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.
Alcoa Corporation announces redemption of full $219M of outstanding 6.1% notes due 2028
Alcoa Corporation has initiated an early debt redemption. The company announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Alcoa Nederland Holding B.V., has issued a notice to redeem the entire USD 219 million aggregate principal amount of its outstanding 6.125 per cent notes due in 2028. The redemption is scheduled for May 15, 2026. The notes will be redeemed at 100 per cent of the principal amount, along with accrued and unpaid interest up to, but not including, the redemption date. Alcoa confirmed that the transaction will be funded through cash on hand. For the global aluminium value-chain 2026 outlook, book our exclusive report “ Global ALuminium Industry Outlook 2026 " The development comes at a time when Alcoa remains firmly in focus across financial and commodity markets. The company...
Vedanta thermal power plant blast: 9 dead and over 40 feared to be injured
At least nine people are feared dead and between 30 to 40 others have been reported injured following a boiler explosion at a power plant operated by Vedanta Limited in Chhattisgarh’s Sakti district on Tuesday. The incident occurred around 2 pm at the plant located in Singhitarai village, where a blast is believed to have originated in a boiler tube unit. Police officials said several workers may still be trapped inside, prompting an ongoing rescue operation. Emergency teams, including local administration and police, rushed to the site soon after the explosion. Authorities have instructed that boiler operations be halted to allow the system to cool, enabling safer access for rescue personnel. In a statement, the Vedanta power plant spokesperson said, “An unfortunate incident occurred at...
Novelis advances manufacturing discipline as 10 plants secure first-level NOS certification
Novelis Inc. has moved to standardise its global operations, with 10 of its manufacturing plants achieving the first level of certification under the Novelis Operating System (NOS) by the end of fiscal year 2026. The milestone marks the first tier in a four-level certification framework designed to embed uniformity across the company’s aluminium rolling and recycling footprint. The NOS, built on established manufacturing operating system principles, has been tailored specifically for the operational complexities of aluminium processing, signalling a shift from decentralised improvement practices to a standardised global model. For the global aluminium value-chain 2026 outlook, book our exclusive report “ Global ALuminium Industry Outlook 2026 " "Having world-class operations is...
Does the Hormuz freeze, hitting 9% global supply, reopen the door for an alternative 5-6 Mt aluminium supplier?
The recent escalation of conflict in the Middle East, notably a US-Israeli movement involving Iran in early 2026, has sent tremors through global aluminium markets. Gulf-region smelters account for roughly 9 per cent of the world’s primary aluminium supply (and over 20 per cent if China and Russia are excluded). Over 6.16 million tonnes per year of aluminium are produced in the Gulf states, and about 75-80 per cent of that is exported to global consumers. With the Strait of Hormuz effectively shut to shipping, exports from Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE and other Gulf producers have been disrupted, forcing curtailments and raising fears of a major supply squeeze. As one recently published article by S&P Global notes, “trade via the Strait of Hormuz – a vital shipping corridor for aluminium – has...
Ball Corp. boosts sustainable operations for a tighter world: 84% renewable energy coverage in ’25
Ball Corporation’s 2025 combined annual and sustainability report is the message that sustainability well fits into a business’ profitability, as a part of the same industrial system. The numbers bear that out. Ball shipped 111.9 billion packaging units in 2025, up from 107.4 billion in 2024 and 106.5 billion in 2023. Net sales reached USD 13.16 billion, comparable diluted earnings per share rose to USD 3.57 from USD 3.17 a year earlier, and EVA dollars increased to USD 378 million from USD 366 million in 2024 and USD 141 million in 2023. The company also returned USD 1.54 billion to shareholders through buybacks and dividends. Sustainability metrics move into core business indicators The sustainability metrics are just as concrete. Ball Corporation discloses that renewable electricity...
Bioenergy in India’s aluminium sector: Scale potential meets a 3-million-tonne reality
India reports abundant bioresources and rapidly growing biofuel markets. Modern bioenergy from biomass, biogas and biofuels already supplies about 13 per cent of India’s total final energy. It is expanding fast, with the International Energy Agency (IEA) projecting bioenergy use to rise by roughly 45 per cent between 2023 and 2030. This growth is driven by policy mandates, including ethanol and biodiesel blending targets, a 5–7 per cent biomass co-firing target in coal power plants by 2026, and compressed biogas (CBG) expansion under the SATAT initiative. By one estimate, India’s liquid and gaseous biofuel use doubled from 2018 to 2024 (from 101 to 210 petajoules) due to ethanol and CBG programmes, and could more than double again by 2030 with stronger policy support. Modern solid...
The $4,000 price tag forecast: Iran’s blow to the global aluminium value chain
The kinetic targeting of primary aluminium production facilities in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain on March 28 2026 represents a seminal shift in the intersection of regional conflict and global commodity security. For decades, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations have leveraged their abundant natural gas reserves and strategic maritime positioning to establish a dominant posture in the global aluminium market, currently providing approximately 9 per cent of the world’s primary metal. The coordinated strikes by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Emirates Global Aluminium’s (EGA) Al Taweelah smelter and Aluminium Bahrain’s (Alba) production complex have not only idled significant portions of global capacity but have effectively weaponised the supply chain...
India’s power pivot: 520 GW today, 900 GW ambition tomorrow. Here's where aluminium quietly fits in!
In India, electricity deficits are overcome by the engineering dominance — that is what has been the ethos at the Bharat Electricity Summit 2026. Here, what emerged wasn’t event rhetoric. It was a shift in how the country is thinking about power, industry, and global positioning. Beneath the presentation numbers lay a deeper industrial signal of India building an electricity system that could redraw cost curves for energy-intensive sectors like aluminium. Start with the baseline. India has crossed 520 GW of installed capacity, with over 40 per cent already coming from non-fossil sources. A decade ago, the country was running a power deficit of around 4-5 per cent. Today, it is operating close to surplus, with a grid sophisticated enough to handle 15-minute scheduling and increasingly...
Middle East chaos gives Vedanta the upper hand in aluminium. Here’s how…
Tensions in the Middle-East are shaking up aluminium supply chains, especially through the Strait of Hormuz. That choke point exposes cracks in the region's grip on global primary aluminium production, from giants like UAE's Emirates Global Aluminium, Bahrain's Alba, and Qatar's Qatalum. It's a golden chance for steady players like India's Vedanta, whose all-in-one setup dodges these headaches. The Gulf pumps out about 9 per cent of the world's aluminium, thanks to cheap, gas-fired smelters in Qatar, the UAE, and Bahrain. They've long kept prices low and competitive. But when crisis hits, being the cheapest doesn't matter if you can't deliver. Gulf nations cranked out 6.16 million tonnes in 2025 (around 9 per cent of global supply) with much of it shipped via the Strait of Hormuz. Qatar's...
Middle East disturbed: 350 dry bulk vessels restricted, 9% of global aluminium at risk & some buyers pay over $5,000/t
The global economy is staring at a supply shock triggered by a waterway barely 33 kilometres wide at its narrowest point. The Strait of Hormuz, sitting between Iran, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, has become the most dangerous chokepoint in global trade since the beginning of March. The waterway handles roughly 20 per cent of global seaborne oil flows, but its role in the aluminium value chain is increasingly critical. The Middle East now hosts around 7 million tonnes of aluminium smelting capacity, equivalent to about 9 per cent of global supply. When shipping through Hormuz slows, it affects two directions simultaneously: Raw materials moving into Gulf smelters Finished aluminium moving out to global buyers In the past two weeks, vessel-tracking platforms and maritime insurers have...
Constellium’s sustainability report 2025: progress in recycling and decarbonisation, but limits persist
The aluminium industry’s sustainability narrative is often framed around circularity and lightweighting benefits. Yet the sector remains deeply tied to energy-intensive upstream processes and global supply chains that are difficult to decarbonise. In its 2025 Sustainability Report, Constellium presents measurable progress across emissions reduction, recycling expansion and operational efficiency — but the numbers also reveal how much of the company’s footprint remains outside its direct control. With roughly USD 8.4 billion in revenue, 24 manufacturing facilities across 10 countries, and about 11,500 employees, Constellium operates as one of the world’s largest manufacturers of high-value-added aluminium products for packaging, automotive, aerospace and speciality markets. In 2025, the...
India’s solar costs ease 11.4% in Q4 2025: What to expect in 2026 and how aluminium fits into the scene?
India’s renewable sector (focusing on solar this time) came to the end of 2025 with the highest-ever renewable energy expansion in India’s energy transition journey. Among all, solar installed capacity touched 132.85 GW as India added nearly 35 GW from January to November 2025, as compared to the 20.85 GW during the same period last year. A broad quarter-on-quarter decline in several components of large-scale solar project costs drove the growth. The trend, highlighted in the Q4 2025 India Solar Market Update by Mercom India, reflects easing input costs, stabilising supply chains, and moderating inflationary pressures. Yet the decline also reveals deeper structural tensions. According to a 2020 study by the World Bank, aluminium is the single most widely used material in solar...
Manaksia Aluminium eyes HSRP market with a new sheet production line
Manaksia Aluminium has formally entered the high-security materials space with the launch of a dedicated aluminium sheet line tailored for High Security Registration Plates (HSRP). The company has set ambitious targets to scale production to 200 tonnes per month by the financial year 2026-27, marking a strategic expansion of its product portfolio beyond conventional aluminium products. According to its regulatory filing, the new sheets are designed to meet the stringent technical and quality standards mandated for HSRPs, a segment that holds great value in the vehicle registration security infrastructure. The formal step aligns Manaksia Aluminium with the growing demand for compliant raw materials used in manufacturing secure vehicle number plates in India and other markets. For the...
Maruti Suzuki relies on BYD technology for its first mass market EV
India’s leading carmaker, Maruti Suzuki, is finally stepping into the electric spotlight. And, it’s doing so with a little international collaboration. Maruti Suzuki India has chosen battery packs from China’s BYD Auto for its first mass-market electric vehicle, marking an interesting new chapter in its decades-long story of localisation and affordability. For years, Maruti built its empire by keeping things close to home — deep localisation, cost discipline, and products tailored precisely for Indian roads and wallets. But the EV game is different. Speed, scale and technology matter more than ever, and batteries are the heart of that equation. For the global aluminium value-chain 2026 outlook, book our exclusive report “ Global ALuminium Industry Outlook 2026 " Enter BYD’s Blade battery...
EGA in 2025: Record 2.83 million tonnes sold, but net profit slips to AED 2.12 billion
When Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) declared “strong underlying financial performance” for 2025, the forefront numbers were difficult to ignore. Underlying net profit (excluding Guinea Alumina Corporation) rose 16 per cent year-on-year to AED 4.93 billion (USD 1.34 billion), while total cast metal sales reached a record 2.83 million tonnes. Underlying revenue climbed 14 per cent to AED 31.98 billion (USD 8.71 billion), and EBITDA reached AED 9.28 billion (USD 2.53 billion). Yet 2025 was not all about a flourishing success story. Strip out the adjusted metrics and include the full impact of events in Guinea, and reported net profit fell to AED 2.12 billion (USD 577 million), down from AED 2.62 billion (USD 713 million) in 2024. The difference is explained almost entirely by the revocation...
CBAM to lead upto €230/t additional cost for aluminium extrusion imports into Europe by 2028
The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) has been discussed in aluminium and equivalent business entities as a compliance exercise. From 2026 onward, it has already started to become something else entirely, especially for aluminium extrusions. It is now a stratified pricing layer that compounds year after year. As felt already through trade numbers, there will be no overnight tariff shock. Instead, the impact will emerge contract by contract as importers begin purchasing CBAM certificates linked to the weekly average EU ETS carbon price under Regulation (EU) 2023/956. For aluminium profiles under CN code 7604, the mechanism will initially cover Scope 1 (direct) emissions only, with financial settlement beginning in 2026 after the current transitional reporting phase. The numbers...
With 5% shipment decline, Century Aluminum’s 2025 is all about weather, wires & wobbly profits
When Century Aluminum Company finally shut the ledger on 2025, the numbers told only one part of the story. The other half of Century Aluminum’s 2025 tale has been written in transformer failures, hurricanes, inventory write-downs and energy volatility. It was a year in which aluminium prices and regional premiums lifted revenue, yet operational shocks repeatedly tugged earnings back down. The result was a financial performance that captured both the resilience and fragility of an American primary aluminium producer operating in a volatile global metals market. For the full year, Century generated net sales of USD 2.53 billion , up 13.96 per cent from approximately USD 2.22 billion in 2024. Higher realised aluminium prices and stronger regional premiums helped offset weaker shipment...
Global aluminium scrap tracker 2025: A 41.7Mt backbone under pressure as demand rises 3.87%
If 2024 was the year aluminium demand normalised, 2025 is the year scrap becomes the pressure valve. Global cumulative aluminium consumption reached 100.8 million tonnes in 2024, with 28.4 million tonnes supplied by recycled aluminium. That share, already above 28 per cent, is not a marginal contribution. It is a structural layer of the market. And it sits beneath a primary system that is tightening rather than expanding. Primary aluminium production moved from 72.7 million tonnes in 2024 to 73.9 million tonnes in 2025, with a forecast of 75.3 million tonnes in 2026. On paper, that looks like growth. In reality, it is constrained growth. China is approaching its 45 million tonne capacity cap (whereas some speculate the primary production has exceeded 45 million tonnes in 2025 already),...
