AlCircle News Edited By "Pratyusha Chatterjee"
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Canada’s aluminium exports jump 50.7% as trade surplus reaches four-year high
Canada’s merchandise trade surplus expanded to CAD 4.2 billion in May 2026, its strongest level in four years, as a sharp rise in unwrought aluminium and aluminium alloy exports helped lift the country’s overall outbound trade to a record high. According to the latest data from Statistics Canada, the trade surplus widened from CAD 3.4 billion in April, marking the country’s third consecutive month in positive territory. Total merchandise exports increased 0.9 per cent month-on-month to a record CAD 77.1 billion, while imports edged 0.2 per cent lower to CAD 72.9 billion. For the aluminium industry, May brought a particularly strong increase in overseas shipments. Exports of unwrought aluminium and aluminium alloys surged 50.7 per cent during the month, making the category the largest...
Bauxite volume vs price in 2026: Here’s how Guinea's supply growth coincides with the sharpest shift in the cost curve
The first part of this series traced the sharp rise in bauxite trade volumes, the growing concentration of supply from Guinea and Australia, and the destination patterns shaping the global market. But the increase in tonnage tells only one side of the story. As more bauxite entered the trade system, costs moved in the opposite direction, while stock accumulation in China, expanding export infrastructure in Guinea, disruption to UAE-bound flows and the prospect of tighter Guinean export controls added new dimensions to the market. Part 2 looks at these developments through the available cost, inventory, infrastructure, trade-flow and forecast data. The source-by-source comparison shows that the overall decline in China's average import cost occurred alongside lower average costs from...
Metro Mining’s June bauxite shipments jump 29% as Q2 volumes hit record 1.8 million WMT
Australia-based bauxite producer Metro Mining closed June 2026 with a sharp month-on-month increase in shipments from its Bauxite Hills Mine in North Queensland, while higher quarterly volumes and a substantial rise in waste stripping marked the company’s second-quarter operational performance. The company shipped 779,000 wet metric tonnes (WMT) of bauxite in June 2026, a 29 per cent increase from May. During the first three weeks of the month, Metro recorded lower supply-chain variability following the introduction of its new integrated planning and operating system. Operations, however, faced disruption in the final week of June after Crane 1 on the OFT Ikamba experienced downtime. According to the operational update, debris material contaminated the crane’s hydraulic cylinder system....
Shyam Metalics’ aluminium foil sales rise 21% Y-o-Y in June as realisations jump 39%
Shyam Metalics and Energy Limited recorded a sharp year-on-year increase in aluminium foil sales and realisations in June 2026, while its quarterly foil volumes remained broadly stable compared with the preceding quarter. The company sold 2,151 tonnes of aluminium foil during June 2026, up 20.68 per cent from 1,783 tonnes in the corresponding month of the previous year. The average realisation from the segment climbed 39.32 per cent year-on-year to INR 503,400 (USD 5,304.51) per tonne from INR 361,335 (3,807.52) per tonne. The month-on-month numbers also moved higher. Aluminium foil sales rose 37.07 per cent from 1,570 tonnes in May 2026, while average realisation increased 1.64 per cent from INR 495,275 (USD 5,218.89) per tonne. For the first quarter of FY27, aluminium foil sales stood...
Bauxite volume vs price in 2026: What changed in the global trade curve in Jan-May 2026?
The global bauxite trade entered 2026 with a clear divergence between volume and cost. More ore moved into the world's largest consuming market, Guinea expanded its shipments, Australia maintained growth, and several smaller origins recorded sharp changes in their trade volumes. At the same time, the average import cost of bauxite entering China fell substantially. China imported 100.76 million tonnes of bauxite during January-May 2026 , compared with 85.29 million tonnes in the corresponding period of 2025. The increase amounted to 15.47 million tonnes , or 18 per cent year-on-year . Yet, the average import cost declined from USD 88 per tonne to USD 64 per tonne , a fall of 27 per cent . The May figures extended this trend. China imported 23.03 million tonnes during the month, against...
Russia captures 46% of India’s crude oil basket as June imports hit record 2.6 million bpd
India’s crude oil sourcing map underwent another significant shift in June, with Russian barrels accounting for nearly half of the country’s total imports. Purchases from Russia climbed 17 per cent month-on-month to a record 2.6 million barrels per day (bpd), lifting Moscow’s share of India’s crude import basket to 46 per cent. The scale of the change is particularly striking when viewed against the pre-2022 trade pattern. Before February 2022, Russian crude typically represented less than 1 per cent of India’s oil imports. The subsequent availability of discounted barrels has rapidly repositioned Russia as the country’s dominant crude supplier, displacing traditional Middle Eastern sources. For India, the world’s third-largest oil importer and consumer, the economics of discounted crude...
Aluminium takes centre stage in Opsun’s new rooftop inverter racking system
As commercial solar installations grow in scale, the supporting infrastructure around rooftop arrays is becoming an increasingly important area for engineered aluminium applications. North American solar mounting manufacturer Opsun Systems Inc. has added to this space with the launch of its SunRail Inverter Rack, a structural aluminium system developed to support string inverters on commercial and industrial (C&I) flat roofs. The newly launched system brings inverter mounting into a standardised racking framework, addressing a part of rooftop solar installation that has often required project-specific solutions at the construction site. Opsun has begun immediate shipment of the product from its regional manufacturing operations in North America. At the core of the rack is 6000-series...
TOMRA expands aluminium alloy sorting system AUTOSORT PULSE to heavy metals, IBA and magnesium
TOMRA Recycling has successfully applied its range of its AUTOSORT™ PULSE sorting system used in aluminium alloy separation, extending the Dynamic LIBS-based technology to other metals as well like stainless steel, heavy metals, magnesium and incinerator bottom ash (IBA) streams. Launched in 2023 for industrial-scale aluminium alloy separation, AUTOSORT™ PULSE uses Dynamic LIBS, or Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy, to identify materials based on their elemental composition. The technology can separate aluminium into different alloy classes, including the 5xxx and 6xxx series. The expanded application range allows recycling operators to deploy the same sorting system across multiple material streams without investing in separate hardware for each application. Attend the webinar Hedging...
Indonesia’s alumina, aluminium boom could trigger a new captive coal surge, warns CREA
Indonesia’s breakneck build-out of alumina refining and aluminium smelting capacity is raising fresh alarm, with researchers warning the expansion could set off another wave of captive coal power construction while accelerating the drawdown of the country's bauxite ore reserves. The warning comes from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), whose analysts say the pattern now unfolding in Indonesia’s aluminium value chain closely mirrors what already happened in the country's nickel sector, where a rush of downstream processing capacity was built out faster than the resource base or the grid could sustainably support, locking in dependence on off-grid, coal-fired power. A familiar playbook: Coal-powered downstreaming Indonesia’s “downstreaming” policy, which bans the export...
Did US tariffs cut America's reliance on Canadian aluminium? The numbers tell a different story
Washington's tariff strategy aimed to revive domestic aluminium production and reduce reliance on Canadian imports. A year later, the numbers tell a more nuanced story — one where prices moved faster than production, diversification outpaced displacement, and one of the world's most integrated aluminium supply chains proved far more resilient than expected. More than 2.9 million tonnes of aluminium left Canadian ports for global markets in 2025. Of that, roughly 2.3 million tonnes were shipped to the United States, more than the combined exports of the next nine supplying countries. That is the relationship Washington set out to change. When the US raised Section 232 tariffs on aluminium imports from 25 per cent to 50 per cent, the objective was to make imported aluminium less...
ERG, BAUER launch world's first vertical bauxite mining project to unlock deeper reserves
Eurasian Resources Group (ERG), in partnership with German engineering partner BAUER, has launched what is being described as the world's first vertical bauxite mining project, marking a technological milestone in bauxite extraction. The project has been commissioned at open pit No. 4 of the Vostochno-Ayatskoye mine, operated by the Krasno-Oktyabrskoye Bauxite Mining Unit (KBRU) of Aluminium of Kazakhstan JSC, an ERG subsidiary. Commercial drilling commenced in June 2026 after BAUER representatives formally handed over the equipment with a symbolic key. The vertical extraction technique will complement conventional open-pit mining by enabling the recovery of deep-seated bauxite reserves in previously mined areas where traditional methods are either technically challenging or economically...
EU launches CLEANMAT project to advance low-emission aluminium recycling through digital sorting and melt refining
The European Union has launched CLEANMAT (Smart Clean Aluminium Material Processing), a Horizon Europe-funded project aimed at reducing emissions and flux consumption in aluminium recycling by integrating digital sorting, intelligent pre-treatment and advanced melt refining technologies. With funding of EUR 7.33 million, the project seeks to establish an end-to-end, low-emission pathway for processing difficult aluminium scrap streams into high-performance aluminium alloys. Book your seat for the free-to-attend webinar, " Autonomous furnace tending in aluminium cast houses: Improving safety, productivity and yield ". Limited slots available While aluminium recycling consumes only a fraction of the energy required for primary production, conventional recycling continues to depend on...
Why scrap is becoming central to the aluminium industry: the past fortnight’s updates
Not too long ago, aluminium scrap was viewed as the end of the metal's lifecycle, a by-product waiting to be melted down and reused. Today, it is becoming the starting point of a new industrial race. Over the past fortnight, seemingly unrelated developments across Europe, Asia, the Middle East and even the sporting world have converged to tell a single story. The aluminium industry is no longer merely trying to produce more metal; it is trying to secure more scrap. Circularity has moved beyond sustainability rhetoric and is fast becoming a question of competitiveness, supply security and long-term survival. The transformation begins with a simple economic reality. Producing secondary aluminium consumes only a fraction of the energy required for primary production while delivering...
Press Metal shares slide 6% as aluminium prices retreat on easing West Asia tensions
Press Metal Aluminium Holdings Bhd (KL: PMETAL) shares fell 6 per cent on Thursday as aluminium prices extended their decline following easing geopolitical tensions in West Asia, reducing concerns over disruptions to global commodity supplies. Benchmark three-month aluminium futures on the London Metal Exchange dropped to USD 3,122.50 per tonne, their lowest level since February, after the announcement of the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz boosted expectations of normalised shipping activity and uninterrupted supplies of the lightweight metal to global markets. Press Metal's share price closely tracks movements in aluminium prices because of the company's direct exposure to the commodity, said Malacca Securities Head of Research Loui Low, describing the correlation as "very sensitive"....
Mine to Market: More than a magazine, a steering partner to surf through volatility with peers from across the aluminium value-chain
Aluminium, the silvery metal powering homes, industries and enabling humans to fly and sail, has a gripping tale of its mine to market journey. It is extracted after multiple refining processes from the reddish-brown ore. The ore is refined to the powdery white substance Aluminium oxide, commonly known as alumina, to the silvery slabs, billets and ingots, etc., which are then broken into various shapes and sizes for specific consumer markets. The global aluminium industry employs approximately 7.5 million people directly and indirectly. Apart from the modern world’s mobility, defence, infrastructures and sustainable packaging depending upon aluminium, these people’s livelihoods depend on the metal’s journey from mine to market, too. It is important to mention here that aluminium plays a...
EGA undrapes UAE's largest aluminium recycling plant, boosting low-carbon production and circular economy goals
For years, the UAE has been exporting a quietly valuable resource: its own aluminium scrap. Collected domestically, that scrap has largely been shipped overseas for processing, stripping the national economy of the added value it could generate. That dynamic shifted decisively this week when Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) officially opened the Al Taweelah recycling plant — a 185,000-tonne-per-year facility that now makes the Abu Dhabi-based producer the largest consumer of aluminium scrap inside the UAE. The opening was attended by Her Excellency Dr Amna bint Abdullah Al Dahak, Minister of Climate Change and Environment; Her Excellency Dr Shaikha Salem Al Dhaheri, Secretary General of the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD), EGA's Chairman Homaid Al Shimmari, Vice Chairman His...
Automation, plant design & material flow leads to more profit in AL extrusion: The Cometal stance
The aluminium industry has been fighting on multiple fronts. Energy prices have surged. Carbon regulations are tightening. Labour shortages persist across manufacturing hubs. Meanwhile, customers are demanding shorter lead times, better quality and greater traceability — often simultaneously. Yet amid all these pressures, one issue is quietly separating industry leaders from the rest and that is efficiency. In today's market, every unplanned stoppage, every handling delay and every percentage point of yield loss carries a measurable cost. When margins are under pressure, profitability is increasingly determined not by how much aluminium a producer can make, but by how efficiently they can make it. To know about the safety and productivity of autonomous furnace tending in aluminium cast...
From iPhones to trucks, aluminium's downstream and end-user demand story is gathering pace
If you wanted to understand where aluminium demand is heading in 2026, you could spend hours tracking smelter output, warehouse stocks and trade flows. Or you could simply look at the products shaping everyday life. A smartphone. A motorcycle. A truck engine. A beverage can. A roll of aluminium foil. At first glance, these products have little in common. Yet each has emerged as a piece of aluminium's downstream story this year, offering clues about where demand is accelerating, where manufacturers are placing their bets and where governments are drawing protective lines around domestic industries. For an industry often consumed by discussions about bauxite, alumina, tariffs and energy costs, some of the most revealing developments of 2026 have occurred much further down the value chain....
