Europe holds 10% of global aluminium extrusion demand, supported by Germany’s Constellium, France’s Hydro Extrusions & Italy’s Metra
Across Europe, aluminium extrusion has become closely woven into some of the region’s biggest industrial and construction markets. From automotive and transport to buildings and industrial applications, extruded profiles are finding demand across a wide range of sectors. This is reflected in Europe’s position in the global market: the region accounted for 12 per cent of global aluminium extrusion capacity, making it the second-largest regional contributor after China. At the same time, Europe represented 10 per cent of global aluminium extrusion usage, out of total global usage of 35.35 million tonnes . With production capacity and usage shares relatively close, Europe’s extrusion capacity and consumption are broadly at par. If we break down Europe’s 10 per cent share of global aluminium...
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...
Grow with
AL Circle
Union Budget FY2026–27 puts nuclear energy, carbon storage and critical minerals at the centre of India’s decarbonisation strategy
The much-awaited Union Budget FY2026-27, presented by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday, February 1, signals a decisive shift towards aligning India’s economic growth with its decarbonisation ambitions and the long-term vision of Viksit Bharat 2047 . This Budget comes at a juncture when India prepares to leverage opportunities arising from the EU–India trade deal while simultaneously navigating the cost risk posed by the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). Also, for carbon-intensive industries like aluminium, which emits 20.88 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of production in India, making the industry as one of the most carbon-intensive sectors in the country compared to the global average, this budget underpins the urgency of accelerating the transition to...
Alcoa 2025 performance: Revenue jumped 15% in Q4, supported by record output at five aluminium smelters
Failing initially doesn’t mean failing overall - it just means something needs to be fixed, and that’s what summarises the whole of Alcoa’s financial report card. Alcoa started the year well, but after that it mostly went quiet. The business didn’t really improve again until the last quarter, which is what ended up saving the year. Alcoa President and CEO William F. Oplinger said, “Reflecting on 2025, we maintained our pace of delivering on key operational, strategic, and capital allocation objectives, while setting numerous production records. We continue to build on our positive momentum through disciplined operational and financial execution, along with strategic initiatives to maximise value creation.” If we look at the numbers, revenue started strong. In the first quarter, Alcoa...
MYSTEEL: China's primary aluminium supply-demand balance may tighten in 2026
In 2025, the total supply of primary aluminium in China, including both domestic production and imports, reached an estimated 46.64 million tonnes, up 3.1 per cent from the previous year, Mysteel estimated. To know more about the global primary aluminium industry 2026 outlook, book the report “ Global ALuminium Industry Outlook 2026 ". Mysteel's regular tracking of the 89 primary aluminium smelters across China shows that their total production in 2025 rose by 2.7 per cent on year to register 44.4 million tonnes, though the growth rate slowed from a 4.1 per cent increase recorded in 2024. Their average capacity utilisation rate also picked up by 1.7 percentage points on a year to reach 97 per cent last year, according to the survey results. These smelters hold 100 per cent of the...
CEM’s Thor project: Is Canada eyeing an alumina abundance to reduce bauxite import dependence?
Canadian Energy Metals Corporation (CEM) has released a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) for its Thor Project in Saskatchewan. It outlines the potential for a globally significant, Chemical-Grade and High-Purity alumina stock during the times of high aluminium demand, as aluminium supply chains are under growing geopolitical and trade pressure. Explore- Most accurate data to drive business decisions with Global ALuminium Industry Outlook 2026 across the value chain CEM President and CEO Christopher Hopkins referred to the Thor project as “a possible game changer for North America’s aluminium supply chain.” He mentioned establishing the Saskatchewan alumina stock and added, “Our next focus is to engineer a demonstration facility while moving Thor towards commercialisation.” The PEA...
India Energy Week 2026 ends but sets the course for aluminium’s green transition
India Energy Week 2026, which concluded on January 30, has left the energy ecosystem with much to reflect on for the year ahead. The fourth edition of the 4-day conference reinforced a clear message and that was every industry, whether directly or indirectly connected to power, electricity, and fuel must now reassess its strategies in light of accelerating energy transition journey. And among all the industries, definitely aluminium takes a centre stage in this discussion, given its energy-intensive nature. Data indicates aluminium embodies total 186-211 GJ of energy per tonne, while primary aluminium production alone needs 13.5 to 17 MWh per tonne. At the same time, the industry is under mounting pressure to decarbonsie its ecosystem, with a near-term goal of bringing the carbon...
From bauxite to alumina: key projects redefining aluminium supply in 2025
2025 has marked a year of upstream momentum for the aluminium industry. Across continents, bauxite mines and alumina refineries are coming online, quietly redefining where global supply begins. This shift is being driven by a wave of projects that are expanding raw material capacity and reshaping countries’ positions within the aluminium value chain. Highlighting some of 2025’s key Bauxite project 1. Canyon’s Minim Martap enters commercial reality Cameroon’s bauxite story has moved out of the speculative stage. Commercial activity is now underway at Canyon’s Minim Martap bauxite project in the Adamawa Region, signalling that Central Africa is stepping into a more concrete supply role. The mine is designed to produce high-grade bauxite with low reactive silica, suitable for both low- and...
India-Canada’s energy reset with signing of joint statement: Trade, gas, nuclear and the math behind
The first two days of India Energy Week (IEW) 2026 were not short on announcements, but one development cut through the noise — India and Canada quietly reset their energy relationship, anchoring it in trade, supply security and investment logic rather than political symbolism. Explore- Most accurate data to drive business decisions with Global ALuminium Industry Outlook 2026 across the value chain The revival of the India-Canada ministerial energy dialogue and the signing of a joint statement between India’s Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Canada’s Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources came against a backdrop of tightening global energy markets and an increasingly explicit Indian strategy, one that treats hydrocarbons, gas, nuclear fuel and clean energy as parallel growth...
India’s transport energy balance: why petroleum, diesel and electricity must move in parallel, not in opposition
India’s transport transition is often framed as a contest between internal combustion engines and electric mobility. The data, along with the lived reality of energy demand, suggest something far less binary. As Dr Chanchal Samanta, DGM of Bharat Petroleum, made clear in his remarks at the ongoing India Energy Week 2026, India is not facing a fuel choice problem. It is managing a growth problem. Explore- Most accurate data to drive business decisions with Global Aluminium Industry Outlook 2026 across the value chain Electric vehicles are rightfully positioned as the sustainable endpoint for transport. But for a country like India, the energy system is expanding faster than substitution can realistically occur. “One is growth, and one is total growth,” Samanta said, pointing to the gap the...
Growing aluminium scrap consumption in China leads to a 5-year high import – Is this mirroring the US journey from primary to scrap?
For years, aluminium strength was measured in smelters and megawatts. Primary metal sat at the heart of industrial growth, and power determined who could scale and who could not. That formula is starting to lose its hold. In both China and the United States - the world’s two largest aluminium markets, the focus is shifting away from energy-intensive primary production and toward a material once treated as secondary material in literal sense: aluminium scrap . The US has already taken a decisive step in that direction. China has been found to be increasing its secondary aluminium consumption and hence its imports to a great extent – but the question remains whether the country is shifting its focus from primary aluminium to secondary metal. China’s aluminium consumption profile provides...
WEEKLY: China's alumina inventory build persists despite output cuts
China's alumina output edged down last week as several producers in Henan and Guizhou provinces and in the Guangxi autonomous region scaled back production to carry out 10-14 days of maintenance, either to curb atmospheric pollution or to control operating costs.News of the production curtailments provided brief support to the alumina futures market late last week. The most-traded May 2026 alumina contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange jumped 1.8 per cent during Thursday's daytime trading session from the prior day's settlement price. To know the aluminium market outlook for 2026 and beyond, get an access to our report: Global Aluminium Industry Outlook 2026 In contrast, spot alumina prices continued to weaken over the same week, mainly weighed down by steady inventory accumulation....
Metro Mining’s 2025: tidy execution, but how durable is the payoff?
Metro Mining finished 2025 with a set of neat operational checkboxes, including a reported 6.2 million wet metric tonnes (WMT) shipped for the calendar year (December volumes were 543,000 WMT), a year-end cash position of AUD 57 million, and the grinding down of junior liabilities that management says improved net leverage. To know the aluminium market outlook for 2026 and beyond, get an access to our report: Global Aluminium Industry Outlook 2026 Those outcomes matter because Metro is a single-asset producer operating from Cape York’s Bauxite Hills, where the operation’s optionality is tightly tethered to a single logistics route and a finite reserve base. Metro’s own materials put Bauxite Hills’ reserve at roughly 83.2-89.5 million tonnes and total resources in the c.118Mt range, enough...
MYSTEEL: China's coking coal market to see mild recovery in 2026
The Chinese coking coal market is expected to undergo a new phase of rebalancing in 2026, shaped by both supportive and restrictive policy impacts. While these mixed forces are anticipated to drive up coking coal prices, a persistent uptrend is unlikely to be seen this year due to persistent capacity surplus of the feed coal and uncertainty in downstream demand, Mysteel's latest annual report of the commodity predicts. According to Mysteel's estimates, the price anchor of the leading brand Anze low-sulfur primary coking coal extracted in North China's Shanxi province may stand between Yuan 1,400-1,450 per tonne (USD 201-208 per tonne) EXW with VAT this year, marking a mild rise of around 2 per cent on year. The highest level for the grade could rise to Yuan 1,800 per tonne within the...
World primary aluminium production growth hits 5-year low in 2025 as GCC output weakens and China nears 45MT ceiling
Going by the world primary aluminium production trend since 2020, 2025 saw the slowest pace in half a decade, reflecting a structural shift rather than a cycling dip. According to the International Aluminium Institute, world primary aluminium production grew by only 1.06 per cent, a sharpest deceleration from the 3.24 per cent growth recorded in 2024. Between 2020 and 2023, the world primary aluminium production growth remained between 2.4 and 2.9 per cent, underscoring how exceptional 2025 proved to be. Yet despite this muted growth, 2025 became one of the most closely watched years for the aluminium industry, as it coincided with China nearing its long-anticipated 45‑million‑tonne production cap and a visible pivot across regions from primary production to recycling-led supply...
Rio Tinto’s 2025 scorecard: Record bauxite production despite uneven quarters reflects strong operational discipline
Resilient operational and financial performance defines Rio Tinto’s year-end report card for 2025. The London- and Melbourne-headquartered mining major closed the year with solid gains across its aluminium value chain, proving that deliberate strategy and disciplined execution are all it takes to offset market volatility and operational challenges. Rio Tinto’s broad-based improvement in production despite intermittent quarterly softness was primarily built on three core pillars: operational excellence, disciplined project delivery, and capital control. Rio Tinto Chief Executive Simon Trott said: “Our operations delivered exceptional production performance, both on a quarter-on-quarter and full year basis, as we leverage our strong foundation of operating excellence and project delivery...
GACC: China's 2025 alumina exports surge 43 per cent y-o-y
In December alone, China's alumina exports jumped by 22.6 per cent from November and rose by 9.3 per cent on year to 205,863 tonnes, the GACC data showed. By destination, Russia retained its position as the largest overseas buyer of Chinese alumina last year, with alumina exports there totalling 2.02 million tonnes, accounting for 79.3 per cent of China's total and representing a 24.7 per cent increase from 2024. Explore- Most accurate data to drive business decisions with Outlook 2026 insights across the value chain Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates ranked as the second and third largest export destinations last year, receiving 170,421 tonnes and 79,726 tonnes, respectively. Their volumes accounted for 6.7 per cent and 3.1 per cent of China's total exports. Read More: WEEKLY:...
EU wants aluminium and steel to power 20% of its economic growth - How real is the ambition?
Aluminium is everywhere in Europe’s economy, from power transmission and renewable energy systems to transport, defence, construction and packaging. Its importance has led the European Union to classify aluminium as a critical and strategic raw material. The challenge now is whether Europe’s aluminium supply chain is keeping pace with the scale of that dependence. Europe also likes to point out that it produces aluminium more cleanly than almost anyone else. Recycling rates are high. Carbon intensity is low compared with the global average. On sustainability metrics, the region performs well. But inside the industry, the picture looks far less comfortable. Energy costs remain structurally high. Global trade remains distorted. Scrap is increasingly leaving the region. Carbon leakage risks...
Japan’s Q1 2026 aluminium premium of $195 likely to continue in the same bracket in Q2
A single smelter has had immense impact on the global trade scenario. Mozal’s closure hit the CBAM impacted nations, tightened the global aluminium supply chain scenario and now is influencing the Japan’s Q1 2026 aluminium premium with around a 127 per cent hike quarter-on-quarter. After a year of buyer resistance and sliding settlements, the country’s benchmark aluminium premium has snapped back sharply. But is Mozal the only inhibiting factor for Japan? And why are analysts anticipating similar premium bracket for Q2 2026? Japan’s quarterly premium for imported primary aluminium surged to USD 195 per tonne CIF for January-March 2026 (Q1), a jump from the roughly USD 86 per tonne settled for Q4 2025. The market spent most of last year defined by weak demand, buyer pushback and collapsing...
WEEKLY: China's spot alumina slips further under rising inventories
According to Mysteel's latest survey, total alumina stocks across the country's 10 major ports, 44 alumina producers, 89 primary aluminium smelters, and rail yards or in transit increased by 1.4 per cent on a week-to-week basis to 5.4 million tonnes as of January 15. This was also 43.9 per cent higher than the year-prior level and marked a fresh record high since Mysteel began tracking the data in January 2022. To know more about the global primary aluminium industry 2026 outlook, book the report “ Global ALuminium Industry Outlook 2026 ”. The inventory build has persisted for more than seven consecutive months since early June last year, Mysteel Global noted, and last week also marked the 12th straight week in which alumina inventories hit a new historical high. Read More: DAILY: Chinese...
