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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Alba’s Chief Operations Officer retires after 32 Years
Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C (Alba), one of leading aluminium smelters in the world, today, January 23, 2016 announced that its Chief Operations Officer (COO), Mr. Isa Al Ansari, will be retiring at the end of March after 32 years with the Company. Alba’s Chief Executive Officer, Tim Murray said: "I would like to thank Isa for his numerous contributions to Alba during his tenure with the Company. Isa is a great example of Alba’s objective to promote people from within the company. He started as an apprentice in 1983 and worked all the way up the ladder when he was promoted to the Executive Level in 2010. In his last role as the Chief Operations Officer, he played an instrumental role in the improvement in Safety and Production with Alba setting the all-time production record of 960,643 mt in...
Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries passes right to reuse policy
At its Winter Board of Directors Meeting, the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), the Voice of the Recycling Industry™, formally adopted a policy in support of recyclers’ ability to reuse products, and the benefits of reusing. "More and more traditional recycling companies are diversifying their business models to include reuse," said Robin Wiener, president of ISRI. "It is essential that they have the legal protections in place that allows the lawful repair and return of these products to the marketplace. This policy allows ISRI to advocate for such protections." The policy states: ISRI members across the commodity spectrum rely on reusing goods and products, including electronics equipment, automotive parts and tires, as part of their business models. Reuse provides an...
Alba strikes higher than the industry benchmark of 5% training hours in 2015
Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C (Alba), one of the top industrial employers in the Kingdom of Bahrain and a leading aluminium smelter in the world, is proud to have achieved above the industry benchmark of 5% training hours of the total man hours in 2015. The company has achieved this figure successfully for three years in a row, thus reiterating its commitment towards employee training and development. Alba has one of the most advanced employee training and development programmes in the Kingdom, wherein the employees are trained as per international standards of excellence in all fields. Alba’s Chief Executive Officer Tim Murray paid a recent visit to the Company’s Training Department, accompanied by Manager Training Rawdha Al Aradi. Murray met with the Alba trainees and highlighted all the...
Milestone for Holyhead biomass project as Anglesey Aluminium site handover is completed
Plans to build a multi-million-pound biomass plant and eco-park that would create around 500 jobs on Anglesey have taken a significant step forward following the official purchase of the site. Orthios has announced that the handover of the former Anglesey Aluminium site in Holyhead has now been completed, paving the way for work to start on the development that will see over 500 permanent and 1,200 construction jobs brought to the island by 2018. The former smelting works has been mothballed since its closure in September 2009, which was a significant economic blow to the island with the loss of 400 well-paid jobs. But Orthios Eco Parks, which already has outline planning permission, will now forge ahead with the plans for a 299MWe biomass-fuelled energy centre and will develop the Eco...
LME aluminium poised for gains this week
LME aluminium is on track for gains this week, SMM expects. The US dollar softened somewhat on weakening expectations for US rate hike. Meanwhile, short-term moving averages of LME aluminium are pointing upward. So, LME aluminium should rise to $1,500-1,530/mt. SHFE 1603 aluminium should continue consolidating at 10,700-10,900 yuan per tonne. Falling aluminium stocks in China and softening consumption as the 2016 Chinese New Year holiday is just around the corner will leave spot aluminium trade at discounts of 0-50 yuan per tonne over SHFE 1602 aluminium.
Ford's 2015 profit jumps on stronger sales
Improving sales in most of the world helped Ford Motor Co. achieve a record pre-tax profit in 2015, and the company says the numbers could go even higher this year. Full-year pretax profit jumped 48 per cent to $US10.8 billion ($A15.33 billion) as its global sales and market share grew. Ford's US sales reached their highest level in a decade, and its F-Series pickup remained the best-selling vehicle in the US for the 34th straight year. A change in the way Ford accounts for its pension costs also boosted pretax results. Bob Shanks, Ford's chief financial officer, said 2015 was the 'breakthrough year' Ford promised after it spent heavily in 2014 to build new plants in Asia and bring a new, aluminium-sided F-150 pickup to market in the US. Ford expects this year's pretax profit to be equal...
Jamaican govt says no compromise on Noranda bauxite levy
Jamaican government has rejected pleas to relieve St Ann-based bauxite company, Noranda, of its levy obligations in light of its declining profits. Minister of Finance and Planning Dr Peter Phillips told the House of Representatives yesterday that the Government would not compromise the 40-year-old levy to save Noranda from decline. “Were we to accede to Noranda’s demand, the country would be realisng, in nominal terms, the same amount of taxes that we were receiving prior to the introduction of the bauxite levy in 1974. And we would be doing so while allowing the exploitation of a depleting, non-renewable resource,” Phillips said during the debate on the first supplementary estimates 2015/16, which were approved by the House of Representatives last night. “This would be dishonouring the...
China found guilty of dumping aluminium extrusion products in TT
According to the preliminary findings of an anti-dumping investigation by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Trinidad and Tobago, China is guilty of dumping metal products in the country. The action has been determined to have caused “injury” to local enterprise involved in the marketing of similar products, one particular trader having had to reduce prices by some 13 percent in order to compete with the Chinese products entering the local market. The preliminary findings, handed down this month by Minister of Trade and Industry Paula Gopee-Scoon, relate to a 2014 complaint brought in relation to aluminium extrusions, namely aluminium bars, rods, tubes and pipes. “The Minister of Trade and Industry has, arising from the investigation into the allegation of the dumping described...
China Zhongwang's new aluminium-body automobile production unit to come up in Yingkou
China Zhongwang Holdings, the world's second largest and Asia's and China's largest producer of industrial aluminium extrusion products is planning to come up with an aluminium-body automobile manufacturing plant in Yingkou City, Liaoning. Operations at the project, with a planned investment of 6 billion yuan ($913 million), is scheduled to start in October 2017, reported industry sources. The aluminium-body automobile production base having an estimated annual vehicle production capacity of 50,000 units will be built in two phases. Investment in the first phase has been estimated to be around 3 billion yuan. The project will essentially churn out aluminium-body oil tanks and aluminum fire-fighting trucks along with other utility vehicles, said industry sources.
China’s appetite for aluminium alloy and aluminium semis declines
Chinese aluminium alloy exports increased 58 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) in December to reach 8,991 mt in December 2015, while declining 17.71 per cent y-o-y during January-December period, showed data published by China's General Administration of Customs on January 26. Australia supplied maximum quantity of the alloy which amounted to 2,572 mt in December and 14,386 mt in the one year period, both the figures showing a significant rise from the corresponding period previous year. Imports from most of the countries, on the other hand, declined- a trend which indicates at the slowing demand of aluminium alloy in the country. Import of aluminium semis too dropped 15 per cent y-o-y in December and 5.6 per cent in the one year period. China's cumulative consumption of aluminium bar, rod,...
Hydro Årdal power outage has limited effect on production
Following the power outage on Friday night, around 10 percent of Hydro Årdal's primary aluminium production capacity is temporarily shut down. Hydro expects to leave customers unaffected by the incident by increasing remelt of cold metal at the plant’s cast house, compensating the temporarily reduced primary production. Full primary aluminium production is expected to resume in Q2 2016, and financial effects are expected to be limited, based on the current information. Casthouse operations at the plant has fully resumed after the incident, and efforts are ongoing to further stabilize the plant’s primary aluminium production processes. It was under adverse weather conditions in the region Hydro’s primary aluminium plant experienced almost four hours power outage due to a technical fault....
Upbeat Nalco plans to invest INR 30,000 crore for growth in next 5 years
Upbeat about a rise in aluminium consumption in India, Navaratna PSU Nalco is all set to invest INR 30,000 crore in various projects in the next five years. “Nalco plans to invest to the tune of INR 30,000 crore in the next five years,” Nalco’s CMD Tapan Kumar Chand said in his Republic Day message, adding that a INR 6,000 crore refinery project in Damanjodi is on the anvil too. “Sunny days are ahead for aluminium industries as consumption in the country is slowly picking up against the backdrop of an increase in GDP to 7.5 per cent this fiscal and availability of consumption potential of more than three multiples,” the CMD said. Noting that the average consumption was 2.2 kg in India as against the global 8 kg per capita, Chand said growth in electrical and electronics sectors as well as...
Fallout from Malaysian ban continues as authorities step up bauxite export licence checks
Fallout from Malaysian ban continues as authorities step up export licence checks. CBIX edged lower again last week, down 1.8% (US$0.9) to finish at US$46.6/dmt. The fall was more reflective of the subdued alumina market, particularly in China, than the longer term implications of the Malaysian ban. Adding to the disruptions in Malaysia, authorities engaged in brief but intense process of export licence checks, delaying shipments and leading to serious congestion at the port (vessels were queued as they awaited loading). The disruptions are reportedly affecting buyers, with some avoiding Malaysian bauxite purchases altogether, as they wait for the authorities to provide more policy clarity. Malaysian bauxite prices remained unchanged over the week, with unwashed bauxite fetching...
Water sold to Selangor free from bauxite contamination, says Pahang govt
The Pahang government said yesterday that the raw water supplied to Selangor was not contaminated with bauxite. State Basic Facilities and Environmental Committee chairman Datuk Seri Mohd Soffi Abdul Razak said the source of the water supplied to Selangor came from west Pahang area such as Raub and Bentong, away from the bauxite mining areas in Kuantan. "Water is collected in Kelau dam before being released to Semantan river and pumped into the tunnel which channelled the water into Langat river. Bauxite issues have nothing to do with it because the catchment areas are different." Soffi was commenting on Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali's statement that the state government would conduct tests on raw water from Pahang following fears of bauxite sediment pollution in...
French tycoon Xavier Niel buys stake in Guinea bauxite miner
French telecoms tycoon Xavier Niel's NJJ Capital has acquired a minority stake in Alliance Miniere Responsable (AMR), a Paris-based company developing bauxite reserves in Guinea, AMR said on Wednesday, 24 January. The stake, the size of which was not known, is the latest investment by one of France's richest men. Niel set up low-cost telecoms operator Iliad in France and this week was said to be eyeing a move into the U.K. market. The specific goal behind the move was unclear, but a spokesman for AMR said that Niel wanted to diversify his portfolio, which also includes a stake in Telecom Italia. Guinea is a major producer of bauxite, an aluminium ore, but growth has been hamstrung by a slump in metals prices and a two-year Ebola epidemic in the West African nation that killed more than...
Aluminium falls by 0.4% on global cues
Aluminium prices fell 0.38% to INR 103.90 per kg in futures trading today, taking weak cues from global markets. Further, subdued demand in the domestic spot markets also weighed on the metal prices. At the Multi Commodity Exchange, aluminium for delivery in current month shed 40 paise, or 0.38%, to INR 103.90 per kg in business turnover of 301 lots. Metal for delivery in February contracts traded lower by 30 paise, or 0.29% to trade at INR 104.50 per kg in 89 lots. Market analysts said the weakness in aluminium at futures trade was mostly in tune with a downtrend in base metals pack at the London Metal Exchange (LME) and subdued demand at the domestic spot markets.
Chalco sees profit from shuttering loss-making aluminium capacity
Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd. said it expects to swing to a small full-year profit after shutting loss-making capacity. Its shares rose. China’s largest publicly traded aluminium smelter is contending with a global glut of the alloy and faltering demand at home, which have pushed prices to a six-year low in recent months. The company, known as Chalco, joined other producers in December in pledging to halt new mills and idle capacity. Chalco expects net income of about 200 million yuan ($30 million) in 2015, after a net loss of 16.2 billion yuan the year before, according to a statement Thursday. It said its primary aluminium production costs fell about 9 percent, while the cost of alumina, a material used in the making of the refined metal, dropped about 13 percent. It also cited gains...
EPA pushes back Superfund decision on Columbia Falls Aluminum plant
The Environmental Protection Agency officials said recently that the disciplinary authority will put off a decision on whether to approve Superfund cleanup of the shuttered Columbia Falls Aluminum Company plant. Regional project manager for the EPA, Mike Cirian, had recently told community members that a decision could come as early as March. But Cirian told The Flathead Beacon on Tuesday that agency officials informed him that a decision won’t come until this fall. The aluminium plant closed last year and was determined eligible for long-term remedial cleanup under the federal Superfund program. The community has been awaiting the EPA’s decision on a potential Superfund listing, as the 960-acre industrial site has been out of operation since 2009. Tests at the property owned by Glencore...
