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...
Grow with
AL Circle
China government sent environmental protection teams to seven regions from November 24 to 30 to supervise environmental protection work, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Hubei, Chongqing, Shaanxi and Gansu. SMM conducted a survey to find out the impact of the inspections on smelter owners. Since the beginning of 2016, Chinese government has taken a tough stance in environmental protection inspections. Domestic aluminium and alumina producers are mostly large-size producers equipped with environmental protection facilities, and so they have suffered little impact from the inspections, except one aluminium producer in central China. The producer was requested to shut down its captive power plant and to source electricity from power plant directly in the previous round of inspections....
.jpg)
LME Aluminium ended the last week amid gains after increasing for three days in a row. The contract broke through the 20-day moving average and closed at US$1,742.50/mt after Friday's night trading. According to Shanghai Metals Market forecast, with the market firming LME aluminium will increase on Monday market to move in the range of US$1,735-1,760/mt. As on December 9, LME official Cash Seller & Settlement price of aluminium is recorded at US$1742.5/mt, 3M Buyer price is recorded at US$1,737.50/mt, 3M Seller price is US$1,738/mt, DEC1 Buyer price is US$1,750/mt and DEC1 Seller price is US$1,755/mt. The LME Official Opening Stock of aluminium, as on December 9, stands at 2107525 mt, total Live Warrants is estimated at 1383425 mt, and Cancelled Warrant is 718350 mt. In China, aluminium...
LME aluminium strengthened as speculation over positive key macroeconomic data to be released on Friday and in the short term supported commodity prices. The U.S dollar futures index neared a one-week high during afternoon trading on Thursday, after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi announced there will be no talk of tapering stimulus to zero. Oil rebounded from the week's lows to close above US$50 a barrel on Thursday as market watchers focused on an upcoming weekend meeting between OPEC and non-OPEC producers that may result in an agreement to cut crude output further, reported CNBC. LME aluminium closed at US$1,731.50/mt after Thursday's night trading, up 0.20 per cent from the previous losing of US$1,728/mt. According to Shanghai Metals Market forecast, LME aluminium will...
Russian aluminium behemoth Rusal and power generator Rushydro will be deciding on the proposed capacity enhancement of their Boguchansk aluminium smelter in the first quarter of 2017, Rushydro said in on Thursday. The companies had earlier decided to increase the capacity of the aluminium smelter by 300,000 tonnes. Now, they are said to be toiling with the idea of boosting the capacity to 600,000 tonnes. Rushydro's top executives said in Moscow that were considering three options: to stick to the planned 300,000 tonnes capacity enhancement; to go ahead with increasing aluminium smelting capacity by 600,000 tonnes; or to build another aluminium smelter at Taishet in Siberia instead of investing in capacity boost. The two companies would be meeting in the first quarter of 2017 to decide on...
MetalMiner aluminium MMI inched lower in November. A rising dollar put some pressure but prices held well overall. Analysts say they do see some potential on the upside. Something that has concerned aluminium investors throughout the year is the potential increase in Chinese aluminium production. However, restarts seem to be less than what the markets were expecting earlier. Rising costs of production will likely limit additional restarts, opine analysts. China’s clampdown on coal mining and supply disruptions in Australia has led to a spike in seaborne coal prices. Thermal coal prices in China have more than doubled this year. In addition, alumina, which is then processed to produce raw aluminium, has risen steeply in price over the last couple of months. Meanwhile, even the most...
Russian Tycoon Deripaska is looking around for hundreds of millions of euros from the state of Montenegro, as he has been striving for compensation for a lost investment in a failing aluminium plant. Deripaska's Central European Aluminium Company (CEAC) acquired 58.7 % stake in 2005 in the Balkan country's sole aluminium plant, Kombinat Aluminijuma Podgorica (KAP). After the financial crisis in 2008, the government withdrew half of that debt for equity deal and kept the plant buoyed up with heavy subsidies. As demanded by the European Union, which Montenegro aims to join to cut subsidies thrusting plant to bankruptcy which finally leads to closing down. According to CEAC, Deripaska had served a Notice of Arbitration against the state of Montenegro claiming “unlawful expropriation of his...
Egypt aluminium industry had been logging a healthy growth being driven by a steady demand from the building and construction sector before the Egyptian government took the courageous steps of liberalising its currency while raising fuel prices and import tariffs at the same time, very recently. Among the goods affected the most are aluminium products. Higher upstream the value chain, the primary industry which once enjoyed the advantage of being a low-cost producer due to availability of cheaper fuel will now be faced with the challenge of coping with shrinking margins, since prices of the metal have been falling across major bourses on the back of a global glut. Egyptalum with a total annual production of around 320,000 tonnes is the largest aluminium smelting company in Egypt....
.jpg)
LME aluminium seems to be moving into a volatile range. The contract after trading at around US$1,718/mt on Tuesday, closed with gains at US$1,728/mt after Wednesday's night trading. Rising oil prices which climbed to a 16-month high after OPEC agreed to trim output, last week, by 1.2 million bbl/day buoyed the base metal price up on the global exchange though with intermittent slides. According to Shanghai Metals Market, LME aluminium should range between US$1,695-1,725/mt on Thursday. As on December 7, LME official opening stock of aluminium stands at 2118325mt, total Live Warrants is estimated at 1384875mt and Cancelled Warrant is estimated at 728500mt. The current Cash Buyer price of aluminium is US$1727.5/mt and Cash Seller & Settlement price is US$1728/mt. In China, aluminium on...
Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba), the Bahrain-based international aluminium smelter, has been performing reasonably well in light of the market conditions, according to a statement issued by the Chairman of Alba’s Board of Directors, Shaikh Daij Bin Salman Bin Daij Al Khalifa. The statement was made following the fourth quarterly meeting for the year 2016, which was held on Wednesday December 07, 2016 at Alba. The Board approved the minutes of the previous meeting, which was held on Wednesday September 28, 2016 as well as reviewed the reports of the Board Executive Committee, Board Audit Committee and the Nomination and Remuneration Committee during the meeting. At this meeting, the Board reviewed and approved the 2017 Annual Operating Plan. In addition, the Board reviewed the 2016...
Navratna PSU N alco is ready to provide hand-holding support to its regular MSME vendors who ensure quality and timely delivery of products, the aluminium major's CMD T K Chand said. As a responsible large-scale industry, Nalco shall make efforts to publicise select MSME brands, along with its own brand image publicity, he added. Chand was addressing the inaugural ceremony of MSME-Expo Odisha 2016 in Cuttack yesterday. The Expo, along with a 3-day National Level Vendor Development Programme, is being held at Killa Maidan, Cuttack. Addressing representatives of various industries, banks, small enterprises, start-ups, as well as officials of MSME departments of the state and Centre, Chand appreciated the micro, small and medium enterprises of Odisha for scoring better in terms of providing...
.jpg)
LME aluminium prices took a hit as US dollar index rallied on Tuesday's night trading. The contract underperformed and dropped below the 40-day moving average closing at US$1,718/mt on Tuesday, down 0.58 per cent from previous day's closing at US$1,728/mt. According to Shanghai Metals Market forecast, LME aluminium will test US$1,700/mt and will range at US$1,695-1,720/mt on Wednesday, December 7. As on December 6, LME official 3M Buyer price of aluminium is US$1712.5/mt, 3M Seller price is US$1713/mt, DEC1 Buyer price is US$1727/mt, and DEC1 Seller Price is US$1732/mt. LME Official Opening stock of the metal currently stands at 2129200 mt, total Live Warrants is recorded as 1384875 mt, and Cancelled Warrant is estimated at 733450 mt. In China, SME aluminium opened at US$1,955/mt on...
Alcoa Corporation announced yesterday that Molly Beerman has been named Vice President and Controller of the company, and she will serve as principal accounting officer, effective Dec. 9. “Molly is a seasoned financial professional with a successful track record at Alcoa of driving process and operational improvements," said Alcoa Chief Financial Officer William Oplinger. "In addition to her accounting acumen, Molly’s experience makes her ideally qualified to take on this leadership role at Alcoa as we review our systems to run our new company more cost-effectively and efficiently.” Ms. Beerman succeeds Robert Collins who has been Controller since 2013 and will be taking a role outside of the company. “Bob made a significant contribution to our company during his 11-year Alcoa career,”...
Aluminium demand in the United States and Canada (shipments by domestic producers plus imports) amounted to 19,928 million pounds during the first three quarters of 2016 increasing 2% over the same period last year. Demand for aluminium semi-fabricated (mill) products amounted to 14,029 million pounds increasing one –tenth of 1% year-over-year. In domestic market, apparent consumption (demand less exports) amounted to 17,552 million pounds, up seventh-tenth of 1% year-to-date. During October 2016, aluminium net shipments (including exports) amounted to 2,022 million pounds, remaining same as the October 2015 total. Shipments of aluminium mill products in October 2016 were down 4.5% from the previous year at 1,283 million pounds. Shipments of aluminium ingots amounted to 738 million...
Rio Tinto has reached an agreement to sell its assets at Lochaber, Scotland to SIMEC for consideration totalling $410 million (£330 million). The sale purchase agreement comprises the sale of Rio Tinto’s 100 per cent shareholding in Alcan Aluminium UK Limited which includes the operating smelter, the hydroelectric facilities at Kinlochleven and Lochaber as well as all associated land. Rio Tinto Aluminium chief executive Alf Barrios said “This is a value-creating sale for Rio Tinto and represents another example of refining our portfolio to focus on our suite of tier one assets. “At the same time, our priority has been to ensure a long-term sustainable future for Lochaber and economic benefit for the wider Fort William community. There was significant interest in the assets, but SIMEC is...
The aluminium futures contract on the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) fell over 3 per cent to close at INR116.85 per kg in the past week. However, the contract has begun this week on a slightly positive note and is currently trading at INR117.5. A key support is at INR116.2. If the contract breaks below this support decisively it can extend the fall to INR114 this week. The level of INR114 is a strong support and a possibility of a reversal from there cannot be ruled out. Such a reversal can take the contract higher to INR116 or INR117.5 thereafter. On the other hand, if the aluminium futures contract manages to sustain above the support at INR116.2 in this week it can bounce to INR119.25 initially. A further break above INR119.25 will see the upmove extending to INR122.5. In such a...
.jpg)
LME Aluminium reversed its downward trend as two major macroeconomic factors- the US dollar index and oil prices gave support. The US dollar index dropped to 100 from highs after Italian vote and oil soared more than 10 per cent on Wednesday to over $50 a barrel- its highest in a month, helping LME aluminium prices rise. The contract which traded at around US$1,715/mt on Friday, last week, rose higher by 0.75 per cent to close at US$1,728/mt on Monday, November 5. Shanghai Metals Market says, LME aluminium should strengthen further and move at US$1,715-1,740/mt on Tuesday. As on November 5, LME official stock of aluminium stood at 2139275mt, Total Live Warrants was recorded at 1384875mt Cancelled Warrant was at 744325mt. In China, aluminium traded on Shanghai Metal Exchange opened at...
Of late, Mexico has been hitting the aluminium industry headlines for all the wrong reasons, related mostly to its somewhat dubious role in the international trade market. According to the recent industry reports, significant quantity of fake aluminium semis has been emanating from the country, a large chunk of which has been heading towards Vietnam. Till end of July this year 7,400 metric tonnes of “extrusion metal units” have left Mexico, and according to Global Trade Information Services, Vietnam was the destination of 91 per cent of Mexico’s aluminium-extrusion exports. Experts say Mexico shipping aluminium products to Vietnam does not make much economic sense, since Vietnamese market is already highly saturated. But nevertheless, Mexico remains one of the busiest aluminium exporting...
.jpg)
Elections in Italy held on November 4 saw majority Italians voting against the move to amend post-war constitution and Prime Minister Matteo Renzi stepping down in populist revolt which sent the US dollar to new highs. The strong dollar, in turn, weighed down LME aluminium prices. The contract closed at US$1,715/mt after Friday’s night trading last week. Shanghai Metals Market expects, LME Aluminium will meet resistance at the 5-day moving average on Monday and will move at US$1,705-1,725/mt. As on December 2, the 3M LME official Buyer price of aluminium was recorded at US$1,712/mt, 3M Seller Price was at US$1,713/mt, DEC1 Buyer Price was at US$1,725/mt, and DEC1 Seller price was at US$1,730/mt. LME official opening stocks of aluminium is estimated at 2144850mt, Total Live Warrants is...
