AL Circle Analysis: Bauxite developments, alumina trade & primary aluminium market dynamics across Australia, Guinea, US & India
The aluminium industry is entering another phase of supply-chain repositioning. Across bauxite, alumina and primary aluminium, companies are investing in new resources, consolidating strategic assets and expanding processing capacity, while governments are increasingly treating domestic supply as a strategic priority. The latest developments from Australia, Guyana, Guinea, Indonesia, the US and India point to a market where resource security, processing location and control over supply chains are becoming as important as production growth. At the same time, new trading mechanisms and changing investment patterns are beginning to influence how aluminium and its raw materials reach the market. Bauxite supply expands, but securing the right tonnes is becoming harder In Western Australia, VBX...
China's 22.87 Mt extrusion market faces a structural shift as 317 GW solar growth counters weak construction demand
The global aluminium extrusion landscape is undergoing a structural transition driven by industrial decarbonisation, global electrification, and the rapid deployment of clean energy infrastructure. Historically anchored by civil engineering and residential real estate, demand for extruded aluminium profiles in China, the world’s dominant manufacturing hub, is decoupling from traditional property sectors. Persistent structural weakness in China’s domestic construction market has slowed the consumption of conventional architectural profiles such as window frames, door sections, and curtain walls. Conversely, advanced industrial applications, specifically solar photovoltaic (PV) racking, battery energy storage systems (BESS), power grid modernisation, and electric vehicles (EVs), have...
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LME aluminium to rise on positive news
Crude oil production cuts will continue cheering commodities market up. Expectations for US rate hike will weaken on poor US economic data. The ECB is expected to maintain loose monetary policy. LME aluminium is expected to rise to USD 1,510-1,540/mt on Thursday. SHFE 1604 aluminium should follow LME aluminium up to RMB 10,700-10,820/mt. In China’s spot aluminium market, spot discounts of RMB 80-50/mt are expected over SHFE 1602 contract.
Nalco sets all-weather business model to face global slowdown
In view of the slump in the world aluminium market, the National Aluminium Company (Nalco) has developed an all-weather business model to maintain profitability. "Given the tough going in the market, Nalco, a leading foreign exchange earner for the country amongst the central public sector enterprises (CPSEs), has developed a new corporate plan with a new business model that will withstand market onslaughts and keep the company afloat with profitability. The new business model shall insulate Nalco from the vagaries of market," said Tapan Kumar Chand, chairman and managing director, Nalco. The new model is based on reducing the cost of making aluminium making and increasing the volume of production through modernization and brownfield expansion and upstream and downstream integration....
AMD Supply aims to be the largest aluminium supplier in Miami
Continuously expanding its aluminium product offerings, AMD Supply LLC is, “Delivering On its Promise of Low Cost, Better Quality, and Exceptional Customer Service”. AMD is a leading wholesale aluminium supplier in Miami, recently added a whole new array of products to their lineup, stepping closer to their goal of becoming the biggest supplier of aluminium products in the South Florida (Palm Beach, Broward, & Miami-Dade) region. The company works with a wide range of partners and aluminium suppliers to offer their customer with a diverse assortment of aluminium products and the freedom to shop according to their budget and requirement. Recent additions include the SuperNova accordion hurricane shutter and the patented Hi-tech accordion hurricane shutter as well as a line of roll shutter...
More effort needed to boost aluminium can recycling
Although the overall recycling rate for aluminium beverage cans in Europe is on the increase, more effort is necessary to reach the 80% recycling target set for 2020, insists Maarten Labberton, director of the European Aluminium Packaging Group. There is a need, he says, for more efficient collection, sorting and recycling schemes in countries with a less developed recycling infrastructure. ‘These member states can learn from best practices in the most advanced countries and should adapt these to their specific needs,’ he states. ‘In addition, countries should improve existing producer responsibility schemes and move towards modern collection tools based on the scrap value of aluminium cans.’ Europe’s aluminium can recycling rate increased by 1.8 percentage points to a new record of 71.3%...
Better sorting means better recycling- Hydro
Perfect recycling management means the complete recycling of a product at the end of its use phase, with the creation of a new product from the individual components. In order to turn this vision into reality, it is necessary to separate products as finely as possible into their single components. Then the resulting materials can be reused by type, observed spokesperson of the Hydro Aluminium Recycling Deutschland GmbH. As far as the recycling of aluminium window frames is concerned, the Hydro Aluminium Recycling Deutschland GmbH has taken another step closer to the perfect materials cycle, as the VDI Center for Resource Efficiency shows in its new film: Following a precise analysis of the shredded aluminium parts, a new shredding plant separates the individual alloys so accurately that...
KEMPER GmbH increases sales profit again
KEMPER GmbH drives their business further on to a higher level. In the previous fiscal year, sales increased by 11 percent compared to 2014. The revenue again increases in the double digit range. In 2014, this manufacturer of extraction and filter systems for the metal-processing industry has already increased its sales at a comparable level by 12 percent. Decisive for the positive business development in 2015 were mainly increases in series devices. The company has recorded a sales jump of 14 percent. Incoming orders in total grew over the past year compared to 2014 by 5 percent. In 2016, Björn Kemper, the CEO of KEMPER GmbH, wants to stay the course: "Because of the current prevailing political and economic crises, we shall remain cautiously optimistic for the time being. But we are...
Expert urges Malaysian govt to review three-month ban on bauxite mining
The long term damage caused by unregulated bauxite mining activities can negatively impact Malaysia's tourism sector, observed Prof Dr Ahmad Puad Mat Som dean of Faculty of Applied Social Sciences, University Sultan Zainal Abidin (UNISZA). "Bauxite mining has caused damages to the environment and locals especially to restaurant operators and fishermen that have affected their income and economy and has created a negative perception among tourists about Malaysia," Ahmad Puad said in a recent interview. On 15 January the government had issued an order to stop all mining activities for 3 months to enable the cleaning up process to begin. However, Ahmad Puad urged the government to seriously consider the long term damage of the polluting industry on the tourism sector. "Due to this, our...
Bell Bay Aluminium strikes deal with Hydro Tasmania to reduce power consumption
Bell Bay Aluminium, one of Tasmania's largest electricity users, has struck a deal with Hydro Tasmania to use 10 per cent less electricity for up to five months to ease pressure on the state's dams. Water storages have dipped below 19 per cent due to record dry conditions and a prolonged BassLink undersea cable outage. The combination of events has culminated into a pressure build-up on the state's power supply. The company said the plant's decision to reduce power consumption is unlikely to affect its permanent employees; however, there are chances that some contractors might lose their work.
Japan aluminium imports down 14% - lowest since 2009
Japan's demand for imported aluminium plummeted to a six-year low in 2015 weighed upon by record-high stocks in the domestic market. The country imported 1.46 million tonnes of primary aluminum in 2015, down 14 per cent from corresponding period previous year, showed data from Japan's Ministry of Finance. The figure is the lowest since 2009. Aluminium imports have been declining since mid-2015 as inventory has been building up at Japan’s three major ports. The stock volume reached its peak in May 2015. Falling aluminium imports allowed the port stocks in Japan to fall to 393,600 tonnes at the end of December 2015. However, the figure was still higher than annual average 250,000 tonnes reported during 2011-2014.
Exclusive Speaker Interview: Francois Nadeau, Technical Leader, Aluminium Assembling Technologies, the National Research Council Canada
With the CAFE standards continuously driving the automotive industry towards manufacturing technologies that allow maximum weight reduction while maintaining parts performance has long since became the priority for automakers. GALM series is bringing the 3rd Annual Lightweight Vehicle Manufacturing 2016: Joining, Forming & Quality Assurance to Detroit from February 24 to 25, 2016. Over last 11 editions, the conference covered three continents, 1500 global delegates and some 130 hours of OEM-led presentations. During the summit, leading experts from OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers and technology providers would discuss the most critical areas within manufacturing and quality assurance processes to enable delivery of next-generation lightweight manufacturing technologies to the forecourt. Francois...
Carter County Tomorrow obtains option on former aluminium plant
Carter County Tomorrow will obtain an option on the Matheson property on U.S. Highway 19E, where an aluminium extrusion plant once operated. It includes 22 acres on the building site and an adjoining 10 to 12 acres of undeveloped land. The option guarantees an asking price of $4,069,000 for the building, which was built approximately 40 years ago and was owned and operated by several aluminium companies, including Jarl Extrusions, Alcan, Cressona, Alumax and Alcoa. Alcoa closed the plant in 2002. The building has been vacant since that time. The building was included on a list of Carter County properties submitted to the state for professional property evaluation. Elizabethton Planning Director Jon Hartman told the board of Carter County Tomorrow that the Matheson property was considered...
Toyota's Lotus Evora 400 gets a chassis built of bonded lightweight extruded aluminium
The new Lotus Evora 400 which now becomes the fastest road car that Lotus has ever built, just moved into the supercar category, with a zero to 100km/h sprint time of a mere 4.2 seconds, and a top speed of 300kph from the manual transmission model. There is an automatic version which hits only 280kph. The Evora 400, as the name suggests, develops 400 horsepower at 7,000 rpm, and 410Nm of torque at 3,500 rpm (manual specs) from the 3.5 litre V6 engine. The base engine comes from the ever-reliable Toyota stable, and tweaked by Lotus with the addition of a supercharger, Lotus’ own engine management system, and a sports exhaust system. While the automatic version is made for the convenience of the urban driver, the Evora 400 in other respects is centred on performance. Cross-drilled and...
Fresh buying seen in aluminium, open interest up by 3.75%
Aluminium settled up 0.34% at 104.20 recovered from the day's low despite China's manufacturing growth shrank at the fastest pace in more than three years in January, underlining slowing appetite from the world's top user of metals. Activity in China's manufacturing sector contracted at its fastest pace in almost three-and-a-half years in January, missing market expectations, an official survey showed on Monday. China's leaders are expected to target economic growth in a range of 6.5 percent to 7 percent this year, sources familiar with their thinking said, setting a range for the first time because policymakers are uncertain on the economy's prospects. Meanwhile US economic growth braked sharply in the fourth quarter as businesses stepped up efforts to reduce an inventory glut and a...
US sets new deadline for investigating China aluminium extrusions
The U.S. Department of Commerce has set a new deadline of February 22 to decide whether to investigate allegations that a Chinese aluminium extruder evaded U.S. import duties, a spokesperson said yesterday. New deadline comes after Commerce Dept. asked Aluminum Extrusions Fair Trade Committee to re-file initial petition as several separate cases. Previous deadline had been January 21. According to the Commerce dept. spokesperson, the U.S. Aluminum Extruders Council had initially filed complaint against Zhongwang Group, the world's second-largest producer of aluminum extrusions, on October 22.
Novelis to host Q3 FY 2016 earnings conference call on Feb 9
Novelis Inc. will report its earnings for the third quarter of fiscal year 2016 on Tuesday, February 9, 2016. Following the release, President and Chief Executive Officer Steve Fisher and Interim Chief Financial Officer Steve Pohl will discuss the results via a live conference call for investors at 8:00 a.m. ET the same day. The conference call will also be webcast live via the Novelis website, with presentation materials made available online. Following the meeting, the webcast will be made available for replay on Novelis' website.
Jamaican govt sees more benefits in processing bauxite locally
Minister of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining, Hon. Phillip Paulwell, foresees an inevitable cessation in the export of bauxite, noting that there are more long-term benefits in having it processed here in Jamaica. Addressing stakeholders, delegates and leaders of trade unions representing workers at the St. Ann-based Noranda Bauxite Limited (NBL), at the Cardiff Hotel and Spa, on January 30, Mr. Paulwell said there are telling examples now emerging worldwide, where some leading bauxite countries have either put a lid on, or have placed some restrictions on exports. “There is now a shortage of bauxite worldwide. Indonesia has banned the export of bauxite, while Malaysia recently put a stop order on theirs also. We are seeing the same thing happening in Vietnam, India, Brazil, Guinea...
Redwood City Port to boost bauxite ore imports
The Port of Redwood City Commission has approved expanding acreage use by International Materials Incorporated (IMI) for its handling of bauxite ore imports. IMI entered its initial lease agreement with the Port in 2010 for approximately a 2.4 acre paved open area next to the building occupied by iCracked. IMI uses the area to import, store, and truck-out bauxite ore. In 2012 IMI requested additional area for handling bauxite, and recently an expansion to that area. With the approval by The Port Commission of the amendment to the IMI lease, the area for bauxite has increased by 2.7 acres. Port Executive Director Michael J. Giari reported that lMl, since the start of its lease, has increased the tonnage of bauxite handled at the Port. So far in fiscal year 2016, bauxite imports total...
Hydro announces date and time for the release of Q4 2015 results
Hydro's fourth quarter results 2015 will be released at 07:00 CET (01:00 AM EST, 06:00 UK time), on Wednesday February 17, 2016. The quarterly report and presentation slides will be available Hydro's corporate website at the same time. Presentation in Oslo Hydro will host a combined analyst and press conference at its corporate headquarters at Drammensveien 260, Oslo at 08:30 CET the same day. The presentation will be held by President and CEO Svein Richard Brandtzæg and CFO Eivind Kallevik. There will be a Conference Call at 16:00 UK Time (17:00 CET, 11:00 AM EST,) the same day. The Q&A session will be held by President and CEO Svein Richard Brandtzæg and CFO Eivind Kallevik. The Q&A will be available for two months onthe company's website.
