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...
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1914-2025: More than 100 years of America’s journey from primary smelting to modern circularity – and this is how tariff fits in
The United States shares a deep, long, and almost personal bond with aluminium as the metal has played a pivotal role in shaping up the nation’s manufacturing base while contributing about USD 228.31 billion to the economy. But at the same time, the industry in the US has weather many highs and lows. The country was once responsible for contributing more than 50 per cent to the world's primary aluminium supply and now it accounts for less than 1 per cent. But has this shift hurt the nation's backbone in the aluminium industry, has it carved out new pathways to sustain its legacy in the sector? Here’s a look at the century-long evolution of America’s aluminium landscape and what's reshaping it. The journey of aluminium industry in the United States back to World War I (1914-1918) when...
GACC: China's Jan-Oct bauxite imports jump 30 per cent Y-o-Y
Over the same ten-month period, China's alumina production reached 76.3 million tonnes, representing an 8 per cent on-year increase, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed. Since the growth in bauxite imports outpaced that of alumina output, the figures signalled an oversupply of bauxite in the domestic sector, market watchers pointed out. In October alone, China imported 13.8 million tonnes of bauxite, a decline of 13.3 per cent from September but still 12.5 per cent higher compared with a year earlier, according to the GACC. Guinea and Australia remained China's two mainstream sources of imported bauxite, accounting for 65.4 per cent and 27.8 per cent of total arrivals last month, respectively. Explore- Most accurate data to drive business decisions with 50+ reports across...
Amcor broadens its horizon with aluminium, along with plastic, in a year of circular consolidation
Amcor’s FY25 sustainability disclosure arrives at a pivotal moment — not only as its first report after absorbing Berry Global, but also as a quiet but significant inflexion point for aluminium’s role within one of the world’s largest packaging companies. Although plastics still dominate Amcor’s 2.9-million-tonne material footprint, the FY25 report reveals a slow but unmistakable recalibration in how the packaging brand sources, certifies and circularises aluminium across its global operations. Image source: https://www.amcor.com/ Explore- Most accurate data to drive business decisions with 50+ reports across the value chain The newly combined entity ended the fiscal year with 15,000 tonnes of post-consumer recycled (PCR) aluminium, representing 8 per cent of all aluminium used, as...
South Korea’s EV sector splits into two realities, but aluminium consumption remains unshaken
South Korea’s electric vehicle sector is this year’s perfect example of one country with two different scenarios. While on one hand, the country is experiencing a strong domestic market for EVs, on the other, it undergoes an adverse impact of the United States 25 per cent tariff on EV imports. Yes, the United States is the largest export market for South Korea’s electric vehicles. In 2024, South Korea exported 2.78 million vehicles, most of the headed to the US, according to the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association (KAMA). In 2025, the momentum faltered as the steep US duties dragged down export volumes lower. Meanwhile, the country’s EV production stood at 407,009 units, accounting for 11 per cent of total automobile production, with an increased sales figure Y-o-Y. The question...
Government races to save Tomago Aluminium from a 2028 shutdown — will negotiations with Snowy Hydro come to the rescue?
The Albanese government is pushing forward a multi-billion-dollar rescue plan to prevent the Tomago Aluminium smelter in New South Wales’ Hunter Valley from shutting down when its electricity contract expires in 2028. Taxpayer-owned Snowy Hydro is expected to take the lead in securing the long-term power supply that the smelter needs to keep operating. Image for representational purpose Under the proposal, Snowy Hydro would underwrite or directly sign long-term, renewable-heavy power offtake agreements, giving the smelter access to stable, lower-cost and cleaner electricity. The plan follows growing pressure from unions, environment groups and industry bodies urging governments to secure a structural, renewable-based solution for the Hunter Valley’s largest employer and one of Australia’s...
China anode material margins squeezed by rising costs
According to Mysteel OilChem's tracking, the anode material producers recently suffered from increasingly squeezed profit margins due to rising petroleum coke prices and persistently low anode material prices. While anode producers have a strong desire to hike prices, the supply structure is limiting their ability to do so. Anode material production processes are primarily divided into artificial graphite, natural graphite, and others, including MCMB, silicon-based anodes, and hard carbon anodes. Artificial graphite anode technology is relatively mature, offering long cycle life, high safety, and low cost, making it suitable for power and energy storage batteries. In 2025, rapid growth in energy storage battery orders has increased demand for artificial graphite anodes. It currently holds...
Here's how Europe's present aluminium foil market looks and what you can expect by 2030
European aluminium foil makers opened 2025 in high gear. Orders were strong through the first quarter and that strength carried into the spring. Between April and June, producers shipped 236,500 tonnes, up 4.2 per cent from the same period, previous year, according to European Aluminium Foil Association (EAFA). By the end of the first half, deliveries had climbed to 480,300 tonnes — 7.7 per cent more than in the first six months of 2024. Both thinner and thicker foil contributed to the rise, and demand came from inside the EU as well as abroad. European buyers took more than 6 per cent extra volume in H1, while shipments to markets outside the region jumped nearly 20 per cent. The scale of demand is clear from the consumption numbers: 1 million tonnes used in 2024, an estimated 1.05...
Europe eyes export restrictions as aluminium scrap continues to drain toward Asia
What began as a quiet movement of scrap out of Europe has gradually turned into a significant concern for the region’s aluminium recyclers. The volumes leaving the bloc have increased year after year, and the trend is now firmly visible in the export numbers. In 2020, the EU exported USD 1 billion worth of aluminium scrap — about 937.8 thousand tonnes, but year later, that figure nearly doubled to USD 1.9 billion, which accounts for 1.115 million tonnes. Things eased slightly in 2022 to USD 1.88 billion and 992.5 thousand tonnes, but this downturn barely lasted a season. By 2023, exports were back up — 1.16 million tonnes scrap worth USD 2 billion were again exported and in 2024 it pushed even higher to USD 2.34 billion which accounts for 1.25 million tonnes. And before Brussels could...
NBS: China's Jan-Oct alumina output rises 8% Y-o-Y despite Oct drop
In October alone, China produced 7.87 million tonnes of alumina, up by 5.8 per cent from the same month of 2024, the NBS data indicated. However, production decreased by 1.7 per cent during the same month compared with September, Mysteel Global calculated based on the NBS data. Among China's five key alumina-producing regions, three recorded on-month declines in October, Mysteel Global noted. Alumina output in Guizhou, Guangxi, and Shanxi declined by 28.5 per cent, 2.1 per cent, and 1.2 per cent, respectively, according to the NBS statistics. Even in Shandong, the country's largest production base, production remained broadly stable, edging up by a marginal 0.1 per cent. Read More: World alumina production aligns with demand forecast, with a 6% growth in Q3 2025 The on-month drop in...
Indonesia’s 900Kt aluminium goal’s reality check: 7 stalled refineries, 24Mt of lost bauxite demand
Indonesia is rich in bauxite. That is no news. It has been exporting bauxite to leading aluminium-producing countries for years. That is no news either. It imposed a ban on its bauxite export back in 2023. While that creates a whirl for a while, the world has re-strategised and found its bauxite (whether the deficit has been completely replenished or not, we will come to that later)! But a product export that once generated over USD 600 million for Indonesia is now running at nil. Au contraire, the nation’s alumina import (a product derived from bauxite and is further refined to produce aluminium) has peaked in the past two years (2023-2024). Image source: https://www.exportgenius.in/ Explore- Most accurate data to drive business decisions with 50+ reports across the value chain In...
China's aluminium foil exports stay strong via rerouted trade; domestic consumption poised to grow 2.4% alongside
For more than a decade, China aluminium foil sector has been quietly reshaping the global marketplace — expanding capacity, feeding a growing domestic appetite and pushing exports deeper into different regions, even as anti-dumping barriers rise around it. In 2024, the world’s aluminium foil market stood at USD 38.55 billion and was projected to grow at a 5.05 per cent CAGR by 2030, and in this projection, China plays a very important role. The country’s dominance is not accidental. By 2023, China was already producing 4.31 million tonnes of aluminium foil, and output climbed further to 4.7 million tonnes in 2024, which was around 70 per cent of global production. More than 160 rolling mills form the backbone of this industry, offering between 6.1 and 6.5 million tonnes of capacity, and...
China-Russia natural gas trade further deepens with 3 energy documents signed in 2025
Since 2020, the pace of natural gas trade between China and Russia has accelerated significantly. Particularly, the three energy documents signed this year directly increased the maximum pipeline natural gas (PNG) trade volume between the two countries to 106 billion cubic meters. China and Russia signed three energy documents in September 2025, including increasing the annual gas transmission volume of China-Russia East-route Natural Gas Pipeline (Pipeline 1) to 44 billion cubic meters, expanding the China-Far East Gas Pipeline's capacity from 10 billion cubic meters to 12 billion cubic meters, and initiating the much-anticipated memorandum for Power of Siberia 2 Gas Pipeline. Explore- Most accurate data to drive business decisions with 50+ reports across the value chain The reason for...
Improvement of the effectiveness of making alumina by the Updated ILTD Process: alumina refineries in India as examples (Part 2)
The updated ILTD (UILTD) process and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 17 SDGs were adopted at the UN Sustainable Development Summit in New York in September 2015. “United Nations, 2015” Since that time numerous conferences, and publications were organised and prepared most of them connected with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The UILTD Process comprises significant improvements in processing efficiencies and cost reductions, with the major focus on sustainability and alignment 6 SDGs. This paper presents significant potential, especially within materials science, industrial ecology and environmental engineering. The amount and composition of the bauxite feedstocks, the bauxite residues, the same for the dicalcium-silicate (C 2 S, belite) by-products were...
WEEKLY: Chinese spot alumina price decline eases
As of November 13, the national average spot price for metallurgical-grade alumina with purity exceeding 98.6 per cent dipped by 0.3 per cent on week to RMB 2,867 per tonne (USD 403 per tonne), according to Mysteel's price assessment. The decline was smaller than the 1.1 per cent drop recorded the previous week, Mysteel Global noted. Explore- Most accurate data to drive business decisions with 50+ reports across the value chain The narrowed price decrease was largely because of firm transaction prices in alumina tenders in North China, where some primary aluminium smelters with immediate restocking needs agreed to accept higher offers from alumina traders holding tighter stockpiles, according to market sources. On the supply side, alumina production remained largely stable last week....
China's alumina production with 8% growth rate races ahead of primary aluminium, signalling surplus pressure
According to the International Aluminium Association, metallurgical-grade alumina output was 21.3 million tonnes in the first quarter of 2025, then dipped a little in Q2 to 21 million tonnes, only to jump noticeably in Q3, reaching 22.7 million tonnes — an 8.17 per cent increase from the previous quarter. Compared with last year’s third quarter, when China produced 20.91 million tonnes, the latest Q3 total stands 8.86 per cent higher. The monthly trail reveals how the turnaround took shape. January opened at 7.3 million tonnes, but February sank to 6.7 million tonnes — roughly a 7.7 per cent fall — before production bounced back to 7.325 million tonnes in March, up 8.6 per cent. April dipped again to 6.8 million tonnes, though May and June clawed back the loss with 7 million and 7.12...
Improvement of the effectiveness of making alumina by the Updated ILTD Process: alumina refineries in India as examples (Part 1)
For those who are familiar with alumina production by the Bayer Process it is evident that that the Cost of Production (COP) largely depends on the Available alumina (A.Al) and Reactive silica (R.Si) content of the particular bauxite. The caustic consumption, which is mainly dependent on A.Al and R.Si; constitutes the second largest cost item after the cost of bauxite in the Bayer process. Image for representational purpose In India there are large lateritic bauxite resources with medium available alumina (trihydrated alumina, THA) and medium to high Reactive SiO 2 content. With the deteriorating bauxite quality, refineries are struggling to keep the alumina production cost at the low level. The Updated Improved Low Temperature Digestion (ILTD) Process as a novel way to increase the...
Powering aluminium PART 2: Aluminium faces a new energy reality
The energy industry attended ADIPEC 2025 with a familiar problem and left with a sharper one. Every major conversation in Abu Dhabi, whether on investment flows, upstream fuel security, grid volatility or the rapid buildout of digital energy systems, pointed to a structural shift already underway: the cost and carbon advantage of aluminium is no longer determined by the smelter, but by the energy system surrounding it. Image source: https://www.mdpi.com/ Explore- Most accurate data to drive business decisions with 50+ reports across the value chain This is the unavoidable conclusion when the power consumption map from 2023–24 (Part 1 of this series) is layered against the messages coming out of ADIPEC. Smelters are now operating in an environment where energy is both their largest risk...
Global aluminium foil demand is set to hit 7.2 MT by 2028 — with the Americas playing a key role
Over the past few years, the aluminium foil market has been moving in one direction — up—and it’s been doing very quietly, without any dramatic spikes. Back in 2018, global use of foil was around 5.3 million tonnes. By 2023, it moved up to 6.1 million tonnes. And if current projections hold, the world will be using close to 7.2 million tonnes by 2028. What’s curious is how familiar the consumption pattern still looks. In 2023, the industrial sector took 30 per cent of total usage, food and beverage packaging held 21 per cent, semi-rigid containers (SRC) formats accounted for 17 per cent, household foil for 13 per cent, other consumer uses for 9 per cent, and pharmaceuticals for 10 per cent. Even by 2028, the distribution barely changes: industrial demand edges to 32 per cent, food and...
