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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Oman's Sohar Aluminum has taken delivery of its first vessel from Australia. The vessel, one of the two ships commissioned for Sohar Aluminum and is operated by Oman Shipping Company is dedicated to ship alumina and petroleum coke for Sohar Aluminum for a period of 15 years.
Bookings to remove aluminum held in warehouses in Asia have surged to the highest level in at least 13 years, prompting speculation that record fees for supplies in the U.S. and Europe may be drawing away inventories. So-called canceled warrants from Asian stockpiles monitored by the London Metal Exchange soared to 102,475 metric tons on June 10, the highest level since at least 1998, according to data tracked by Bloomberg. On May 18, the total from the region was 525 tons. The average over the past year was 11,242 tons. The jump in removal requests may reflect increased global competition for the metal used in autos and packaging. Bottlenecks in the U.S. warehousing system combined with the use of metal for financing deals may have cut the amount that’s available even as total LME...
The spot price of domestic aluminum ranged in the 16,490 to 16,670 per ton range in April. Early month trading was in the doldrums. Better external markets drove domestic aluminum prices to rise, but prices continued because of weak demand downstream and trading was flat. Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) aluminum was not driven upward by gains in markets around the spot aluminum ingot prices that remained stable. Trading levels were a bit dull and downstream aluminum factory purchases remained relatively cautious. The tightening of monetary policy will inevitably cause tensions in market funds while suppressing the development of aluminum. In April, the spot zinc market was overall in decline, Zinc inventories are still maintaining a surplus state. Holders showed strong intentions to sell...
Reuters reported that the premium for primary aluminum shipments to Japan in the July to September quarter has been set at USD 120 per tonne for at least one deal up from USD 113 for the current April to June quarter. An industry source directly involved in the premium talks said that despite the sluggish outlook for domestic demand, Japanese buyers have braced for an increase in the premium as suppliers cited high premiums in Europe and the United States. The premium was generally in line with what many buyers had expected.
The Khakas Republic has reconnected a broken railway bridge across the Abakan River, paving the way for Russia's Rusal to resume deliveries of bulk alumina to its aluminum smelters in Siberia, a source familiar with the plants' operations said Tuesday. After the bridge collapsed on May 7 Rusal resorted to trucking bagged alumina to the smelters. Rusal bought 18,000 mt of Australian-made alumina that was bagged in and shipped from China. Apart from a higher unit cost for the small consignment, there would have been added handling and transhipment costs, market participants said. "It was an expensive experience," said the source. A China-based alumina market participant estimated that transportation, break bulk and loading expenses in China alone would have cost about Yuan 180/mt or $28/mt.
Orders to draw aluminum from London Metal Exchange inventories climbed, nearing the highest level in more than 13 years, on an increase in California. Total canceled warrants, as the orders are known, rose 6,775 metric tons to 529,725 tons, daily exchange figures showed. A further increase of 50 tons would return warrants to the highest level since at least October 1997, reached June 6. Canceled warrants surged to 12,300 tons in Long Beach, which stores 24,150 tons of the lightweight metal. That was the first change for the location since March 11, 2010, data compiled by Bloomberg shows. Total aluminum stockpiles fell for a 10th day, declining 7,800 tons to 4.66 million tons. Copper inventories rose 400 tons to 477,150 tons, remaining at the highest level since May 27, 2010. They’re up 37...
Orders to draw aluminum from London Metal Exchange inventories climbed, nearing the highest level in more than 13 years, on an increase in California. Total canceled warrants, as the orders are known, rose 6,775 metric tons to 529,725 tons, daily exchange figures showed. A further increase of 50 tons would return warrants to the highest level since at least October 1997, reached June 6. Canceled warrants surged to 12,300 tons in Long Beach, which stores 24,150 tons of the lightweight metal. That was the first change for the location since March 11, 2010, data compiled by Bloomberg shows. Total aluminum stockpiles fell for a 10th day, declining 7,800 tons to 4.66 million tons. Copper inventories rose 400 tons to 477,150 tons, remaining at the highest level since May 27, 2010. They’re up 37...
Nalco has hardly gained from the rise in aluminium prices, as other input costs (chiefly coal and fuel) and employee expenses weighed down profitability during the March FY11 quarter. Although the company has major capacity expansion plans underway, its dependency on third parties for raw materials is likely to continue to keep margins compressed in the coming quarters. Nalco's fourth quarter can be considered as one of the slowest in the past six quarters due to flat year-on-year volumes in alumina and aluminium. On an 11% sales growth of Rs 1,787.51 crore, the company earned an operating profit of Rs 453.66 crore, down 9% year-on-year. Raw material costs, which were 33% higher than last year, coupled with a 30% rise in staffing costs caused a 600-point year-on-year decline in the...
Shares of Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) surged by the 10 percent daily limit to 11.14 yuan ($1.72) on Wednesday on the Shanghai Stock Exchange after its parent company announced the establishment of a rare earth extraction unit in Jiangsu Province to consolidate five local rare earth firms. Hong Kong-listed shares in Chalco, the country's top producer of nonferrous metals like aluminum and copper, also rose 4 percent on Wednesday. The unit in Jiangsu, founded Tuesday, will have a production capacity of more than 30,000 tons of rare earth, according to an emailed statement from the company on Wednesday. "Chalco has progressed in the rare earth smelting sector since it entered the industry two years ago, but it still hasn't made enough advances in the upper reaches of the industrial...
Reuters reported that Rio Tinto Alcan sees strong demand for aluminum in all sectors but remains cautious about its medium term outlook because of the high level of the inventories in London Metal Exchange warehouses. Ms Jacynthe Cote CEO of Rio Tinto Alcan said that concerns about European debt, US unemployment, Chinese inflation and the pace of the recovery in Japan also cloud the near term view of aluminum demand. Ms Cote said that she was bullish long term but those are indicators we look at carefully. The economic recovery will not be linear. There will be ups and downs in the global recovery. Physical demand remains strong in all applications. But we're concerned about whether debt in Europe could bring more pressure on the European economy. China is still fighting inflation. As...
Aluminum buyers in Japan, Asia’s largest importer, agreed to a 6 percent gain in premiums charged by suppliers to the highest level in a year as the nation rebuilds from a record earthquake, boosting consumption. Premiums for the three months ending Sept. 30 were set at $120 a metric ton over the London Metal Exchange cash price in transactions agreed so far, compared with $113 this quarter, said three executives involved in the negotiations. They declined to be identified because the talks were private. The fee increased after premiums paid by buyers in North America climbed to a record, making it viable for producers to shift the metal away from Asia. Premiums in the U.S. surged to a record last month at 9 cents a pound ($198 a ton), driven by a delay in moving stockpiles out of...
The new method for dictating how alumina contracts are priced is gaining traction, even among aluminum producers that previously opposed it, they told a conference Tuesday. The world's largest aluminum producers, including U.S.-based Alcoa Inc. (AA) and London-listed Rio Tinto Alcan, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto PLC (RTP), have been strong proponents of the move to link pricing to costs. Previously, alumina contracts were priced relative to the aluminum price on the London Metal Exchange. "We're very pleased with how the pricing structure is maturing," said Alcoa's chief sustainability officer Kevin Anton, adding that there was ample transparency with the new indices that have been developed. "The push to new pricing was due to cost input factors in making alumina, and there was a disconnect...
Company also promotes Tim Keesling to environmental director. Hydro Aluminum’s Extrusion North America unit, headquartered in Linthicum Heights, Md., has named Jack Patrick its health and safety director. The company also announced the promotion of Tim Keesling to environmental director. Patrick has more than 20 years experience in health, safety and the environment in diverse business sectors. Keesling will focus on improving the Extrusion North America unit’s environmental programs and compliance. He has been with Hydro for three years. Extrusion North America is a unit of Norsk Hydro, a global supplier of aluminum and aluminum products based in Norway.
Worldal reported that first samples of aluminum have been produced by Exploration Orbite from Smelter Grade Alumina. This initiative represents a major milestone for Orbite. The SGA helps meet industry specifications for particle size and purity. A Canadian research facility has confirmed the quality of SGA through electrolysis smelting. Mr Lionel Roue professor of INRS EMC helped in the production of SGA samples. The aluminum has undergone a number of electrolysis smelting testing at the INRS. The tests showed that the faradaic efficiency and electrical potential of the SGA samples are consistent. The samples are same like metallurgical alumina which is generally used by global aluminum smelters. The experiments also confirmed that Orbite’s alumina exhibits a similar characteristic into...
The U.S. aluminum market improved more last year than many had expected and this year may be even better, predicted Steven Demetriou, chairman and chief executive officer of Aleris International Inc., Beachwood, Ohio. Demetriou was part of a press roundtable at the Aluminum Association and Aluminum Extruders Council joint spring meeting in Fort Myers, Fla., in mid-April. “Overall, it has been an excellent beginning of a recovery,” said Demetriou, current chairman of the Aluminum Association. He expressed some reticence about the questionable pace of growth for the next 12 to 18 months, “but once we get beyond 2011, and housing and some of the other lagging markets get back on track, we could see some pretty interesting years.” The association board members admitted that some of the gains...
A recovery in global auto and aerospace demand and continued strength in emerging markets should underpin a sharp rise in aluminum demand this year, an executive at the world's largest producer of the metal said Tuesday. Speaking at an industry conference, Kevin Anton, chief sustainability officer at Alcoa Inc. (AA), said aluminum demand should grow by 12% in 2011 from year-earlier levels, citing rising automotive and aerospace demand as well as growing appetites for the metal from emerging markets. "We're seeing orders [in the truck market] that we haven't seen in years," Anton said. Anton said Brazil should see demand increase dramatically in the coming years as the country improves its infrastructure to prepare to host the World Cup soccer tournament in 2014 and the summer Olympic...
Worldal reported that Venezuela's government has approved USD 70 million for badly needed raw materials and replacement parts at CVG Alcasa smelter. A spokeswoman with the company said that the money has been approved, but the allocation order still has to be signed by President Mr Hugo Chavez. Alcasa has been suffering with a cash flow crisis that has prevented the Puerto Ordaz based smelter from buying raw materials in a timely fashion to maintain normal, smooth running operations. She said that currently, only 170 of 398 cells are functioning at the 170,000 tonne per year primary aluminum smelter but, a cell reconditioning project is underway to recuperate 30 of the inoperative cells. Alcasa also remains mired in internal political problems. Fighting broke out between rival groups at...
Controversial mining firm Vedanta has created a new global comms leadership role, as it bids to rehabilitate a reputation that has been dogged by numerous environmental and human rights allegations. The company, founded in India but now headquartered and listed in London, has poached Senjam Raj Sekhar, one of India’s most experienced corporate communications specialists, for the role. Sekhar joins from Indian conglomerate Bharti Enterprises, where he headed communications for the past six years, helping it navigate its expansion across 19 countries in Asia and Africa. He told the Holmes Report that the opportunity presents a “new challenge. “Vedanta operates in a sensitive sector with multiple stakeholder interests,” added Sekhar. “Corporate communications can play a vital role in leading...
