium market in Q1 ’25: Cracks emerge in trade landscape
Since January, US President Donald Trump has announced the probable implementation of tariffs. He did not disclose the details then, but the history made aluminium traders susceptible to the future of the global aluminium import-export scenario, which, with time, proved to be true. China’s downstream aluminium product exports deflated while domestic consumption numbers balanced the production vs demand scenario. Image for representational purposes only China’s downstream aluminium domestic sector remained a cornerstone of its industrial economy in the first quarter of 2025, with total domestic consumption touching 9.7 million tonnes. This consumption, spanning multiple industrial segments, was valued at approximately USD 25.2 billion. Q1: Production and consumption The construction sector...
Reiterated proof of Guinea’s ‘build locally, hire locally, pay locally, or leave’ sentiment through Lindian’s confidence
Where companies fear losing rights and concessions, Lindian Resources, an Australian mining entity, is confident about its safety in the Guinean mining business. But where is this confidence stemming from? The answer lies in three nouns — Lelouma, Gaoual and Woula. Lelouma bauxite project, described as a ‘Tier 1’ bauxite project, is a recently secured (April 2025) Lindian Resources’ 100 per cent ownership project. It boasts a JORC-compliant Mineral Resource of 900 million tonnes at 45 per cent aluminium oxide (Al₂O₃) and 2.1 per cent silicon dioxide (SiO₂). The project aims to produce direct shipping ore (DSO), meaning it won’t require extensive processing. It’s strategically located near existing infrastructure, including a railway line and the Kamsar port. The Gaoual bauxite project,...
“Mine here, refine here” — is Guinea’s underlying approach for 50+ external miners! But Guinea is not alone in this bargain...
Guinea, a West African country bordered on the west by the Atlantic Ocean, has an economy that is profoundly intertwined with its bauxite mining industry, which serves as a cornerstone of national economic activity, export earnings, and foreign investment. Recently (May 2025), Guinea announced the repossession of 51 mining licenses, including those for bauxite, citing non-compliance with development timelines and operational requirements. This includes licenses for companies like Kebo Energy SA and Emirates Global Aluminium, specifically due to their failure to fulfil commitments to build local alumina refineries. This serves as a strong warning to other major operators. But why is the country, whose economic development largely depends on bauxite trade, taking such an eccentric decision?...
EGA’s global gambit: From strategic minerals to smelting autonomy amid Guinea bauxite mining uncertainty
In a week of proud announcements, Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) has unveiled two noteworthy investment decisions with an intent of sweeping diversification and localisation strategy, while simultaneously contending with mounting geopolitical pressure in its upstream supply chain. On May 16, EGA signed a landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the UAE’s Tawazun Council and US-based RTX (formerly Raytheon Technologies) to extract and refine gallium, a strategic rare metal, at its Al Taweelah alumina refinery in Abu Dhabi. Once operational, this initiative would elevate the UAE to the second-largest global producer of gallium, following China, reinforcing its ambitions to become a central node in the critical minerals supply chain for semiconductors, defence systems, and next-gen...
UK resetting Brexit? Which trade partner, Brussels or Washington, deserves Britain’s top attention?
When London hosted the first formal UK–EU summit since Brexit on 19 May 2025, it wasn’t just a photo opportunity. It was a full-blown recalibration of economic realism. The commonly called ‘Brexit reset deal’ signalled a deliberate pivot back to Brussels after half a decade of friction, lost trade, and mounting industrial fatigue. With four key pillars, including access to the EU’s EUR 150 billion defence rearmament fund, regulatory easing for agricultural checks, a youth mobility visa scheme, and reinstated e-gate privileges for UK travellers, this was no ceremonial gesture. Yet the biggest headline for business? A potential rescue line for British exporters haemorrhaging market access and margin to post-Brexit red tape. And nowhere is the reset more urgent — or consequential than in the...
Maan Aluminium’s insider sales: a strategic move to tackle market volatility
In a compelling turn of events, Maan Aluminium Limited (NSE: MAANALU) has witnessed a notable 11 per cent surge in its stock price over the past week. This uptick comes on the heels of significant insider selling activities, prompting a closer examination of the company’s internal dynamics and market performance. Image source: https://x.com/raghavwadhwa/ Over the past year, Executive Director Ashish Jain executed a whopping sale of INR 12 million (USD 144 thousand) worth of shares at an average price of INR 141 (USD 1.69) per share. This transaction, representing a 36 per cent reduction in his holdings, was conducted at a premium compared to the current trading price of INR 95.15 (USD 1.14). While insider selling can sometimes signal caution, the timing and pricing of Jain’s sale suggest...
Chalco’s debt game: Leveraging liability, shielding growth?
China’s aluminium titan, Aluminum Corporation of China Limited (Chalco), is back in the financial spotlight. This time, it’s not about capacity hikes or policy pivots, but a more subtle yet significant story of debt management and financial agility. Image source: www.caixinglobal.com At a glance, Chalco (HKG:2600) appears highly geared. Yet, the balance sheet tells a layered tale. With a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, Chalco walks a fine line between leveraged growth and fiscal caution. But for a company of its scale and state-owned legacy, is this ratio a red flag, a calculated manoeuvre, or simply the cost of staying competitive in China’s industrial ecosystem? As of December 2023, Chalco’s financial posture shows RMB 97.7 billion (USD 13.57 billion) in debt, paired with RMB 47 billion...
US-UK trade policies won’t be enough to avert EU’s tariff countermeasures! China is not glad about it either...
The freshly inked US-UK trade pact may have triggered diplomatic handshakes, but European Union trade ministers aren’t impressed. In Brussels on Thursday, they made it clear: the limited nature of the agreement, particularly its retention of US tariffs on British exports, won’t be sufficient to prevent looming EU countermeasures. Announced last week by US President Donald Trump and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the bilateral trade deal trims tariffs on aluminium, steel and cars but keeps in place a 10 per cent levy on most UK exports. While it’s being touted as a step forward, European Union (EU) views it as a half-measure at best. Polish Deputy Economy Minister Michal Baronowski, representing the EU’s rotating presidency, acknowledged the truce with China and the UK deal as signs of a...
Aluminium exporters to the US fear losing business by dint of the ’25 tariff. What’s the reality after 3 months of tariff imposition?
The United States’ aluminium supply chain, a backbone for its automotive, construction, and packaging sectors, has been jolted once again by Washington’s swing back to protectionist trade policy. On March 12, 2025, the Trump administration reinstated a 25 per cent blanket tariff on all aluminium imports. Gone are the country-specific exemptions that had cushioned critical trading relationships. The move, though positioned as a nationalist push to strengthen domestic production and protect strategic industries (in the name of national security), is already sending ripple effects across global suppliers and US aluminium traders. For many of the top US importers who have built long-term supply relationships and optimised costs around global sourcing, this isn’t just a policy hiccup, but a...
Asia’s EV market 2020-2025: China leads the growing production trend, as India follows suit
The numbers are staggering. In 2024, a whopping 17 million electric cars found new homes worldwide — a 25 per cent surge that speaks volumes about our shifting automotive landscape. To put this in perspective: 2024’s additional EV sales alone (3.5 million vehicles) surpassed the total electric car sales of 2020. At the heart of this electric revolution stands China, commanding the global stage with over 11 million sales. It’s a figure that would have seemed impossible just two years ago when it represented the entire world’s electric car sales. While Europe grappled with subsidy reductions and unchanged EU CO2 targets, causing market stagnation, the United States showed modest growth, albeit at a quarter of the previous year’s pace. The impact of this five-year surge has been...
Japan’s aluminium inventories rise 3.4% M-o-M, as international trade juggles between boon and bane
As of the end of April 2025, aluminium inventories at Japan’s three major ports — Yokohama, Nagoya and Osaka — have reached 320,300 tonnes, up 3.4 per cent from March’s 309,700 tonnes, according to Marubeni Corp data. In parallel, as disclosed previously, the import premium for primary aluminium shipments into Japan plunged 20 per cent quarter-on-quarter to USD 182 per tonne in Q2 2025, the first quarterly decline in five quarters, based on nine trades concluded between March 24-27, as reported by S&P Global Platts and Reuters sources. Meanwhile, domestic consumption fell 3.3 per cent to 3.35 million tonnes in the January-November 2024 period. Building sector demand slid 7.7 per cent to under 350,000 tonnes, and automotive usage dropped 4.1 per cent to 1.45 million tonnes, per Japan...
Norsk Hydro trades ex-dividend at NOK 2.25: Notes for investors on aluminium market sentiment
Officially going ex-dividend as of May 12, 2025, Norsk Hydro ASA has plans for a payout of NOK 2.25 per share for the financial year 2024. The action of the global behemoth offers a window into the financial fortitude of one of the most vertically integrated aluminium companies amid ongoing global market turmoil. Hydro’s dividend was approved at the company’s Annual General Meeting held on May 9, with a record date set for May 13 and payment scheduled on May 20, 2025. The NOK 2.25 dividend translates into a yield of approximately 4.8 per cent at the stock’s May 9 closing price of NOK 46.70 on the Oslo Stock Exchange. This payout sits at the upper end of Hydro’s long-standing capital return policy, targeting 50 per cent of adjusted net income, highlighting continued confidence in the...
Alba’s Q1 performance is all about $1B strong topline overshadowed by margin compression
Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba), the world’s largest aluminium smelter on a single site, released its financial results for the first quarter of 2025, marked by strong revenue growth but compressed margins due to rising production costs. Topline surge powered by price and premium upswing Alba recorded a 22.2 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) increase in revenue, reaching BHD 408.9 million (USD 1.09 billion) in Q1 2025 compared to BHD 334.6 million (USD 889.8 million) in Q1 2024. The growth was driven by a 20 per cent Y-o-Y rise in LME aluminium prices, averaging USD 2,629 per tonne, alongside a 38 per cent jump in regional premiums. However, the revenue bump failed to translate into bottom-line strength. Gross profit dropped by 11.3 per cent Y-o-Y to BHD 50.8 million (USD 135.1 million), and...
Geneva accord presses pause on US-China tariff tensions, but can it revive US domestic aluminium?
China and the US struck a trade deal on May 12 in Geneva, prompting a collective sigh of relief from businesses and exporters, not just at home, but across the globe. After almost 90 days of retaliatory tariffs and spiralling economic tension, this long-awaited breakthrough spells hope for the aluminium sector that had been buckling under pressure. This AI-generated image is for representational purposes only Aluminium imports into the US from China peaked in 2022 but have trended downward since. The ongoing calendar year has only intensified the decline , as trade tensions escalated. While the original optimism around steel and aluminium tariffs centred on strengthening domestic production business, the compounding layers of tariffs, first by the US, and then countered by other nations,...
EGA's bauxite mining licence to be revoked by military-governed Guinea?
The Republic of Guinea has reportedly initiated proceedings to revoke the mining license of Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), which, if announced officially, has the potential to impact the global bauxite production scene forever if the announcement comes to reality, it proves to be a part of Guinea's broader strategy to assert greater control over its mineral resources and ensure that foreign investments align with national interests. EGA, jointly owned by Abu Dhabi's Mubadala and Dubai's Investment Corporation, operates the Guinea Alumina Corporation (GAC), one of the country's largest bauxite mining operations. Since commencing operations in 2019, GAC has been a major contributor to Guinea's bauxite exports, with around 14 million tonnes exported in 2022. However, in October 2024,...
