Feb 6-10: A weekly recap of the global primary aluminium industry

The past week saw two of the biggest aluminium producers of the world- Norsk Hydro and Rio Tinto announcing their financial results for the fourth quarter and full-year period of 2016 ending December 31.  While Hydro’s EBITDA for fourth quarter of the last fiscal rose to NOK 1,829 million (up 23.8% quarter-on-quarter), and Rio posted record annual production across all its verticals in the Aluminium group. Rio Tinto produced a total volume of 3,646,000 tonnes (3.64 million tonnes) of aluminium in 2016, up 10 per cent from the previous year.  Hydro’s primary aluminium production in the Q4 totalled 526 kilo tonnes and for the full year stood at 2.085 million tonnes up from 2.046 tonnes in 2015. Underlying EBIT for primary metal declined somewhat in Q4, but was largely offset by higher realized aluminium prices.

World Trade:

The delegation of the European Union circulated a communication to the delegation of China, the delegation of the United States and to the Chairperson of the Dispute Settlement Body officially requesting to join the WTO consultation launched by the US on Chinese subsidies to producers of primary aluminium.

According to Aluminium Highlights published by the Aluminum Association, domestic U.S. and Canadian producers shipped an estimated 1,712 million pounds of aluminium (including export) during December 2016. It registers a 1.9% drop from the December 2015 total of 1,746 million pounds.  For the full year, mill product shipments were slightly down from 2015.

Aluminium exports by the Russian Federation increased last year totalling 3,481,400 tonnes, reported the State Customs Committee of the Russian Federation.  In 2017, till October, Russia is estimated to ship around 3.06 million tonnes of aluminium, up 1.9 per cent from the corresponding period last year. Realization from export of the commodity is estimated to total US$5.3 billion till October 2017, down 5.3% from 2016.

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India Focus:

Navaratna PSU National Aluminium Company Ltd (Nalco) signed a Memorandum of Undertaking (MoU) with Neelachal Inspat Nigam Limited (NINL) for establishing a joint-venture coal tar pitch producing company. The plan involves establishment of a coal tar distillation plant using raw material produced by the domestic steel producer's coke oven plant located in Odisha's Kalinganagar industrial town. The plant has an annual capacity of 1.1 million tonne.

Indian government said yesterday that the centre is considering taking further actions in order to protect the interests of the domestic aluminium industry without affecting the interests of downstream industries. A Parliamentary Panel explained, "The mines ministry is again considering to take further steps for the survival of the aluminium industry. For this purpose, several meetings have been held with the representatives of primary producers of aluminium as well as secondary producers of aluminium/downstream industries."

On the production side:

Bosnian aluminium smelter Aluminij on Monday, February 6, proclaimed that the company has proposed to the state-level government to put an end to the import tax on unalloyed aluminium in order to reduce cost of production and boost productivity. According to company, Aluminij smelter could melt 25,000 tonnes of unalloyed aluminium per year utilizing fuel gas substituting electricity. With the implementation of this, Bosnian aluminium smelter will raise its production output by 30% as well as secure the state extra $50 million in exports.

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