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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Vedanta Resources Plc. releases the production report for the First Quarter ended 30 June 2016. Highlights from the aluminium section point towards a number of positives despite the volatile market and raw material insecurity, the company has been struggling with. Operation highlights: • Achieved production run-rate of 1.1mtpa • Complete ramp-up of first line of 1.25mt Jharsuguda-II smelter , second line commenced in July; • 325kt BALCO-II smelter almost complete • Second 300 MW IPP unit in Balco capitalized • Final terms for Vedanta Ltd and Cairn India merger announced, transaction to complete by this financial year • Gross Debt for the Group reduced by c.US$ 0.3 billion during the quarter Tom Albanese, Chief Executive Officer, Vedanta Resources plc, said: "We have made good progress on...
Arab International Aluminium Conference (Arabal) has roped in some of the biggest names in the global aluminium sector who will showcase their products, services and technologies at the event’s upcoming edition in Dubai, UAE. The 20th edition of Arabal will be held from November 22 to 24 at Madinat Jumeirah. According to an official release by the Arabal organizers, a good number of specialist companies from across the aluminium value chain have already booked their spaces in the exhibition area. They will display aluminium products designed for special applications in various industries, surface treatment technology solutions, light-metal trade and recycling, plant, machinery and accessories and equipment for aluminium extraction processing and refining. Other services and consultancy...
Manufacturing PMIs in China and major economies in the euro zone are expected to change little in July from June. LME aluminium will test resistance at the 20-day moving average and move at USD 1,630-1,650/mt. LME aluminium is unlikely to get rid of weakness, while SHFE aluminium will get support from multi-year low stocks in domestic market, SMM expects. SHFE 1609 aluminium will move between RMB 12,250-12,400/mt, with support at the 5-day and 10-day moving average. In east China’s spot aluminium market, spot premiums of RMB 140-180/mt are expected over SHFE 1608 aluminium contract. Aluminium stocks in China’s five major markets continued falling even after touching their lowest in seven years. When combined with low warehouse warrants on the SHFE, a short squeeze is likely to happen....
According to the data released by the General Administration of Customs, China's total exports of unwrought aluminium and aluminium semis were 380,000 mt in June. This represents a YoY decline of 15.4%. Chinese aluminium exports have fallen about 9% YoY in the first six months of 2016. Total shipment of aluminium semis was down 15.7 per cent year-on-year at 32,319 million tonnes (mt) in June, whereas it stood at 184,385mt from January till June 2016, down 20 per cent from the corresponding period previous year. Chinese export of aluminium bar, rod, and profile declined 16 per cent YoY to reach at 4,133 mt in June. Exports of aluminium plate, sheet, and strip, aluminium tube (including accessories), and aluminium structures and components too declined YoY to stand at 20,770mt, 797mt, and...
Southland's Tiwai Point aluminium smelter is going to stick to its electricity purchases at 572 megawatts from Meridian Energy. The smelter's majority owner, Pacific Aluminium, has declined an option to reduce the quantity it buys from electricity generator from 572 megawatts to 400. The deadline to opt that option expired today. Tiwai Point aluminium smelter uses about one seventh of New Zealand’s power. The decision to continue buying 572 megawatts of electricity means the aluminium smelter will have to cough up a higher amount for its total quantum of electricity, since the 172 megawatts will be pitched at a slightly higher price than the remaining 400 megawatts, for which the old concessionary price remains as is. The price of the electricity purchased by Tiwai Point smelter was...
Vedanta Limited (formerly known as Sesa Sterlite Ltd) today announced its unaudited consolidated results under Ind AS for the first quarter (Q1) ended 30 June 2016. The total Q1 revenues totalled at INR 14,364 crore, net profit amounted to INR 3,543 crore with strong margin of 32 per cent, and attributable net profit before exceptional items increased significantly from a loss of INR 62 crore in Q4 FY2016 to a profit of INR 615 crore. Vedanta has attributed the 15 per cent year-on-year decline of revenues to the falling commodity prices, though it has been partially offset by the ramp ups in volumes of aluminium and other metals. The higher EBIDTA margin, the company says, was a result of strong cost saving initiatives and volume ramp-up at Aluminium and Iron Ore. Cost saving initiatives...
State-owned aluminium producer National Aluminium Company (Nalco) is inching towards setting up its long-awaited second aluminium smelter and power complex in Odisha within the premises of its present plant at Angul at a total cost of INR 14,000 crore. Earlier, Nalco had identified Sunergarh in western Odisha as the preferred site for the new smelter, but then they zeroed in on Angul to cope with certain infrastructural bottlenecks. The aluminium smelter will have an annual capacity of 0.4 million tonne and will come up at an investment of INR 10,000 crore. It will be accompanied by a 500 Mw captive power plant costing INR 3,000 crore. Infrastructure-wise, Angul is better equipped with facilities. Land and manpower are readily available there. So setting up the new smelter there will be...
As a continuation of the downturn of US primary industry Century Aluminium Company reported a net loss of $9.5 million ($0.11 per share) for Q2 2016. The adjusted net loss of second quarter was $4.6 million ($0.05 per share). For the second quarter of 2015, Century reported a net loss of $33.9 million ($0.39 per share) partially caused by permanent closure of our Ravenswood smelter and a $25.7 million charge for lower of cost or market inventory adjustments. Results were also negatively impacted by labour disruption at our Hawesville smelter. Total sales during Q2 2016 were $326.8 million in comparison to $523.5 million in Q2 2015. Shipments of primary aluminium were 185,567 tonnes compared with 233,950 tonnes in Q2 2015. The capacity closure during the second half of 2015 is responsible...
Aluminium stocks in China’s five major markets are still on the decline even after touching 7-year low, SMM data showed. Arrivals remained low, and warehouse withdrawals were relatively strong, SMM learned. Some smelters said there are a large amount of ingots still on the way to south and east China. The table below shows details of aluminium stocks at China’s five major markets: Unit: 1,000 tonne
SHFE 1609 aluminium will swing widely between RMB 12,220-12,420/mt, due to short covering at lows and profit taking by longs at highs. LME aluminium will move at USD 1,600-1,615/mt. In east China’s spot aluminium market, spot premiums of RMB 160-200/mt are expected over SHFE 1608 aluminium contract. Key macroeconomic indicators for base metal prices The Bank of Japan will announce its interest rate decision today. Base metal volatility will rise today. Germany’s flash July CPI improved noticeably, with growth the most significant over the past month. But eurozone July expected inflation slid from June, while expected PPI also fell. As such, eurozone July’s flash CPI will unlikely improve sharply, and this will grow market expectations that the European Central Bank will expand its easy...
With worries regarding oversupply of from Chinese smelters growing graver, aluminium price took a plunge to hit its lowest in six weeks, only to be lifted by consumer buying to a certain extent. Other nonferrous metals were also weighed on by a stronger US dollar. Volumes of the light metal traded on London Metal Exchange were rather thin owing to the settling of summer slowdown and speculations revolving around prospective interest rate hikes by the US central banks in their upcoming meet. Three month aluminium on LME closed unchanged at $1,592 a tonne, rebounding from $US1,588, the weakest since June 13. "The consumption side in aluminium will be underpinned in the second half, but on the other hand the supply of Chinese aluminium has also been picking up," said Xiao Fu, head of...
Russian aluminium giant UC RUSAL yesterday announced its operating results for the second quarter of 2016. Aluminium production remained flat quarter-on-quarter totalling at 919 thousand tons. Smelters utilization of the group remained on average at 95 per cent. Production at the Siberian smelters accounted for the largest proportion, nearly 94 per cent, of total aluminium output. RUSAL's total aluminium sales in 2Q16 totalled at 958 thousand tons (flat QoQ). The share of value added products (VAP), namely- aluminium alloyed ingots, aluminium slabs, billets and wire rod, in total aluminium sales increased to 47 per cent in 2Q16 (vs 41 per cent in 1Q16) attributable largely to the growth in seasonal demand for the metal and strengthened company’s positions in the niche product markets. In...
The aluminium futures contract traded on the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) plunged 3.6 per cent to close at INR 107.4 a kg last week. Significant resistance at around INR 111 which is also 50 per cent Fibonacci retracement level of the prior downtrend has been limiting the contract’s rally since late February. After testing this resistance for more than two week, the contract changed direction and started to decline in the previous week. This reversal in the contract is triggered by the negative divergence in the daily indicators such as price rate of change and moving average convergence divergence. The contract is in a near-term downtrend and currently tests a key support at INR 107 with a negative bias. On Wednesday, the contract was marginally down; trading at INR 106.5. The daily...
Alcoa Inc. announced today that it plans to undertake a reverse stock split of Alcoa’s common stock at a ratio of 1 for 3 and a proportionate reduction in the number of authorized shares of its common stock. The reverse stock split will reduce the number of Alcoa shares of common stock outstanding and is expected to increase the per share trading price of the common stock, which may improve liquidity and facilitate its trading. Alcoa will hold a special shareholder meeting on October 5, 2016 to seek approval of the reverse stock split and authorized share count reduction. Approval of both requires the affirmative vote of a majority of votes cast by shareholders entitled to vote. Alcoa has filed a preliminary proxy statement regarding the special meeting with the U.S. Securities and...
Aluminium prices, after holding ground for a month, took a nose-dive on London Metal Exchange, on Tuesday, while other base metals touched one-week lows as uncertainty swept across markets ahead of the U.S. central bank meeting and as worried investors took guard by selling to book profits from a recent commodity rally. The U.S. Federal Reserve, in its two-day meeting which starts on Tuesday, is expected to keep interest rates unchanged this week; however, analysts say there are possibilities that some policymakers would be arguing for a rate hike for the short term. "These market worries about the Fed meeting are justified. Our economists think markets have become too complacent about the outlook for U.S. monetary policy," said analyst Carsten Menke at Julius Baer in Zurich. "After we've...
Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI) is aiming at launching its certification program by the end of 2017. The ASI was launched in 2012 to promote sustainability and transparency throughout the aluminium industry. The organization is now working on developing required normative documents and the assurance model for a third party certification program for the aluminium value chain. They are also finalizing a draft chain-of-custody standard through a public consultation process which is scheduled to be started in October. The certificate program and the standard system need a range of normative documents to be prepared. These documents aim to describe and line up how ASI Certification will be designed and implemented and will be upgraded in future. ASI has also prepared an orientation...
On Monday’s night trading, SHFE 1609 aluminium fell to RMB 12,140/mt after opening at RMB 12,175/mt. Prices then rallied to RMB 12,205/mt, closing at RMB 12,200/mt. On Tuesday, short selling sent the most active contract down to RMB 12,115/mt after starting at RMB 12,195/mt. Finally, the contract ended at RMB 12,120/mt. Trading volumes were down 57,460 lots to 86,604 lots, and positions were down 1,404 to 181,170. Short selling was reported once prices climbed to near the daily moving average. SHFE 1609 aluminium will test support at RMB 12,000/mt.
Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) has received strong support from banks for a loan to part-finance its Line 6 expansion project and may increase the amount it borrows from an original $750 million target, its chief executive said on Tuesday. Alba will become the world's largest single aluminum smelter complex, boosting its annual output by 540,000 tonnes to 1.5 million tonnes per year by adding a sixth "potline", used in producing the metal from raw materials such as bauxite. The company is raising around $3 billion to help to finance the expansion, through a mixture of loans from banks and export credit agencies and an international bond or sukuk issue. Sources told Reuters last month Alba had approached banks to raise a $750 million loan as the first part of this. "We did go out to the market...
