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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Honda pioneers ablation casting with NSX
Although Honda has yet to reveal the intimate details about the new Acura NSX hybrid supercar, in the latest SAE World Congress the company revealed some interesting features about its body construction including a new aluminium technology used in the car for better rigidity. Honda claims, NSX will be the world’s first vehicle to apply the process of aluminum ablation casting to produce large ultra-rigid nodes or junction points within the crush zones of the body. The ablation nodes will have sockets into which aluminum extrusions will be inserted and then MIG-welded as part of the spaceframe. The ablation castings also allow Honda to use traditional aluminum castings at other strategic locations in the spaceframe and as the primary mounting points for suspension and power-unit...
Kaiser Aluminum announces preliminary first quarter 2015 financial information
Kaiser Aluminum Corporation today announced that, as a result of the definitive expiration of its obligation to make annual variable contributions to the union voluntary employees' beneficiary association (the "Union VEBA") for any period after September 2017, it has removed from the Company's consolidated balance sheet the Union VEBA's plan assets and liabilities, and related deferred tax liabilities and accumulated other comprehensive income amounts. Additionally, the Company has recorded a liability of $45 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2015 to reflect the estimated remaining annual variable contributions that could be made to the Union VEBA through September 2017. As previously announced, on January 28, 2015, members of the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber,...
Ball announces plants with greatest sustainability impact in 2014
Ball Corporation is honoring seven of its 58 global manufacturing plants with the R. David Hoover Sustainability Award for making a substantial impact toward Ball's sustainability goals, both inside the plant and within their communities, in 2014. The annual award recognizes one plant in each region of Ball's global beverage can business and its global food and household products business for the best overall sustainability improvement, as well as greatest impact in their local community. The most sustainable plants of 2014 and examples of their operational achievements from last year include: Global Metal Beverage Packaging • Wallkill, New York (Beverage Cans, North America): Reduced its total recordable incident rate by 66 percent. • Belgrade, Serbia (Ball Packaging Europe): Reduced its...
Vedanta, Jharsuguda hosts BEE's 1st Knowledge Exchange Platform (KEP) for aluminium sector
The 1st Aluminium Sector workshop under Knowledge Exchange Platform (KEP) initiative was hosted by Vedanta, Jharsuguda unit, here at the Auditorium, Vedanta Meadows for exchange of best practices in Aluminium industries covered under the Perform Achieve and Trade (PAT) scheme. PAT is a flagship initiative of Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) Govt. of India, which is a mechanism for promoting energy efficiency in large industries. Ten Aluminium Industrial units covered under the PAT Scheme are expected to achieve energy savings of 0.456 million tonnes of oil equivalent, which is 7% of the total energy savings potential that 478 designated Consumers aim to achieve by 2014-15. The Knowledge Exchange Platform was launched on 26th February, 2015 by BEE in partnership with Institute for...
Press Metal likely to survive the supply glut effectively: say sources
Press Metal has not been having the best phase and the situation is threatening to get worse as China abolishes its export duty on non-alloyed and alloyed aluminium rods and bars starting next month. The company however seems undeterred as a close source to the company says, “We should be okay. We are operating at full capacity.” China’s overproduction and increased exports have already created a supply glut in the global aluminium market affecting the price of the metal. According to reports China has exported 43% more unwrought aluminium and aluminium products in the first quarter of this year amounting to 1.2 million tons. Concerns are arising about the company’s future in the face of this global supply glut although sources believe that Press Metal will not be much affected by the new...
Mining lease issued for the third and largest bauxite site in Fiji
The third bauxite mining site in Fiji has been issued a lease making it the largest site so far in the Northern Division region. Nawailevu was the first site being mined by the Chinese company Aurum Exploration Limited and has yielded almost 1 million tonnes of bauxite. Rehabilitation work has also been initiated at the site by the mining company. Mining work has just begun at the second site in Letuku, Bua expected to yield 400,000 tons of bauxite where the produce will be exported solely to China. The company has now started clearing the third site at Dreketi for mining which covers a larger expanse of area, 222 hectare compared to the 150 hectares of Nawailevu. Malakai Finau, the Mineral Resources Department Director says that the company has just started its work on the site. "In fact...
JNARDDC organizes one day meet on Aluminium extrusions at Nagpur
Jawaharlal Nehru Aluminium Research Development and Design Centre (JNARDDC), is organizing one day Meet on Aluminium extrusions in strategic applications and challenges ahead. The theme of this workshop is to identify strategic applications of aluminium extruded profiles in sectors such as defence, aerospace, automobile etc and share ideas related to aluminium extrusion of hard alloys, potential users, equipment selection suitable for this application, R & D focus for port hole die development to minimize trial and error methods. The Meet will provide a common platform for participants to discuss about technology of aluminium extrusion, the problems faced, the role of simulation in product design changes from end users in the aluminium industry. The target audience for the Meet are...
Market flooded with non-standard aluminium shapes due to "cherry-picking'
Much of the aluminum currently available in the United States is of shapes and profiles that are less than ideal for U.S. fabricators, prompting traders to sell it at discounts and raising concerns about the availability of standard shapes. A high physical premium has attracted imports from abroad, and a weakening forward curve has encouraged traders to withdraw metal from storage in U.S. warehouses for quick sale, flooding the market with aluminum. However, U.S. traders and industry sources said very little of that aluminum is low-profile sow or t-bar, the shapes that U.S. rolling mills are best equipped to use in fabricating sheet for the beverage can and automotive industries. T-bars are long, smooth slabs of metal with a short base that enables forklift operators to transport them,...
Moscow Recycling aluminum can buy-back day .45 per pound
If you have any soda or beer cans lying around, Saturday's the day to recycle them. Right now recycling one pound of cans will fetch about 30-cents. But on Saturday, Moscow Recycling is offering 45-cents per pound. It only takes about 30 cans to make a pound. And every little bit helps because aluminum can be recycled over and over again. "It saves not only cans from going into the landfill but from the natural resources and the raw resources it takes: the bauxite it takes to make an aluminum can," said Sandye Crooks, Community Outreach and Education Coordinator. The buy-back runs from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Moscow Recycling. There'll be free goodies, drinks and healthy snacks, as well as gift certificate giveaways and a raffle.
Alupro calls for changes to PRN system
Metal recycling organisation Alupro has called for an “overhaul” of how PRNs are issued, following a shortfall in the amount of aluminium packaging recovered in the first quarter of 2015. Alupro, which represents aluminium packaging producers, claims that delays in the accreditation process means that a large amount of aluminium recovered from incinerator bottom ash (IBA) has been underreported in the provisional data. The interim figures, which were published by the Environment Agency earlier show that 14,871 tonnes of aluminium was accepted or exported between January and March 2015 – below the estimated 18,000 tonne quarterly obligation that producers needed to be on course to meet the 2015 target. Some industry experts blamed the shortfall on the removal of protocols for aluminium...
Scraping China export taxes may worsen aluminium oversupply problem
China is already infamous for its excess production of aluminium causing a global oversupply hampering the aluminium prices. Now as they announce scraping the export taxes on some products, they may worsen the situation even further. While the world aluminium producers hurried to cut production to reduce supply and boost aluminium prices, China continued its relentless production despite facing crippling losses. Suffering aluminium smelters were buoyed by government subsidies creating a disparity in the global aluminium situation. The world aluminium industry, outside China, faced aluminium deficiency while China was in oversupply. Still the situation was in control because of China’s duty placed on the export of primary metal. Ma Kai, a Beijing-based analyst at China International...
Power cuts to shrink Hulamin’s H1 earnings 20%
While noting that it was not possible to forecast the extent of electricity curtailment over the remainder of the year, aluminium manufacturer Hulamin says it is “already clear” that its earnings per share (EPS) and headline earnings per share (HEPS) for the six months to June 30 will be more than 20% lower than those of the first six months of the prior year. The company outlined in a trading update on Thursday that first-quarter manufacturing output had been severely impacted by electricity supply curtailments by energy utility Eskom, as well as quality issues on two product lines. Hulamin operated a complex serial manufacturing process that ran on a continuous basis and, as a result, lost production could not be recovered. “Product temperatures must be carefully maintained within...
'Made for Seychelles' - Uniquely packaged Coke, Fanta and Sprite cans hit the market
Seychelles Breweries Ltd (SBL), the Indian Ocean island archipelago's only brewery, is for the first time making available canned versions of Coca-Cola, Sprite and Fanta, three of its lines of soft drinks bottled and sold locally. All three soft drink brands are produced under license from the Coca-Cola Company, an American multinational beverage manufacturer, which is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with authorized bottlers worldwide. Seychelles Breweries, being the only authorized bottler of the Coca-Cola Company in the Indian Ocean archipelago, was already producing Coca-Cola, Sprite and Fanta locally in 500 ml and 1.5 litre plastic polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles. In a press statement sent to SNA, the company's Managing Director Patricia Berthelot, said the new 330 ml...
UC Rrusal announces management changes in its aluminium division
UC RUSAL, a leading global aluminium producer, announces the appointment of Evgeny Zenkin as Managing Director of the Bratsk Aluminium Smelter (BrAZ). Andrey Volvenkin, who previously held this position, has been promoted to a managerial position within the Aluminium Division. As Managing Director, Evgeny Zenkin’s focus will be to increase the value-added products’ output and diversification of the product line, product quality improvement, further development of RUSAL’s business-system at BrAZ as well as the implementation of new technologies that will help alleviate environmental impacts. Evgeny Zenkin has 20 years’ experience in the metallurgy sector. Evgeny started his career at BrAZ, then occupied a managerial position at RUSAL’s Service Centre, heading the Russian Engineering...
Aluminum industry announces partnership with department of energy to expand workforce, improve technology
The Aluminum Association announced today a new partnership with the Department of Energy (DOE) to increase the number of aluminum industry jobs in the United States and explore new, sustainable technologies to advance U.S. manufacturing. The DOE’s Aluminum Industry Jobs Partnership will identify opportunities to expand plant capacity and improve workforce development systems to help bring qualified candidates to the industry. Today, the $65 billion aluminum industry directly employs around 155,000 workers in the United States. The Aluminum Industry Jobs Partnership will be composed of participants from the Aluminum Association and its member companies as well as the DOE Jobs Strategy Council (JSC) and Office of the Secretary. The JSC is a cross-cutting initiative that integrates the...
China hunts for bauxite under coal fields as shallow-buried resources deplete
China’s demand for bauxite buried below coal fields is growing rapidly with shallow-buried resources are running out, Shanghai Metals Market has found. New bauxite reserves in the west of Caoyao coal field in Mianchi County, Henan, exceed 160 million tonnes, a survey conducted during 2011-2013 showed. Elsewhere in the province, the amount of bauxite buried under coal field of Yiyang County was estimated at 41.58 million tonnes, according to a pre-study of mining zones already under construction. In addition, an estimated 91.91 million tonnes of bauxite have been discovered in Yuzhou coal field, and the nine ore bodies of Yanlong coal field surveyed boast some 115 million tonnes of bauxite. Chalco has started developing mining technologies for bauxite mining under coal field to explore...
China’s strong domestic alumina demand boosts production and reduces imports
China is enjoying a robust demand for alumina in the domestic market that has pushed up the country’s output by 8.7% to a record high of 4.71 million tons this March reducing its reliance on alumina imports which fell 42.1% from last year to 218,000 tons. The domestic alumina is more attractive due to its lower price compared to the imported kind. The average alumina ex-works Henan and Shanxi was noted at RMB 2,673 yuan/ton and 2,597 yuan/ton respectively while imported alumina traded at 2,670 yuan/ton at the Port of Lianyungang. Driven by the encouraging demand in the domestic front, alumina refineries in the country are planning to expand their operations. Weiqiao Pioneering’s 1 million-tpy Phase 1 alumina capacity in Indonesia will enter the trade market this year, while the Phase II...
Aluminium end-products cheaper to make as premiums ease
Car frames, soda cans and bicycles are becoming less expensive to produce as manufacturers pay the smallest premiums in almost three years to secure aluminum. The surcharge added to the cost of metal for immediate delivery on the London Metal Exchange will probably fall as much as 46 percent in the U.S. and Europe by the end of 2015, according to Harbor Aluminum Intelligence. Premiums in Europe have slumped to the lowest in 34 months, down from a record in November, data from the Austin, Texas-based researcher show. Aluminum consumers including beermaker MillerCoors LLC and fabricator Novelis Inc. had complained that some warehouse companies were creating backlogs and inflating their costs. Premiums are now falling as wait times shrink and storage companies no longer compete with...
