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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Welsh aluminium firm working on major Newport regeneration project
Specialist aluminium fabricators Dudley’s Aluminium has secured a £400,000 contract to provide essential glazing and fixtures for the Friars Walk project in Newport. The company are creating and installing custom-made aluminium curtain walling and glazing at the new Friars Walk shopping centre. To complete the contract, the company is designing bespoke aluminium fixtures for a number of different outlets across the 390,000 sq ft site. Colin Shorney managing director at Dudley’s Aluminium, said: “Friars Walk is an exciting development in the heart of Newport, and we are very happy to be providing our expertise at the site. “The challenge of developing and installing custom aluminium glazing and curtain walling across multiple outlets, each with their own specifications, is one that we feel...
SA aluminium body positive about aluminium prospects
Owing to the increased use of aluminium in the automotive and beverage packaging industries, demand for aluminium in South Africa has positive long-term prospects, says Aluminium Federation of South Africa (Afsa) executive director Mark Krieg. “There is tremendous growth opportunity in South Africa’s aluminium industry and Afsa believes that South Africa can double its aluminium demand,” he states. He adds that Afsa regards the demerger of base metals and coal mining company South32 from global mining major BHP Billiton, which came into effect in May, as positive. The demerger signalled to Afsa that more focus and priority would be given to aluminium assets, such as the Hillside smelter in Richards Bay, KwaZulu-Natal, as it forms a much bigger percentage of South32’s assets than of BHP...
New AluSolutions event announced in Abu Dhabi
AluSolutions, the one of a kind, free-to-attend international exhibition and conference addressing the challenges and opportunities of sustainable aluminium use, will be held in Abu Dhabi on 10-11 May 2016. AluSolutions will demonstrate how the aluminium industry is making continuous improvements in the environmental efficiency of producing aluminium, as well as its sustainability benefits in end-use applications. Conference Theme- "The Sustainability Story" While the primary process of aluminium production is energy-intensive, the industry has recently been promoting aluminium's use-phase benefits as outweighing these environmental disadvantages. Alongside this 'new look' for aluminium, recent environmental legislations mean that the primary industry is monitoring the impacts of bauxite...
Nigeria's GZI and SA's Golden Era Packaging form aluminium beverage can making JV
GZ Industries, the aluminium can maker from Nigeria and Golden Era Packaging from South Africa have entered into a joint venture to set up a can manufacturing plant in Johannesburg to meet the rising packaging demand in southern Africa. Valued at R1 billion, the newly formed Gayatri GZI Beverage Cans company will commence operations in the second quarter next financial year, and will churn out 1.2 billion cans per year. Golden Era's supply chain network and customer base spans across the whole of southern Africa. The new facility will produce two-piece aluminium beverage cans in multiple sizes with the help of state-of-the-art technology. People from South Africa will be trained to operate the facility. GZI CEO Motti Goldmintz said, "GZI is committed to its strategy of becoming...
Rio Tinto-ARENA's new Solar Plant for Weipa mine starts operation
Rio Tinto and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) have announced the Weipa Solar Plant will generate electricity for the mining conglomerate’s bauxite mine, processing facilities and the township. At peak output, the 1.7 megawatt plant can generate sufficient electricity to support up to 20 per cent of the town’s daytime electricity demand. It is the first time a remote Australian mining operation has been supplied with power from solar PV on such a scale. ARENA provided an initial $3.5 million for the project and up to $7.8 million is available for the second phase. Rio Tinto Weipa operations general manager Gareth Manderson said the energy from the plant was expected to help reduce diesel usage at the mine’s power stations by up to 600,000L a year. “This will reduce Weipa’s...
Odisha backs L&T bid for bauxite deposits, sends DGPS report
Engineering giant Larsen & Toubro's (L&T) bid to secure Kutrumali and Sijimali bauxite deposits has got a major breakthrough with the Odisha government sending the DGPS (Differential Global Positioning System) survey report on the mines to the Union mines ministry. "The Centre had asked for DGPS survey report in respect of Kutrumali and Sijimali bauxite mines and we have sent it. Now, there should not be any hurdle for L&T to secure these deposits since they already have a prospecting license (PL)", said a senior government official. Despite being a PL holder over Kutrumali and Sijimali bauxite leases, L&T's bid to bag the deposits had come unstuck. The lack of any end use plant had aborted L&T's earlier attempts of winning the mining lease (ML). L&T had won PL for Sijimali and Kutrumali...
Alcoa demerger could jump-start deals with Alumina Ltd, Rio Tinto and South32
Alcoa chief executive Klaus Kleinfeld says his company's plans to demerge its upstream and downstream businesses will give the company "optionality" for dealmaking, with analysts pointing to the potential for multi-billion dollar transactions involving Alumina Ltd, Rio Tinto and South32. The US aluminium giant unveiled plans to split into two companies by the second half of 2016 after having bulked up its downstream unit through acquisitions over the past year. The upstream company will include its 60 per cent stake in the bauxite mining and alumina refining Alcoa World Alumina & Chemicals (AWAC) joint venture with Alumina as well as its global portfolio of smelters and casthouses. The downstream company will provide aluminium products in the automotive and aviation sectors and presumably...
Orbite receives Notice of Allowance for Canadian fly ash monetization patent
Orbite Technologies Inc.announced announce that it was advised by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) that its patent application No. 2,862,307 titled "Processes for Treating Fly Ash" has been found allowable. Consequently, the company has processed payment of the requisite fees and anticipates patent issuance within CIPO's usual timeframe of 9-12 weeks. The patent covers the selective extraction and recovery of valuable elements from fly ash, the residue from coal combustion, using Orbite's chloride-based technology. As opposed to other extraction technologies, Orbite's process has the ability to recover all valuable constituents of a feedstock, including scandium, gallium, rare earths and rare metals, alumina, magnesium oxide and titanium dioxide. Fly ash increasingly has...
Norsk Hydro split-up seen as likely following Alcoa's separation
Norsk Hydro ASA, Europe’s third largest aluminum producer, is likely to follow its larger competitor Alcoa Inc. in splitting itself to better cope with a slump in the aluminum market, according to an analyst at Norway’s Fondsfinans AS. It’s “just a matter of time” but Hydro is “not known as a fast mover in that respect,” said Morten Normann, an analyst at Fondsfinans. Alcoa, the largest U.S. aluminum maker, announced Monday it will break itself up into an upstream and downstream company. The upstream business, which will retain the name, includes bauxite mines, alumina refineries and smelters while the downstream business includes value-added aluminum products. After the split Oslo-based Hydro is, according to Fondsfinans, the only “sizable” integrated producer left in the aluminum...
Insimbi eyes exports with new smelter
Alloys supplier Insimbi said the commissioning of its new aluminium plant was "imminent" and it expected the smelter to be fully operational by "no later than November". The Johannesburg smelter is set to improve operational efficiencies and recoveries, helping the group capture foreign revenue it hopes will offset slowing demand at home. "We are actively looking for other markets for our range of aluminium products, and with a weak currency, there are opportunities in the export market," the company said in its interim results statement. Insimbi supplies alloys and refractory materials to the steel, aluminium, foundry and cement industries in SA and the rest of Africa. For the six months to August, orders from its two existing aluminium smelters declined as margins in the steel industry...
GARMCO signs Re-melt expansion contract with Fives
GARMCO, the Bahrain-based international aluminum rolling mill and one of the largest downstream aluminum facilities in the Middle East, has awarded today a contract worth $47 million to Fives, an industrial engineering group and supplier of machines, process equipment and production lines for the world’s largest industrial companies, to build a new state of art cast house at GARMCO’s Bahrain based facilities. The Re-melt Project is an EPC (Engineering, Procurement & Construction) Turn-Key project, which will enable GARMCO to develop its metal recycling capability and lower the cost of metal casting. The project will run for a duration of approximately 21 months, starting September 2015. The first stage has already commenced and is being managed internally by GARMCO with the support of a...
Indian aluminium producers seek 15% import duty in FY17 Budget
Battered by surge in imports from China and West Asia, the domestic aluminium producers under the banner of Aluminium Association of India (AAI) have sought an enabling provision of 15 per cent duty on aluminium imports in the Budget for 2016-17. "We have sought an enabling provision of 15 per cent duty on aluminium imports in the next Union Budget. Before that, we want the import duty to be doubled from five per cent to 10 per cent. We have placed our concerns before the Union finance minister and he has responded positively", said T K Chand, chairman-cum-managing director, National Aluminium Company (Nalco). With the surge of more than 1.5 million tonne per annum (mtpa) import of aluminium to the country, the share of domestic producers in the market has dropped drastically to 45 per...
Fresh selling seen in aluminium, down at 103.25
Aluminium settled down -1.01% at 103.25 as prices remains under pressure from oversupply, especially from China, but nearer term tightness has emerged. China's economic growth will be largely stable in the third quarter as the impact from a stock market plunge will be limited, a government body said. The U.S. economy expanded more than previously estimated in the second quarter, backing the case for an interest rate rise before year end, raising headwinds for commodities by eroding purchasing power for buyers holding other currencies. The aluminum exports from the US and Canada declined sharply by 23.5% during the initial seven-month period of the year. The exports totaled 1.671 billion lb during this period. Meantime, imports surged higher by 19.3% year-on-year to 3.563 million lb. The...
New China air pollution laws may hit aluminum ingredient
New air pollution laws set to take effect in China next year may cut supply of a vital feedstock for the manufacture of aluminum, bumping up costs for a sector that has been battling with prices near multi-year lows. Legislators have approved amendments to China's 15-year-old air pollution law that give the state new powers to punish offenders and create a legal framework to cap coal consumption, the Asian giant's biggest source of smog. The amendments also flag tighter standards for the use of petroleum coke, a byproduct of oil refining and an essential ingredient for the global aluminum industry. A clampdown on high sulfur petcoke could force global aluminum makers to compete for limited supplies of the low sulfur option, hiking costs, speeding closures and dragging on the share prices...
Automotive sector to drive aluminium growth, says metallurgist
Metallurgical plant and rolling mill technology provider SMS Group has identified the automotive industry as a crucial target market for the company where its aluminium rolling technology can be applied, says SMS Group technical services South Africa executive VP Michael Schäfer. In its 2015 newsletter, published in May 2015 , SMS Group GmbH - SMS Group South Africa’s parent company – noted the high investment from aluminium producers in preparation for increased aluminium demand. The company also highlighted that it was developing new rolling mills and heat-treatment facilities, with existing mills increasingly being modernised to meet the demand of the automotive industry. Schäfer explains that the automotive sector is one of the fastest-growing sectors in terms of aluminium flat-rolled...
Crown Holdings to increase beverage can capacity in Turkey
Crown Holdings, Inc. a leading supplier of metal packaging products worldwide, announced it is investing in a second line at its Osmaniye plant, in central southern Turkey, to produce aluminum beverage cans. The plant currently produces 800 million beverage cans, serving customers in Turkey and neighboring markets. Crown operates two beverage can plants in Turkey, in Izmit and Osmaniye, manufacturing a wide range of aluminum can sizes. Crown is installing the new capacity in response to growing demand in Turkey, where sales of empty beverage cans exceeded 2.6 billion units last year, and surrounding countries. The new line is expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2017 and have initial annual production capacity of approximately 900 million two-piece aluminum beverage cans in...
Granco Clark exhibits at Aluminum USA Nov 11-12, at Cobo Center, Detroit
Granco Clark, the world leading extrusion equipment manufacturer, will be exhibiting at the Aluminum USA Nov 11-12, at Cobo Center, Detroit, Michighan. Like the Cobo Center, named “Best in Class”, it is very fitting that Granco Clark exhibits at the Aluminum USA show. “Aluminium USA is the place to be to get a comprehensive overview of the entire aluminum industry. With Aluminium USA, Reed Exhibitions expands its world leading brand Aluminium to one of the most important markets for the global aluminum industry. It is the meeting place for suppliers of raw material, semi-finished and finished products, surface treatment and producers of machinery, plant and equipment for aluminum processing and manufacturing," says an executive from Granco Clark. "The United States is the world's third...
EPA issues final NESHAP rule for secondary aluminum production
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has updated national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants to account for changes to the secondary aluminum production category. Secondary aluminum production facilities include those with an aluminum scrap shredder or with a sweat furnace. The new requirements apply to aluminum scrap shredders at major-source facilities and to sweat furnaces at major- and at area-source facilities. The changes went into effect Sept. 18, 2015. The compliance date for the final amendments listed in 40 CFR 63.1501(b) for existing secondary aluminum production affected sources is March 16, 2016. The compliance date for the final amendments listed in 40 CFR 63.1501(c) for existing affected sources is Sept. 18, 2017. Owners or operators of new affected...
