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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Research on reducing pollution in aluminium smelting wins award
Pioneering research to reduce pollution from the production of aluminium has earned Professor Margaret Hyland of the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Engineering this year’s Pickering Medal from the Royal Society of New Zealand. She is the first woman to receive the award. Professor Hyland and her research team developed new technologies that are now used by the aluminium industry around the world to cost-effectively reduce gaseous and particulate emissions from aluminium smelting including fluorides. These emissions are harmful to human health and the environment, with fluoride emissions in particular a focus for engineers because of its effects on human health and the environment. Professor Hyland’s work on capture of fluorides contributed to new understanding of the sources and...
Australian Bauxite signs offtake agreement with Rawmin Mining and Industries
Australian Bauxite Ltd (ABx) has finalised an offtake agreement with Rawmin Mining and Industries Pvt Ltd of Mumbai, India. The agreement, which covers all bauxite produced by ABx out of Tasmania and runs five years, provides for Rawmin to buy 4.7 million wet metric tonnes of bauxite commencing with 200,000 WMT to March 31, 2016 and ramping up to 1.5 million WMT per annum from April 1, 2018. The offtake agreement further provides for blended shipments of ABx and Rawmin bauxite on a profit share basis for any blending profits achieved.
Auto industry shift to aluminum slower than expected, Novelis warns
Novelis Inc., the world's largest rolled aluminum producer, warned that plans to shift rolling mill capacity to automotive body sheet are progressing slower than anticipated as automakers prove slow to follow Ford's lead in widespread use of the metal. Novelis CEO Steve Fisher said the industry is going through a "digestion period" after Ford Motor Co. adopted an aluminum body in its top-selling F-150 pickup model. Other automobile manufacturers have not followed with similar major commitments for leading models. "While Ford has gone very aluminum-intensive and been very successful with the F-150 more recently, everyone's going to look at their portfolios of vehicles and take their own views on how quickly they need to move to aluminum," Fisher said during the company's second-quarter...
Sapa says U.S. investigates aluminium product test manipulation
Norwegian aluminium products maker Sapa said that some employees at its plant in Portland, Ore. had falsified test records for two decades and that the U.S. authorities were investigating the company. Sapa, a joint venture between Orkla and Norsk Hydro , two of Norway's biggest industrial firms, said its Portland plant had been suspended as a U.S. federal government contractor since the end of September. Company spokeswoman Erika Ahlqvist said external auditors were now auditing the rest of its North American business and customers would be told of the results. She said it was too early to say what financial impact the discovery might have. Sapa makes extruded aluminium which is used in a wide range of products, such as car parts, bench seating in sport stadiums and supermarket shelves....
Novelis' topline declines amid "less favourable" aluminium recycling benefits
Novelis, the world leader in aluminum recycling, reported a net loss of $13 million for second quarter of fiscal year 2016, while its adjusted EBITDA, excluding the impact of metal price lag in both periods was $236, up seven percent compared to $221 million in the prior year. The increase was driven by higher shipments of premium automotive and beverage can sheet, partially offset by less favorable recycling benefits due to lower aluminum prices as compared to the prior year. Current year results also reflect higher costs associated with the start-up and support of new automotive finishing and recycling capacity. However, the company has made good progress reducing new asset start-up costs on a sequential basis. Adjusted EBITDA excluding metal price lag increased eleven percent in the...
Nalco to engage transaction advisor for merchant mining
Aluminium major National Aluminium Company (Nalco) would soon appoint a transaction advisor to decide the modalities of its proposed foray into merchant mining. "We have decided to foray into merchant mining to tap the huge potential offered by a mineral rich state like Odisha. Nalco is gong to appoint a transaction advisor in this connection", said Nalco's chairman and managing director (CMD) T K Chand. With the value chain shifting in favour of minerals, Nalco is keen to avail the opportunities of government policies to enter into merchant mining. Nalco wants to build a string portfolio in the field of mining in respect of minerals like iron ore and coal. Its foray into commercial mining is expected to help Nalco build its product portfolio and profitability. Separately, Nalco has lined...
Nalco to set up 1 mtpa refinery plant in Odisha
Aluminium major Nalco will set up a one million tonnes a year alumina refinery plant in Odisha as part of its expansion plan, union mines secretary Balvinder Kumar said on Monday. The company would set up the plant at Damanjodi in Koraput district with an investment of Rs.5,600 crore, he added. The mines secretary and Nalco chairman T.K. Chand met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday and discussed the expansion plan of the public sector company. The state government has already recommended granting Potangi bauxite mines in the state to feed the proposed plant. It has already bagged the Utkal D and Utkal E coal blocks at the Talcher coalfields in Angul district. It would spend about Rs.2,000 crore for the development of the blocks, said a release from the Chief Minister's Office. With a...
Jaguar Land Rover drafts £4.5 billion cost-cutting plan
Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has drafted a new £4.5-billion cost-cutting plan to offset rising emissions cost and the slowdown in China, one of the biggest automotive markets in the world. The project—known as Leap 4.5—will scrutinise almost every area of spending at Britain’s luxury car manufacturer, The Sunday Times reported. The £3-billion-a-year capital budget, focused on research and development and new plants, will be spared. JLR has one of Britain’s biggest success stories since it was bought over by Tata Motors from Ford in 2008 and made £2.6-billion profit last year, has almost 37,000 staff and builds about 500,000 cars a year. It has spent around £11 billion on a new range of cars, built plants in China and India, with another under way in Brazil, and has overhauled...
iMT Taiwan to present unmatched business opportunities for global metal industry
The industry-awaited inaugural staging of International Metal Technology Taiwan (iMT Taiwan) has garnered curious spotlight from market watchers and all-involved in the global metallurgy sector eager to see the latest innovations and technologies at the trade exhibition. Organized by Kaigo Co., Ltd. with the support of Messe Düsseldorf GmbH, iMT Taiwan will be held from 2 to 4 December 2015 at the Kaohsiung Exhibition Centre, Taiwan. Over 150 exhibiting companies comprising international metal powerhouses from USA, Germany, Japan, UK, Switzerland, Singapore, Indonesia and Taiwan’s most competitive market leaders will present their newest offerings across 13 product categories namely; Material Science and Engineering, Heat Technology, Metallurgy, Foundry, Moulding, Coating, Joint and Cut...
Boyne Smelters becomes Australia's largest aluminium can recycling facility
Boyne Smelters Limited (BSL) is now operating Australia’s largest aluminium can recycling facility after a successful pilot proved the potential of the value-add processing concept earlier this year. The smelter is now recycling around 13 million aluminium cans a month, which will add 2,400 tonnes of aluminium to its production annually. In 2011, BSL invested in a partnership with Inalco for an onsite processing plant to recycle dross, cell bottoms, and scrap aluminium. Prior to 2011, all dross was sent offsite for processing. But it wasn’t until Australia’s largest remaining aluminium recycling plant closed last year, resulting in the majority of aluminium cans being sent offshore for processing, that BSL staff saw a wider opportunity to use its onsite capability. “Our people saw a gap...
Pahang bauxite operators to foot the bill for Adherex 120 red dust-control technology
Malaysia Pahang's bauxite operators will have to foot the bill once the state government decides to adopt the ore dust control agent known as Adherex 120. The state government was yesterday given a demonstration of the product, which aims to cut down on the 'red dust' phenomenon which has hit the town following a spike in bauxite mining activities there. Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob after the demonstration, said he was satisfied with the effectiveness of the product and will consider using it to control the problem of bauxite dust pollution in the state. "Although we may not achieve a 100 per cent dust-free environment, we could at least minimise the effect. Based on the demonstration, Adherex 120 seems to be effective as it has managed to reduce the bauxite dust." "However, we...
Aluminium market rises on short covering, open interest drops 14.65%
Aluminium settled up 1.66% at 100.95 after London Metal Exchange (LME) data showed 99,500 tonnes of the metal was booked to leave warehouses in Vlissingen. LME prices jumped 1 percent to finish at a two-week high of $1,523 a tonne despite fundamentals remain poor due to oversupply. While a strong US dollar due to expectations for US rate hike kept the aluminum prices in check. The total set to leave LME warehouses is now equivalent to 45.5 percent of the 3.01-million-tonne headline stock figure. The U.S. Department of Labor said in its October national employment report that nonfarm payrolls surged by 271,000 last month, significantly above expectations for a consensus gain of 190,000. The sharp gains marked the largest increase in U.S. nonfarm jobs since last December. Private payrolls...
Global glut of aluminium sinks once strong U.S. Industry
Alcoa’s latest aluminum-making cutback is signaling the end of an iconic American industry. For 127 years, the New York-based company has been churning out the lightweight metal used in everything from beverage cans to airplanes. Now, with prices languishing near six-year lows, it’s wiping out almost a third of domestic operating capacity. If prices don’t recover, the researchers predict almost all U.S. smelting plants will close by next year. While that’s a big deal for the U.S. industry and the people it employs, it doesn’t mean much for global supplies. Alcoa’s decision to eliminate 503,000 metric tons of smelting capacity accounts for about 31 percent of the U.S. total for primary aluminum, but less than 1 percent of the global total. For more than a decade, output has been moving to...
France’s Fives Group to invest in Iran’s aluminum industry
France’s Fives Group made an agreement with Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO) on making joint venture for the construction of an anode production plant in Iran. Anode, which is made from calcined petroleum coke (CPC), is used in the process of extracting aluminum from its oxide, alumina. The suggestion for making this joint venture was put forward in a meeting between the FIVES’s director for the Middle East region and IMIDRO’s Board of Director’s Chairman Mehdi Karbasian on the verge of the trip of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to France which is scheduled for November 16 -18. The FIVES’s director said Iran’s nuclear deal with the World’s major powers has provided many opportunities for the foreign companies to invest in the country;...
Novelis reports a net loss while maintaining solid liquidity in Q2 2016
Novelis, the world leader in aluminum rolling and recycling, reported a net loss of $13 million for second quarter of fiscal year 2016. Excluding tax-effected special items, the company reported net income of $25 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2016 compared to $36 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2015. Excluding the impact of metal price lag in both periods, Adjusted EBITDA was $236 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2016, up seven percent compared to $221 million in the prior year. "Our focus on growing premium can, automotive and high-end specialty shipments, managing costs and reducing working capital is delivering results," said Steve Fisher, President and Chief Executive Officer for Novelis. "We are leveraging new assets, reducing start-up costs, and building...
Alcoa to lay off 500 at its Massena aluminium smelter
Aluminium major Alcoa says it will be shutting down its West smelter plant in Massena and will abandon plans to modernize the already-shuttered Massena East plant. The announcement from the company will put nearly 500 people out of work, the latest in a long series of cutbacks in Alcoa's Massena operations over the past 10 years. The company says it was forced to take decisive action after seeing aluminium prices drop 30 percent in the past year. "Very concerned about the impact this will have in the short term ...also the long-term ... last major employer that we have ... It is detrimental to Massena," said Massena Mayor Timmy Currier. "Spend the next few days discussing what is best for our members, getting all the benefits we can, whether it be state or out of our contract that we can...
Gulf Aluminium Rolling Mill Company subsidiaries discuss strategies
Bahrain-based Gulf Aluminium Rolling Mill Company (Garmco) recently held its second Annual Subsidiaries Meeting which took place at the group’s headquarters in the kingdom. Garmco is an international aluminium rolling mill and one of the largest downstream aluminium facilities in the Middle East. The meeting which took place from November 1 to 3, brought together its international management team spanning the Middle East, Asia, Far East, Australia, Europe and the US, said a statement from the company. The three-day interactive sessions between the members discussed the group’s 2016 budget, Q3 results and reviewed the business performance which included a complete business operations analysis where it considered the strengths and weaknesses of the company and how it might improve, it said....
LME aluminium may break resistance at $1,515
LME aluminium may break resistance at $1,515 per tonne and rise towards the next resistance at $1,532, as it has found support at $1,488. These two resistances and support are identified respectively as the 114.6 percent, the 100 percent and the 138.2 percent Fibonacci projection levels of a downtrend from the October 9 high of $1,646. The consolidation within the range of $1,488-$1,515 could be a continuation pattern, to be followed by a gain towards $1,548, the 86.4 percent level. A break below $1,488 could open the way towards the 161.8 percent level at $1,462.
