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
.jpg)
India's primary aluminium producers are finally hoping to see some ray of hope as the country's mines ministry said that it is working to come out with a decision on duty protection measure for the domestic aluminium sector in a couple of weeks from now. "We are working to provide safeguard duty protection for primary aluminium producers being hurt from dumping. We will decide (on the matter) soon, may be in two-three weeks," Union Mines Secretary Lavender Kumar said in a recent press meet. He further indicated that it could be either in the form of safeguard duty or anti-dumping duty. India's primary aluminium sector has been facing dumping of cheap aluminium products from countries like China for over a year now. This has impacted rather severely on their revenues and market shares....
Reforms to the London Metal Exchange's global warehouse network have, as planned, cut the amount of metal trapped in storage, but the unintended consequence is a distorted fundamental picture and more pressure on already tumbling volumes. Since 2013, the LME has implemented measures aimed at reducing queues for aluminium as it leaves warehouses after banks and traders that own them profited from letting long queues build up while charging rent. Measures to cut queues included higher load-out rates for metal to leave warehouses and a freeze on maximum rental rates. Most effective so far has been the cap on rents. The rent payable on metal stuck in a queue longer than 30 days drops by half and after 50 days no rent is payable on LME metal. "The rent capping is why so much aluminium has left...
Alcoa Corporation today announced that it has completed the separation from its parent company Alcoa Inc. (now named Arconic Inc.) and has begun operating as an independent, publicly-traded company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “AA.” Alcoa Corporation is a globally cost-competitive industry leader in bauxite, alumina and aluminium products, positioned to succeed throughout the market cycle. “We are launching Alcoa Corporation as a world leader in the aluminium industry with distinct competitive advantages across the value chain,” said Roy Harvey, Chief Executive Officer of Alcoa. “Our bauxite and alumina portfolios enjoy strong first quartile cost positions and our aluminium portfolio has a highly competitive second quartile position. We’ve made a commercial...
The entire base metal market including aluminium is on a bullish mode. LME three month aluminium prices are finally jumping on the bandwagon hitting a 15-month high as energy prices rise and demand boosts up. On Tuesday’s night trading, the contract traded on LME dropped marginally with positions closing by longs after a seven-day rise and the contract is expected to hover at USD 1,715-1,740/mt on Wednesday with mixed factors, said SMM in an early morning forecast. On Monday October 31, 3 months Aluminium traded on London Metal Exchange closed at US$1724.00/mt and the Cash contract closed at US$1723.00/mt. Analysts are of the view that prices shot up broadly in commodity markets throughout on both good incoming data and a weakening dollar. Declining inventory in China’s major markets is...
On October 26, 2016, during the opening session of Aluminum Week 2016, organised by China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association, at Nanning City, Guangxi, China, Heidi Brock, President & CEO of the Aluminum Association made an address as the representative of the U.S. aluminium producers. She started her address referring to the significance of a globally integrated aluminium industry and the quick expansion of aluminium industry around the world along with the growing demand. She called for better co-operation among global aluminium producers to benefit from this record growth in aluminium. For that purpose, she said, aluminium producers around the world must have a few key common goals: Agree to play by the same set of rules on global trade; Encourage negotiations between our...
China Hongqiao, which usurped state-backed Aluminium Corporation of China and Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska-controlled Rusal in the space of two years to become the world’s largest aluminium smelter last year, has run afoul of Chinese environmental regulations on over half of its capacity. Shandong province-based Hongqiao, 81 per cent-owned by tycoon Zhang Shiping, has been ordered by the environmental protection watchdog of Zhouping county of Binzhou city, where its facilities are located, to cease production at production lines with combined annual capacity of 3.61 million tonnes. The reason given for the penalty was “failure to obtain environmental protection approvals before building and operating the facilities”. The firm was also ordered to stop construction of a 1.32 million...
.jpg)
Vedanta Limited today announced consolidated results for the second financial quarter (Q2) ended 30 September 2016. For the aluminium sector, smelters continued to ramp-up. The company managed to maintain the production run-rate of 1.1mtpa (excluding trial run) and 1.2mtpa (including trial run). Commenting on the results, Tom Albanese, Chief Executive Officer, Vedanta Limited, said: "We have made significant operational progress this quarter, with an increase in production from Zinc India quarter-on- quarter…and Aluminium continuing to ramp-up. During the quarter, as a result of our improved operating performance and working capital initiatives, we maximised free cash flow…Simplifying the group structure continues to be a priority, and the Cairn India - Vedanta Limited merger remains on...
Emirates Global Aluminium has joined hands with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to work on new technologies that will further improve the Gulf aluminium producer's aluminium smelting processes. EGA has been an innovation-driven company since inception. Continuous R&D activities have helped it reach top quartile position in the aluminium industry. The EGA smelting process is a licensed technology today, followed globally. The coming together of the two prominent organizations is expected to open up new avenues for the industry. The collaboration of EGA and MIT will see research scholars from the university’s School of Chemical Engineering Practice pursuing six research projects at EGA’s smelter operations in Jebel Ali and Al Taweelah, all focused on promoting greater operational...
UC RUSAL the leading, global producer of aluminium contributing about 7% of global production of aluminium and 7% of alumina announces its operating results for the third quarter 2016. In the aluminium segment, production results remain flat in the third quarter. Rusal Siberian smelters represented about 94% of total aluminium output. Capacity utilization in smelters remained on average at 94%. Total aluminium sales in the third quarter increased by 2.4% from the last quarter to 981 thousand tons. The value added products sales increased marginally from last quarter to 446 thousand tons. The realized average aluminium price in third quarter 2016 increased by 2.5% from last quarter to USD1,754/ton. This was also partially driven by LME aluminium price increase from USD1,550/tonne in Q2...
.jpg)
Aluminium traded on London Metal Exchange is showing extreme volatility. The contract after rising for six days in a row surged to peaks not seen since July last year during Friday’s trading. LME aluminium was 0.4 per cent higher at $1,705.50 a tonne, having peaked at $1,709.50. It finally closed at $1,701.50 on Friday, October 28. Analysts say the volatility has been picking up as traders square books ahead of an industry event in London scheduled this week. A softer dollar too helped underpin the gains in the commodities. "The whole complex is doing better, which is a sign some speculative money may be coming in," observed Societe Generale analyst Robin Bhar. "Month-end is during LME Week and there will be people away from their desks, so there could be a bit of book-squaring happening...
Tajikistan has been in discussions with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for months on a bailout amounting to more than $500 million. According to the latest Reuters reports, Tajikistan has sought $100 million in loans from the European bank for Reconstruction and Development. The government has taken resort to a number of strategies and revised regulations in order to rejuvenate the economy by generating revenues internally. Dushanbe, the capital city of Tajikistan, has agreed to raise the price of electricity by 16 percent starting this November. The company that has benefited the most from state electricity subsidies and routine debt writes-offs is TALCO, the country’s national aluminium operation. In fact, TALCO is Dushanbe’s largest source of revenue at the moment, “It generates...
The month of November is almost there and the aluminium event sector is buzzing with the last series of global exhibitions and conferences just before the holidays begin. The month is marked by two major events in the aluminium sector from the East and the West- ARABAL at Dubai and ALUMINIUM 2016 exhibition at Dusseldorf. These two events represent the major names from the global aluminium industry in their delegates and exhibitor list. Other than these two, there are a few more significant events from the downstream and the end user sector. We have picked up ten most significant events from the aluminium value chain for the month of November so that you do not miss out on these and hurry for a last minute registration and avail the opportunity to network and brainstorm with your fellow...
New Zealand's prime electricity generator and retailer Meridian said they want the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter to stay operational. At the company's annual general meeting held on October 28, in Christchurch, chief executive Mark Binns told shareholders that he could see how important the issue was among investors and so, he wants the smelter to stay active, “but not at any cost”. The Tiwai Point aluminium smelter uses 12 per cent of New Zealand’s electricity and its future was tied to the entire sector's performance, Binns added. Meridian has increased the prices it charges for providing electricity to the smelter, effective January 1, 2017. The power generator refreshed contract it negotiated last year with the smelter’s owners, Rio Tinto owned New Zealand Aluminium Smelters. The deal...
Norwegian aluminium producer Norsk Hydro has announced the appointment of its Execuive Vice President Kjetil Ebbesberg the chair of the European Aluminium for 2017-2018. Ebbesberg is head of Hydro’s Rolled Products business area. “Our industry is facing challenges in Europe, particularly in the fields of trade and energy,” said Ebbesberg. “However, challenges also represent opportunities for the European aluminium industry. We have already started to seize these opportunities by launching Initiatives for Change: the Sustainability Roadmap to 2025 and the Innovation Hub. I look forward to working together with our members to achieving the ambitious targets outlined in these initiatives.” Ebbsberg, who has been the vice-chair of the European industry group since 2015, has been succeeded by...
As a continuation of the downturn of US primary industry, Century Aluminium Company reported a net loss of $58.3 million ($0.67 per share) in Q3 against $9.5 million ($0.11 per share) in Q2. The adjusted net loss of third quarter was $29.1 million. Results were negatively impacted by factors like the closure of the Ravenswood facility and market inventory adjustment. On a YOY comparison, Century reported a net loss of $56.1 million partially caused by factors like permanent closure of our Ravenswood smelter, market inventory adjustments, labour disruption, curtailment in Hawesville smelter and other cost cutting measures. Results were however partially offset by a $0.8 million purchase accounting gain ($0.01 per share) related to Mt. Holly. Sales for Q3 2016 were $326.8 million in...
A huge stock of aluminium ingots are piling up at the Chinese market waiting for delivery and an artificial shortage in available supply is surging up aluminium price in the spot market. Aluminium futures at Shanghai Future Exchange rose to a two-year high on Wednesday October 26. Aluminium Prices were trading at the highest levels since late 2014 closing up nearly 5% at $2,023 per ton. As pointed out in a Wall Street Journal analysis, stricter Chinese road regulations is the main cause for the delay in delivery as the Chinese government has imposed new weight limitations on trucks to control overloaded trucks and vehicle accidents. They have enforced a maximum weight of 49 tons for trucks cutting it down from 55 tons on September 21. The enforcement led to an increase in physical...
.jpg)
Aluminium traded on London Metal Exchange rose on Thursday's night trading to close at US$1,681.50/mt. Analysts at the Shanghai Metals Exchange attributed the rise to the inventory decline in China's major consuming regions. The contract traded on Shanghai Metals Exchange opened at US$2,195 on Friday after closing at US$ 2,144 on Thursday. LME aluminium official opening stock currently stands at 2159950 tonnes. Base metals traded on the Shanghai Futures Exchange are expected to be subject to market sentiment today, observed SMM in an early morning forecast. “US dollar is expected to get a boost from positive outlook for US’s Q3 GDP, whether or not base metal prices will be weighed down will depend on market sentiment,” said SMM. Inventory shrinkage in China key markets also drove SHFE...
Leading global aluminium producer UC RUSAL has launched the first RA-550 pot of new generation running at over 550 kA at the Sayanogorsk aluminium smelter. The US$28 million project is expected to make the aluminium smelting process at RUSAL significantly energy-efficient. An RA-550 cell consumes around 12 kW*h/kg of aluminium unlike the previous generations which would consume almost 10-15 per cent more metal. As per RUSAL’s design documents, the production capacity of each pot is 4.21 tonnes per day, twice the daily output of an RA-300 pot that is currently being used at SAZ. RUSAL has plans to use RA-550 for the modernization of current facilities as well as for constructing new smelters in the future. RUSAL made sure that the RA-550 is way lighter, more compact and environmentally...
