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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Aluminium industry experts from China and around the world attending an international seminar on the metal said Wednesday that they believe dialogue and innovation can help address overcapacity in the sector. China produces about half of the world's electrolytic aluminium, and its exports of aluminium have raised concern overseas. During the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang Province, in September, China and the US reached a consensus to jointly tackle global aluminium overcapacity. As capacity cuts have taken hold in the nation's coal and steel sectors, electrolytic aluminium and cement may be the next focus, Yicai Global reported in September. In the first nine months of this year, China exported 3.47 million tons of aluminium ingots and profiles worth 60.9...
According to a report from Wall Street Journal, Federal investigators have launched a probe into the allegations that some U.S. companies may be linked to aluminium giant China Zhongwang Holdings Ltd in evading import tariffs on Chinese aluminium by means of illegal ways. As a part of the investigation, Homeland Security agents questioned former employees of companies associated with Liu Zhongtian, the founder and chairman of China Zhongwang, sources said. The Security agents are probing whether those companies were involved in civil or criminal offences like smuggling or wire fraud and coordinating with the U.S. Department of Justice. In September, The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Commerce Department was investigating if Aluminum Shapes LLC, a New Jersey firm, imported...
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Aluminium traded on London Metal Exchange edged higher from US$1,651 on Tuesday to close at US$1,673 on Wednesday. The metal after falling to a 2-month low at US$1,612.50 on Thursday last week has improved on positive cues and is on an upward trajectory. According to Shanghai Metals Market forecast, LME aluminium will move at US$ 1,670-1,690/mt on Thursday. Shanghai Futures Exchange aluminium prices, on the other side, are set for losses. The metal on Shanghai Metals Exchange dropped to US$ 2,144/mt (RMB 14528.39/mt) on Thursday after closing at US$2,146/mt (RMB 14541.94) on Wednesday. According to SMM forecast, SHFE 1612 aluminium will drop to RMB 13,450-13,650/mt. In China’s domestic market, spot aluminium should trade at premiums of RMB 500-540/mt over SHFE 1611 aluminium on Thursday,...
UC RUSAL, a leading global aluminium producer, announces that on 25 October 2016 two of its subsidiaries, Emergofin B.V. and Velbay Holdings Ltd., filed a request for arbitration against Ukraine pursuant to Article 36 of the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States and Article 9 of the Agreement on promotion and reciprocal protection of investments between the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Ukraine. The arbitration relates to Ukraine’s expropriation of the Zaporozhe Aluminium Plant (“ZAlK”). It is being conducted under the auspices of the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (“ICSID”), part of the World Bank and headquartered in Washington, D.C. Ukraine was first given notice of the ICSID arbitration in...
Norwegian aluminium and renewable energy company Norsk Hydro which surpassed analsysts' expectations with its third-quarter earnings results announced Tuesday has attributed healthy demand growth in China as a leading factor for its improved results. In 2016, Hydro's aluminium demand grew at 4-5 per cent globally. President and CEO Svein Richard Brandtzæg said actually it is more likely to be in the higher end of this range. "Demand growth for aluminium remains healthy. We are sticking to our forecast for global aluminium demand growth of 4-5 percent for 2016 and expect to land in the higher range of this estimate for the full year," said Brandtzæg in a media release. "This comes on the back of higher-than-expected demand in China and slower restarts of curtailed capacity." Norsk Hydro...
Adrian Bailey MP, who represents the West Bromwich West constituency, was elected at a meeting of the Group on 19 October. The vacancy as Chair arose because David Mowat MP, the previous Chair of the Group, has been appointed the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Community Health and Care, which means he is no longer able to serve as an officer of an APPG. Aluminium Federation President Adrian Platt warmly welcomed Mr Bailey’s election: “Adrian has been an active member of the Aluminium APPG for a number of years. He understands manufacturing very well - his constituency lies at the UK’s manufacturing heartland, and contains several ALFED members. I am delighted at Adrian’s election, and am sure he will be an excellent Chair of the Parliamentary Group. ”I would like to thank...
India's mines ministry has announced a change in the board of PSU aluminium producer National Aluminium Company Limited (Nalco). The ministry has replaced Nikunja Bihari Dhal from the Nalco Board of Directors with Subhash Chandra, a joint secretary in the mines ministry. Dhal, a 1993-batch Indian Administrative Officer (IAS) from the Odisha cadre, is another joint secretary in the mines ministry, earlier heading the metals division which has now been handed over to Chandra. Dhal is also part-time official director on the boards of another PSU Hindustan Copper Ltd (HCL). Chandra also replaces Dhal as director on the board of HCL, according to government officials aware of the development. The change comes at the backdrop of India's ministry of commerce and Industry ruling out the...
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Aluminium traded on London Metal Exchange (LME) will fluctuate between US$ 1,660-1,685/mt on Wednesday and SHFE 1612 aluminium should range within RMB 13,500-13,800/mt, said Shanghai Metals Exchange in an early morning forecast. In China, aluminium in spot market is expected to trade at premiums of RMB 400~440/mt over SHFE 1611 aluminium on Wednesday. Prices of base metals on the SHFE are expected to diverge today after yesterday's cross-board rise, SMM predicts. “Speculative funds withdraw from the commodity market in overnight trading, and this will negatively affect base metal market, and with price divergence expected,” says analyst. On Tuesday, LME aluminium closed at US$ 1651/mt and Shanghai aluminium jumped 4 per cent to its highest in more than two years on Wednesday, tracking a...
Norsk Hydro has reported its third quarter 2016 results. Hydro's underlying EBIT declined to NOK 1,477 million in Q3 from NOK 1,618 million in Q2 2016. The decline was due to lower metal sales and negative currency effects, slightly offset by higher realized aluminium prices. Commenting on the results, Svein Richard Brandtzæg, President and CEO of Hydro said, "Demand growth for aluminium remains healthy. We are sticking to our forecast for global aluminium demand growth of 4-5 percent for 2016 and expect to land in the higher range of this estimate for the full year…This comes on the back of higher-than-expected demand in China and slower restarts of curtailed capacity." Highlights: • NOK 1 477 million of underlying EBIT • Higher realized all-in aluminium prices, slightly offset by...
Operators of a Rio Tinto smelter in western Scotland confirmed late last week that they were in talks to sell it to a “preferred bidder.” The Lochaber Smelter in Fort William, which is one of the region’s largest employers, is Rio’s last operational smelter in the United Kingdom. It has been in operation for almost nine decades and employs 150 workers plus another 400 via supply chains, but Rio announced in January that its operations were under strategic review. At the time the Scottish government said Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), which is the government’s economic and community development agency for the region, was “engaging with the company” to understand the potential impacts of the announcement. Although a bidder has been settled upon, Rio informed staff that the sale is...
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India's primary aluminium producers have hired state-run engineering consultant Mecon Ltd to prepare a report exploring the possibility of introducing minimum import price (MIP) on aluminium products and approach the government with the same. The move was directed shortly after the ministry of commerce and industry ruled out the proposition to impose MIP on aluminium citing the cause that the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) non-compliant measure will mar the country’s image globally. India's ministry of mines too favoured the move and insisted that the pending investigations of safeguard duty and anti-dumping investigations on unwrought aluminium is completed first. Mecon, hired by Aluminium Association of India, Vedanta Ltd, Hindalco Industries Ltd and National Aluminium Co. Ltd...
The 34th International Conference and Exhibition of ICSOBA was held in the period October 3 - 6 in the capital of the Quebec province in Canada and took place in the Palace Royal hotel. The Conference obtained support from Rio Tinto and REGAL (Regroupement Aluminium) and attracted more than 350 delegates from 29 countries. REGAL is an organization which regroups professors and students from Quebec universities doing research on aluminium related projects and their annual meeting (JER) was a part of the conference. As many as 130 REGAL delegates participated in the event. The ICSOBA 2016 conference featured a number of international industry and academia speakers who covered topics including bauxite and bauxite resources, alumina production and residue solutions, primary aluminium...
Aluminium traded on London Metal Exchange is expected to move between US$1,625-1,650/mt on Tuesday with positive technical indicators. SHFE 1612 aluminum should range between RMB 12,780-13,050/mt, said analysts at Shanghai Metals Market in an early morning forecast. LME aluminium moved between US$1,610-1,630/mt through Monday to close at US$1626.50/mt. SHFE aluminium, as expected, broke through the 5 and 10-day moving averages with positive technical indicators moving at RMB 12,680-12,880/mt due to returning of longs. LME aluminium has been ranging between US$1650-US$1680 over the past one month peaking only at $1686 approximately on October 14. Since then, the price of the metal has been falling. It touched a two-month low of $1612.50 on October 20, before inching higher at around $1617...
The 20th Arab International Aluminium Conference (Arabal) has brought together more than 2,000 participants from 20 countries, and is highlighting key topics in the region's aluminium industry such as value creation through energy efficiency, job creation, and economic output. This year's Arabal event is being hosted by Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) for the sixth time and will be held under the patronage of Shaikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and UAE Minister of Finance. As a rapidly growing hub in the global aluminium industry, the Middle East region and its dynamics are of keen interest to players from across the world. In 2015, the Middle East primary aluminium industry's combined production was 5.59 million tonnes - almost 10 per cent of the total world...
Aluminum stocks in China’s five major markets fell for two consecutive weeks and will remain near multi-year low for the foreseeable future, SMM predicts. SMM attributes the recent decline to low shipments from northwest China, especially Xinjiang. It is estimated that over 150,000 tonnes of aluminum ingots are now being piled up at Urumqi and Wucaiwan railway stations. SMM learned aluminum smelters in Xinjiang are negotiating with local railway bureau over aluminum ingot shipments with exclusive trains so as to ease severe inventory backlogs. Hence, shipments from Xinjiang are expected to grow gradually this coming week, but it may take at least six weeks to digest inventory backlogs in northwest China. On the other hand, some smelters cut shipments, hoping to push up spot premiums in...
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With China zooming ahead in world aluminium, spurring fierce competition amongst dominant players, prices of the light metal are unlikely to rise in the next couple of years, said Emirates Global Aluminium chief executive Abdulla Kalban. EGA, one of the world's top ten aluminium producers, is already feeling the heat as it is heavily reliant of the exports market which also has five of the world' top producers from in it China and they altogether account for almost 60 per cent of the world's total aluminium production. "The oversupply position is mainly because of the Chinese [and for] primary aluminium production there is concern from our consumers because of severe competition from the Chinese, including into our local markets in the UAE. I don’t expect we’ll see good prices for the...
Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee is facing stern criticism in US for using steel and aluminium from China for the construction of his namesake towers. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton on October 19 criticised her GOP (Grand Old Party) counterpart, Donald Trump for using materials that are traded into US using unfair means. Clinton referred to a Newsweek report that said that Trump used steel and aluminium "dumped" on the U.S. in his buildings in Chicago and Las Vegas. According to Newsweek, Trump hired Permasteelisa Cladding Technologies, a Connecticut-based company that imports steel and aluminium from China to construct to supply metal for his Chicago building. The Newsweek report said: "During the time of the Trump Chicago construction, according to...
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New Day Aluminium has edged out ARG International AG in competitive bidding for the remaining upstream assets of US-based producer Noranda Aluminum, according to a court filing Thursday. ARG International has recently bought Noranda's idled, 263,000 mt/year New Madrid primary aluminium smelter in south-eastern Missouri. New Day was the stalking horse bidder in the auction that began on Tuesday at Noranda's lead attorneys' offices in New York. The firm made a final offer of US$24.3 million, up $2.93 million from its previous proposal of $21.5 million, and won the auction. New Day's offer was $430,000 above the final bid of $24 million made by Stockholm-based ARG. According to the official sources, Noranda will ask the US Bankruptcy Court Judge Barry Schermer to approve the sale of its 1.2...
