Century Aluminum’s proposed USD 4 billion primary aluminum smelter in Inola, Oklahoma, is “moving forward on all fronts” as the company prepares for construction, despite local opposition and legal challenges, CEO Jesse Gary said during the company’s third-quarter earnings call. Developed jointly by Century Aluminum and Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), the project is designed to produce 750,000 tonnes of primary aluminum annually, potentially doubling U.S. primary aluminum production. The facility is expected to create thousands of direct and indirect jobs and add USD 1.5 billion to Oklahoma’s gross domestic product, according to company estimates. The partners had targeted construction to begin by the end of 2026. However, local restrictions and permitting challenges have affected the...
LME aluminium stocks declined by more than half during the first nine months of 2026, falling by 267,875 tonnes from 509,250 tonnes on January 2 to 241,375 tonnes on September 30 (52.6 per cent). The decline continued throughout the period, with average warehouse inventories falling each month. Compared with the same period in 2025, monthly average stocks were lower across all nine months, with the gap widening in the third quarter. Q1 LME aluminium stocks fall 18.2 per cent LME aluminium inventories continued to decline during Q1 2026. Month-end stocks fell from 495,725 tonnes in January to 465,550 tonnes in February, before dropping further to 416,775 tonnes in March. Monthly average inventories stood at 498,670 tonnes in January, 481,801 tonnes in February and 440,710 tonnes in March....
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LME aluminium will retest a resistance at $2,248 per tonne, and head towards $2,284 thereafter. The first BID to clear this 38.2 percent Fibonacci retracement on the fall from $2,438 to $2,130 has failed, and chances are good for the second attempt to succeed. The 50 percent retracement at $2,284 will be immediately available once the metal stands firm above $2,248. Support is at $2,203, a fall below which will extend to $2,174.
Vedanta Resources Plc fiscal Q2 output at its Tuticorin smelter rose 28% while aluminum production fell 8%. Vedanta said that aluminum output fell 8% to 149,000 tonnes. London based Vedanta is in the final stage of completing its purchase of a majority stake in Cairn India Limited which will give it access to India’s biggest onshore oil deposit. Cairn India shareholders and Oil & Natural Gas Corporation its partner in the oil fields approved Vedanta’s acquisition. Liberum Capital Limited said that with deal closure, envisaged by the end of the month, Vedanta will reach a key landmark in delivering transformational earnings to drive rapid deleveraging.
Navaratna PSU National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO) has bagged top export award of CAPEXIL, for its outstanding export performance during 2010-11. During the fiscal 2010-11, NALCO exported 639,855 MT alumina and 98,200 MT aluminium to different countries earning Rs 2,065 crore. The company is exporting its products including calcined alumina and aluminium metal to 15 countries across the globe.
Rising electricity prices pose a challenge for the global aluminum industry as the cost of aluminum production continues to climb, Gordon Hamilton, a vice president of sales and marketing at aluminum maker Rio Tinto Alcan, said Tuesday. Aluminum production is a very energy intensive process, where electricity cost can outweigh the cost of raw materials.
Harbor Intelligence Tuesday downgraded its outlook for aluminum prices in 2011 and 2012, saying that prices have fallen out of a medium-term upward trend partly as a result of a "significant spike" in fear over a contraction in global manufacturing and the euro-zone debt crisis. The aluminum analysis firm cut its average aluminum price forecast for this year to $2,459 a metric ton from $2,514/ton previously and its 2012 forecast to $2,613/ton from $3,100/ton. "Fear could continue to appreciate the U.S. Dollar and incentive funds to further short aluminum and thus temporarily take prices as low as $2,000/ton in the short-term," it said. Like other dollar-denominated assets, aluminum prices can struggle when the dollar strengthens, as it makes the metal appear more expensive to other...
Energy company ERM Power has secured a deal to sell gas from its Gingin reserves to aluminium giant,Alcoa. Under the agreement, ERM will provide Alcoa with 15,000-terajoules of gas from its Gingin and Red Gully fields, north of Perth. Alcoa will make a staged pre-payment of $25-million, allowing ERM to fund the construction of a gas and condensation plant. ERM says the agreement is a significant milestone which lays a solid foundation for the company's transition from exploration to production of gas. The company expects to start supplying Alcoa with gas by November next year. The deal still requires approval from Alcoa's parent company.
IIFL Institutional Equities, a part of the IIFL Group, one of the leading players in the Indian financial services space, recommends ‘Add’ on Hindalco Industries given the high margin of safety and relatively higher earnings visibility. At recent site visits at Hindalco’s aluminium plant at Renukoot in Uttar Pradesh and the forthcoming aluminium smelter at Mahan, Madhya Pradesh, IIFL noted that work at the latter was progressing at breakneck speed and project timelines indicated by the company looked optimistic. According to IIFL, raw material sourcing rather than execution was the key challenge. While coal linkage and alumina-availability issues should be resolved in the medium term, production cost could rise to $2,000/tonne in the interim, the report said. The brokerage believes that...
Aluminum will have the strongest demand growth among industrial metals right until the end of 2015, Bloomberg reports. In the next four years, aluminum demand will grow by about 7.6% per year, while in 2015, an oversupply will be replaced by a deficit.
Rio Tinto Alcan has signed a contract with Norwegian company HMR Hydeq. HMR will deliver a complete tapping system for the expansion of production capacity at the Alcan Iceland smelter in Straumsvik, Iceland. The agreement includes five tapping vehicles with the crucible cleaner and other auxiliary equipment. Rio Tinto Alcan will invest of $487M to modernise and increase the ISAL smelter's capacity by 20%. The smelter is expected to commence the production increase in April 2012 and complete it by July 2014. The first delivery from HMR will take place in December this year. The contract is to be completed in Q1 2012. Scope of delivery covers also start-up and training of ISAL’s staff. HMR Hydeq will have staff located in Alcan Iceland, to follow up maintenance of vehicles and mechanical...
With coal supply well on the path of recovery, National Aluminum Company Limited announced that it was all set to achieve full production levels by the end of October. Mr BL Bagra CMD of Nalco said that the aluminum major has started rebuilding on production stock as supplies have resumed from Bharatpur mines of the Mahanadi Coalfields Limited. We expect to restart all 60 pots that were closed on account of the coal supply crisis in October. The PSU had earlier this month placed an import order for 200,000 tonne of coal as supply dipped to 7,400 tonne per day against a requirement of 12,000 tonne causing a loss of at least 1 crore per day. It was also forced to source about 300 MW of power from the State Grid to operate the smelter. With resumption of coal supply, the power drawl from...
LME aluminum is expected to consolidate in a range of USD 2,130 per tonne to USD 2,203 per tonne for one trading session as it is riding on a wave (4). A Fibonacci retracement on the wave (3) fall from USD 2,438 to USD 2,130 reveals a target for a weak wave (4) at USD 2,203, the 23.6% level while a strong wave (4) will be able to travel to USD 2,248, the 38.2% level should a minor resistance at USD 2,215 is broken. A fall below the range will confirm the progress of a downward wave (5) towards USD 2,040.
Emirates Aluminium, a leading single site aluminium smelter complex, recently held a symbolic ground breaking of its Phase II development in the USD 4.5 billion expansion. The ceremony marked the start of construction of the Al Taweelah smelter’s Phase II with completion and full production planned to be reached in little more than two years.This will boost Emal’s total production capacity to around 1.3 million tonnes by the end of 2014. Phase I was completed ahead of time and to budget, and has been making its mark as both a cornerstone project of the UAE’s 2030 Vision and a major new force in the global aluminium market supplying 280 customers in 36 countries with high quality aluminium. Emal Phase II will include the addition of a new potline and will result in the world’s longest ever...
India's state-run National Aluminium Co Ltd (NALCO) will invest $4 billion in an aluminium smelter and power plant in Indonesia's East Kalimantan province, Indonesia's trade minister said on Tuesday. The smelter will have annual capacity of 500,000 tonnes, Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Pangestu told a news conference after talks with his Indian counterpart, Anand Sharma. In late July, NALCO, India's third-largest aluminum maker, said it was in talks with Indonesian state-run mining company PT Antam for setting up a 500,000-tonne aluminum smelter and a 1,260 megawatts captive power plant.
Aluminium may be where your money should be as it has a much better prospect than copper, says CRU, the commodities research specialists. He added that Chinese stockpiling had boosted copper prices for a long time but Copper consumption is threatened by three factors- declining Chinese consumption, Aluminium substitution and mine constraints. Robinson believes that Aluminium has the strongest growth prospect given that both beverage and transportation sectors are strong. "Aluminium is both a nation-building metal and an emerging middle class metal”. He ranks nickel, zinc, copper, Lead and lastly Tin after aluminium.
Commodity prices are on a downhill drive - a glimmer of hope for Indian manufacturers and exporters amid rising inflation, interest rates. Almost all base metals including aluminium, are trading at their calendar year lows, triggered by projections of a tepid economic growth in the West. However, the benefit of lower prices has been negated by depreciation in rupee. Economists said that the falling commodity prices are a good augury for Indian economy as a whole. "A fall in prices will drive down inflation, which in turn soften interest rates and increase profitability margins. We cannot see all these happening very fast, but these are good tidings, at least for now," said Abheek Barua, chief economist of HDFC Bank. Lower commodity prices will have a direct impact on profit margins....
Base metals complex witnessed annihilation in September, with double digit declines on a mom basis seen across the board. In fact, most of the metals, barring Aluminium are down by more than 20% on an YTD basis. Debt jitters in Europe have unnerved the markets, as market participants have lost confidence in European authorities to resolve the escalating debt crisis. Till now, fire-fighting measures by EU officials have been futile, as their endeavour is dwarfed by the huge quantum of the debt load. Effectively, bond yields have soared in countries, which are deemed to the most pregnable to the debt contagion. Specifically, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Ireland or colloquially named as “PIIGS” are considered to be the most susceptible. On the manufacturing front, Purchasing Managers...
National Aluminium Company (Nalco), a navratna company under the Union ministry of mines is looking to rope in one or two strategic investors for its proposed aluminium smelter plant in Indonesia. The aluminium major will form a fully owned subsidiary for its Indonesian project and later hive off its stake to interested firms while retaining the majority stake. Once the project reaches the execution stage, Nalco plans to list the entity at the stock exchanges in Jakarta, Hong Kong and Singapore. “Presently, Pt Antam, a mining firm owned by the Government of Indonesia has evinced interest to pick up 15-20 per cent stake in our proposed smelter project in Indonesia. We are looking to bring in one or two more strategic investors for this project but Nalco will hold the majority stake. Once...
Aiming to become an important global player in metal and energy sectors, aluminium major National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO) is targeting a turnover of Rs. 25,000 crore by 2020 with ambitious diversification and expansion plans involving an investment of Rs. 40,000 crore. “As per its Vision 2020, NALCO envisages to achieve a turnover of Rs. 25,000 crore by year 2020. The company’s business plan envisages an investment of about Rs. 40,000 crore,” B.L. Bagra, CMD, NALCO told reporters in Bhubaneswar. In order to achieve the growth objectives, the Navaratna PSU has put in place a well framed strategy that will help it secure the “position as a reputed global company in the metals and energy sectors,” he said. Announcing a total dividend payout of Rs. 257.72 crore for 2010-11, Mr....
