South32 expects the sale of its aluminium value chain assets to Alcoa to be completed in the six months ending June 2027. The proposed transaction covers its aluminium operations and related bauxite and alumina assets in South Africa, Australia and Brazil. The sale follows a binding conditional agreement signed by the two companies, under which Alcoa agreed to acquire the assets for up to USD 5.6 billion . The assets include South32's Hillside Aluminium smelter and the idled Bayside smelter in South Africa, its interests in the Boddington bauxite mine and Worsley alumina refinery in Australia, and the Mineração Rio do Norte bauxite mine and Alumar alumina refinery and aluminium smelter in Brazil. Explore the production, demand and consumption forecasts of bauxite and alumina in our...
LME aluminium cash prices recorded an increase on November 5, 2026, with the cash offer price rising by 0.80 per cent day on day to USD 3,160 per tonne from USD 3,135 per tonne on November 4. On November 5, the LME aluminium cash bid price stood at USD 3,158 per tonne, up by 0.75 per cent from USD 3,134.5 per tonne recorded on November 4. The cash offer price increased by USD 25 per tonne. Similarly, LME aluminium 3-month prices moved higher. The 3-month bid price rose by 0.78 per cent to USD 3,097 per tonne on November 5 from USD 3,073 per tonne on November 4. The 3-month offer price increased by 0.76 per cent to USD 3,097.5 per tonne from USD 3,074 per tonne. For December 27 contracts, the bid price advanced by 0.33 per cent to USD 2,997 per tonne on November 5 from USD 2,987 per tonne...
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A global aluminium smelter Alba reported its financial results as per the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) accounting rules. The company said its top-line and bottom-line performance for the first quarter of 2017 was driven primarily by higher LME prices and favourable management performance. Alba reported a net income of BD 25.6 million (US$ 68 million) in the first quarter of 2017 versus BD 4.2 million (US$ 11 million) in Q1 2016. The income increased by 506 per cent year-on-year (YoY). Alba’s Chief Executive Officer, Tim Murray said, "Alba continues to improve its underlining performance through leveraging the recent gains in LME prices. Despite the recent power outage incident, Alba still expects to deliver strong results in 2017.” The company’s total sales stands at...
LME aluminium prices remained fairly unchanged over the weekend. The lightmetal contract closed the week at US$1,932.50 per tonne on Friday, April 21, marginally down by 0.02 per cent from its previous close of US$1,933 per tonne. The US dollar index, which fell on Friday supporting LME aluminium prices ahead of French elections, has edged slightly higher amid speculations in the non-commercial futures market. The uptrend is likley to weigh down upon the base metals, but the effect would be limited. According to Reuters' analysis, LME aluminium may test a support at U$1,931 per tonne, as suggested by its wave pattern and a Fibonacci projection analysis. Shanghai Metals Market foresees, LME aluminium will rebound to US$1,926-1,966 per tonne on Monday, April 24. As on April 21, LME official...
The Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering (MME) at Visvesvarya National Institute of Technology (VNIT) announced last week that it intends to get a 'chair professor in Aluminium' soon. The chair, to be set up by the ministry of mines (MoM) through the city based Jawaharlal Nehru Aluminium Development and Design Centre (JNARDDC), will start functioning from the next academic year onward. According to reliable sources, IIT Bhubaneshwar is also planning to get a similar chair for its own metallurgy department. It is a norm in the academia to select the chair professor on the basis of his contribution in the particular subject and field. The 'chair professor in Aluminium' should be one who will be able to guide and motivate budding metallurgists in the institute towards...
India’s leading aluminium producer National Aluminium Company (NALCO) has seen a strong response to their offer for sale (OFS) with the non-retail segment seeing a subscription of 1.84 times and the government has decided to retain full over subscription under the greenshoe option. In a recent interview, TK Chand, CMD of NALCO spoke about the latest happenings in his company and sector. TK Chand said, he expects aluminium price to move between USD 1870 and USD 1950 in FY18. Speaking about recent price increases in the aluminium sector, he said, "In Q4 our margins have significantly improved, so volume and price benefits have come into the company". On OFS, Chand said, "We have offered 5 per cent firm and 5 per cent optional and maybe the offer will be up to 9.2 around, a little less than...
Vedanta Resources plc's subsidiary Vedanta Limited has made an announcement yesterday, 20th April, 2017, that it faced pot outage at its aluminium smelter and the coal handling plant was affected in another incident of fire. Both the incidents occurred earlier this week at its two different sites. The 500kt plant-1 smelter at Jharsuguda had a pot outage incident in Orissa where 228 pots out of the total 608 pots were damaged and taken out of production. According to the statement, “The impacted pots will require to be repaired over the next few months, and put back into production. Timelines will be announced in due course.” A fire broke out at the company’s Wholly Owned Subsidiary Talwandi Sabo Power Plant in Punjab state. The incident took place at the coal handling plant at the 1980 MW...
LME aluminium finally staged a strong reversal on Thursday's night trading and closed at US$1,933 per tonne, rising 1.95 per cent from its previous close of US$1,895.50 per tonne on Wednesday, April 19. As Reuters finds it, LME aluminium faces a resistance at US$1,955 per tonne and may retrace into the range of US$1,924-$1,931. According to Shanghai Metals Market (SMM) forecast, the light metal contract should keep hovering at highs and move in the range of US$1,925-1,965 per tonne on Friday, April 21. As on April 20, LME official cash buyer price of aluminium stands at US$1,932.50 per tonne, cash seller & settlement price is US$1,933 per tonne, 3M buyer price is US$1,942 per tonne, 3M seller price is US$1,942.50 per tonne, Dec1 buyer price is US$1,978 per tonne, and Dec1 seller price is...
The global minerals and metal major Alcoa Corporation today announced that it plans to consolidate its worldwide administrative locations in a bid to streamline its overall business and lower costs. Alcoa said that it will close its office in New York City and shift its global headquarters and principal executive office to Pittsburgh as of September 1, 2017. The location-wise consolidation activities will also see the closure of administrative offices in seven more locations across the U.S., Europe and Asia. The plan will be executed over the next 18 months. The affected employees will either be relocated to the remaining office locations or will be given the option to telecommunicate, the aluminium producer said in a statement. Commenting on the extensive plan, Roy Harvey, Chief...
Hindalco Industries Limited, the metals flagship firm of the Aditya Birla Group and the world largest aluminium rolling company has been flush with funds after it successfully raised capital from qualified institutional placement (QIP). The company plans to use that fund to retire part of its debt in the current fiscal to the tune of INR 6,800 crore, reports The Economic Times. The loan prepayment will be the largest ever by any corporate to domestic banks in India. The report said that the company is going to prepay INR 4,500 crore in April, which includes corporate loan worth INR 1,000 crore syndicated to a group of seven banks and part prepayment of INR 3,500 crore Mahan loan to two domestic banks. It also plans to prepay Utkal loan worth INR 2,300 crore in July this year. The...
Rio Tinto, one of the world's largest metals and mining corporations, has published details of its aluminium production result for the first quarter of 2017. Rio Tinto’s data shows that the company produced 889 thousand tonnes of aluminium in the first quarter of 2017. The company’s quarterly aluminium production is two per cent higher than the corresponding quarter of 2016. It said that the increased aluminium production is due to Kitimat smelter, which reached nameplate capacity in April 2016, together with on-going production creep across the other smelting operations. Rio’s aluminium production decreased by three per cent versus the fourth quarter of 2016. The company’s share of production in 2017 is expected to be unchanged at 3.5 to 3.7 million tonnes of aluminium. Rio Tinto’s CEO...
According to the latest data published by the World Bureau of Metal Statistics (WBMS), global primary aluminium market ended in a deficit at the end of the first two months of 2017. The deficit during January-February totalled 101,000 tonnes. As per WBMS data, global aluminium supply deficit rose as high as 1.12 million tonnes for the entire last year. During January-February 2017, worldwide demand for primary aluminium was recorded at 9.85 million tonnes, up 1.02 million tonnes from the corresponding period previous year. On the supply side, global aluminium output rose by 971,000 tonnes from the same period of last year. In February 2017, global production of primary aluminium stood at 4.84 million tonnes, while consumption totalled 4.9 million tonnes.
LME aluminium could not hold ground after closing at US$1,915.50 per tonne on Tuesday, April 18, the first trading day after the Easter Holidays. The light metal contract staged a technically rally during night trading on Wednesday, April 19, only to end at US$1,895.50 per tonne, down 1.04 per cent from its previous day's closing price. Shanghai Metals Market (SMM) foresees that LME aluminium will move between the 5-day and 10-day moving averages on Thursday, April 20, with price ranging at US$1,905-1,935 per tonne. Reuters analyses that LME aluminium may retest a support at US$1,894 per tonne, a break below which could cause a loss into the range of US$1,874-$1,885. As on April 19, LME official cash buyer price of aluminium stands at US$1,894.50 per tonne, cash seller & settlement price...
En+ Group, a Russian energy-related company controlled by Oleg Deripaska, reported adjusted core earnings of $2.3 billion for 2016 on Tuesday, April 18. The disclosure is the group’s first in two years. En+ owns 48 per cent stake in Russia’s biggest aluminium company Rusal. Financial market sources reported that the company is considering an initial public offering (IPO) in 2017. En+'s adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for 2016 totalled $2.3 billion, of which Rusal accounted for $1.5 billion. Other businesses of the group, such as power operations, coal mining and logistics - accounted for $822 million. "These results reflect positive trends which we have seen continuing into 2017, notably stronger aluminium pricing and growing demand for...
Suzlon Group, one of the leading renewable energy solutions provider worldwide, has Installed and commissioned two renewable projects of 50.40 MW each for NALCO. Bothe the wind power plants are situated at Gondikota in Andhra Pradesh and Jath in Maharashtra. The two renewable projects are likely to deliver power to over 54,000 households. The plants can play a major role in reducing CO2 emissions up to 0.20 million tonnes every year. J.P. Chalasani, Group CEO, Suzlon Group said, "It is a proud moment for us and we thank NALCO for the faith and confidence reposed in Suzlon's technologically advanced products, execution and life cycle asset management capabilities.” “We will continue to collaborate with NALCO and look forward to work in synergy towards our common goal of reducing the carbon...
The MCX-aluminium futures contract on the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) fell last week, breaking below the support at INR 124 a kg. However, the 21-week moving average at around INR 122 aided in halting the fall. The contract made a low of INR 122.25 on Thursday and has reversed sharply higher from there on Monday. It is currently trading at around INR 124. Immediate resistance is at INR 125. If the contract manages to surpass this hurdle, the downside pressure will ease. Such a break can take the futures contract higher to INR 128 initially. A further break above INR 128 will pave the way for a test of the crucial long-term resistance at INR 130. On the other hand, if the contract fails to break above INR 125, it can remain range-bound between INR 122 and INR 125 for some time. A break...
The London Metal Exchange market opened yesterday after the Easter Holidays; LME aluminium that has been falling since April 5, finally regained some strength and closed at US$1,915.50 per tonne, up 1.34 per cent from its previous close of US$1,890 per tonne on April 13, Thursday. As Shanghai Metals Market (SMM) finds it, the light metal contract will see technical rally on Wednesday, April 19, and move at US$1,890-1,930 per tonne. As on April 18, LME official cash buyer price of aluminium stands at US$1,915 per tonne, cash seller & settlement price is US$1,915.50 per tonne, 3M buyer price is US$1,928 per tonne, 3M seller price is US$1,930 per tonne, Dec1 buyer price is US$1,968 per tonne, and Dec1 seller price is US$1973 per tonne. The current LME official Opening Stock of aluminium is...
Leading metal and coal mining company South32 announced that the company has dropped the plan to buy Peabody Energy's Metropolitan coal mine worth $200-million in Australia. The company was not ready to make concessions in favour of Australian steelmakers. South32 CEO Graham Kerr said, "To proceed with the acquisition, in light of the anticipated concessions, would have compromised the merits of the transaction and this is not something we are prepared to do." South32 had proclaimed in November that it decided to buy Peabody’s Metropolitan Colliery and an associated 17 per cent stake in the Port Kembla Coal Terminal. Peabody president Glenn Kellow said in a statement, "We are surprised that South32 and the ACCC reached an impasse, given both the physical synergies and the global nature of...
The London Metal Exchange market remained closed till Monday, April 17, for the Easter Holidays. Shanghai Metals Market (SMM) expects that LME aluminium will open higher at US$1,920-1,965 per tonne on Tuesday, April 18 (at 15:00). The market will watch out for the price support at lows, analysts observe. The benchmark price of aluminium on Shanghai Metal Exchange (SME) is displaying a fluctuating trend. The benchmark aluminium price on Tuesday, April 18 stands at US$2,079 per tonne, down 0.76 per cent from yesterday's price of US$2,095 per tonne. Aluminium futures contract traded on Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) experienced a significant surge during Asian trading hours on Monday, April 17. SHFE 1706 aluminium opened higher at RMB 14,285 per tonne and shot up to RMB 14,995 per tonne on...
Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), one of the largest and modern aluminium smelters in the world, has secured commitments of $700 million from Export Credit Agency (ECA) supported facilities to finance Line 6 Expansion Project. The Line 6 Expansion Project is expected to start production by 2019. The Project is one of the company’s largest brownfield developments in the region. The project is expected to boost the smelter’s per-annum production by 540,000 tonnes, bringing company’s total production capacity to around 1.5 million tonnes per annum. The facilities include a dual tranche of $310 million and $334.4m SERV Guaranteed Export Credit, and $53.1m Euler Herms Guaranteed Export Credit. The SERV-backed facility will fund the Company’s Power Station 5 (PS5) wherein General Electric (GE), EPC...
