Bell Bay Aluminium (BBA), Australia's oldest aluminium smelter, is reviewing its workforce and offering redundancies for a small number of positions, just over a month after receiving an AUD 200 million (USD 137.52 million) government support package aimed at securing the facility's future until at least 2031. Up to 10 roles are understood to have been affected by the review, although the smelter is expected to retain its existing workforce of approximately 550 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees. Some redeployment opportunities will also be available, while the positions identified are not understood to involve frontline services. The changes reportedly include some former participants in Bell Bay Aluminium's graduate programme. Rio Tinto, which operates the smelter near George Town in...
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...
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Aluminium settled up 0.34% at 104.20 recovered from the day's low despite China's manufacturing growth shrank at the fastest pace in more than three years in January, underlining slowing appetite from the world's top user of metals. Activity in China's manufacturing sector contracted at its fastest pace in almost three-and-a-half years in January, missing market expectations, an official survey showed on Monday. China's leaders are expected to target economic growth in a range of 6.5 percent to 7 percent this year, sources familiar with their thinking said, setting a range for the first time because policymakers are uncertain on the economy's prospects. Meanwhile US economic growth braked sharply in the fourth quarter as businesses stepped up efforts to reduce an inventory glut and a...
Hydro's fourth quarter results 2015 will be released at 07:00 CET (01:00 AM EST, 06:00 UK time), on Wednesday February 17, 2016. The quarterly report and presentation slides will be available Hydro's corporate website at the same time. Presentation in Oslo Hydro will host a combined analyst and press conference at its corporate headquarters at Drammensveien 260, Oslo at 08:30 CET the same day. The presentation will be held by President and CEO Svein Richard Brandtzæg and CFO Eivind Kallevik. There will be a Conference Call at 16:00 UK Time (17:00 CET, 11:00 AM EST,) the same day. The Q&A session will be held by President and CEO Svein Richard Brandtzæg and CFO Eivind Kallevik. The Q&A will be available for two months onthe company's website.
Aluminium prices fell 0.48% to INR 103.70 per kg in futures trading today with speculators indulged in cutting down their positions, taking weak cues from global markets. Moreover, subdued demand in the domestic spot markets also weighed on the metal prices. At the Multi Commodity Exchange, aluminium for delivery in current month shed 50 paise, or 0.48%, to INR 103.70 per kg, in a business turnover of 134 lots. Metal for delivery in March fell 6 paise, or 0.38%, to INR 104.30 per kg in six lots. Analysts said the weakness in aluminium at futures trade was mostly in tandem with a downtrend in base metals at the London Metal Exchange (LME) on concern that supply gluts and waning demand in China will keep commodities under pressure.
The political fight over the government’s coastal shipping rules has deepened with the maritime union protesting against Pacific Aluminium’s decision to sack the 16 crew on one of its ships and use foreign workers on its Newcastle-Gladstone route. In a potential flashpoint likely to infuriate key Senate crossbenchers before parliament begins next week, the Maritime Union of Australia accused the Coalition of “giving the green light for another Aussie ship to leave the coast” after the government awarded a special licence to Pacific Aluminium to replace the Australian crew on CSL Melbourne. The situation mirrors a bitter two-month industrial stand-off over the MV Portland in Victoria that ended when the ship’s owner, Alcoa, forcibly removed the crew in a late-night raid. Pacific Aluminium...
Lightweight metals leader Alcoa Inc. has announced that it will appoint Ulrich “Rick” Schmidt, John C. Plant and Sean O. Mahoney to serve on the company’s Board of Directors, effective February 5, 2016. These appointments will further strengthen the company and add valuable aerospace and automotive experience to the Board as Alcoa prepares to separate into two independent companies in the second half of 2016. With these appointments, the Alcoa Board will be expanded to consist of 15 directors. “We are pleased to welcome Rick, John, and Sean to the Alcoa Board,” said Klaus Kleinfeld, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “As we prepare to separate into two strong companies, we have been actively working to ensure each has a world-class Board of Directors focused on creating shareholder...
About 51% of the 35 Chinese aluminium smelters surveyed by SMM see aluminium prices fall this week. These pessimists expect SHFE 1604 aluminium to fall below RMB 10,600/mt and LME aluminium to fall below USD 1,500/mt. First, spot discounts in domestic spot market have expanded, due to cooling downstream consumption as the holiday nears and stocks in trading markets are beginning to rise. Second, China’s manufacturing PMI remained negative in January. Third, short selling pressure remains strong at highs. Fourth, the US dollar index remains high. Another 35% see SHFE 1604 aluminium hovering around RMB 10,600/mt. Investors will be cautious about entering out of risk aversion ahead of the 2016 Chinese New Year holiday in early February. The rest 14% are bullish that LME aluminium will rise...
Buoyed by an order of the state power regulator here, diversified metals and mining major Vedanta Ltd is gearing up to ramp up capacity at its aluminium smelter SEZ (Special Economic Zone) at Jharsuguda from the next fiscal. "The state power regulator, OERC (Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission), has allowed us to use three 600 Mw units (or 1800 Mw) from our own 2,400 Mw power station to run our smelter. The OERC order will facilitate us to expand our aluminium smelting capacity. With the availability of our own captive power, we hope to ramp up operations from our aluminium SEZ from the next fiscal", a senior Vedanta executive told Business Standard. Vedanta owns two aluminium smelting facilities at Jharsuguda. While the standalone smelter of 0.5 million tonne per annum (mtpa) is...
The ministry of mines in India has proposed a hike in import duty on aluminium to 7.5% from 5% now, and a correction of the inverted duty structure in the industry, in its pre-Budget communication to the finance ministry. If the proposals are implemented, domestic aluminium makers such as Hindalco, Vedanta Aluminium and Nalco would benefit. However, the mines ministry hasn’t favoured the industry demand for a doubling of the import duty on aluminium metal scrap to 5%. The inverted duty structure is deemed to prevail when the taxes on raw materials are higher than that on finished products, disadvantaging domestic value addition. Explaining the severity of the prevailing situation due to a combination of factors such as lower demand, higher imports and subdued price, a senior mines...
Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C (Alba), one of leading aluminium smelters in the world, today, January 23, 2016 announced that its Chief Operations Officer (COO), Mr. Isa Al Ansari, will be retiring at the end of March after 32 years with the Company. Alba’s Chief Executive Officer, Tim Murray said: "I would like to thank Isa for his numerous contributions to Alba during his tenure with the Company. Isa is a great example of Alba’s objective to promote people from within the company. He started as an apprentice in 1983 and worked all the way up the ladder when he was promoted to the Executive Level in 2010. In his last role as the Chief Operations Officer, he played an instrumental role in the improvement in Safety and Production with Alba setting the all-time production record of 960,643 mt in...
Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C (Alba), one of the top industrial employers in the Kingdom of Bahrain and a leading aluminium smelter in the world, is proud to have achieved above the industry benchmark of 5% training hours of the total man hours in 2015. The company has achieved this figure successfully for three years in a row, thus reiterating its commitment towards employee training and development. Alba has one of the most advanced employee training and development programmes in the Kingdom, wherein the employees are trained as per international standards of excellence in all fields. Alba’s Chief Executive Officer Tim Murray paid a recent visit to the Company’s Training Department, accompanied by Manager Training Rawdha Al Aradi. Murray met with the Alba trainees and highlighted all the...
Plans to build a multi-million-pound biomass plant and eco-park that would create around 500 jobs on Anglesey have taken a significant step forward following the official purchase of the site. Orthios has announced that the handover of the former Anglesey Aluminium site in Holyhead has now been completed, paving the way for work to start on the development that will see over 500 permanent and 1,200 construction jobs brought to the island by 2018. The former smelting works has been mothballed since its closure in September 2009, which was a significant economic blow to the island with the loss of 400 well-paid jobs. But Orthios Eco Parks, which already has outline planning permission, will now forge ahead with the plans for a 299MWe biomass-fuelled energy centre and will develop the Eco...
LME aluminium is on track for gains this week, SMM expects. The US dollar softened somewhat on weakening expectations for US rate hike. Meanwhile, short-term moving averages of LME aluminium are pointing upward. So, LME aluminium should rise to $1,500-1,530/mt. SHFE 1603 aluminium should continue consolidating at 10,700-10,900 yuan per tonne. Falling aluminium stocks in China and softening consumption as the 2016 Chinese New Year holiday is just around the corner will leave spot aluminium trade at discounts of 0-50 yuan per tonne over SHFE 1602 aluminium.
Following the power outage on Friday night, around 10 percent of Hydro Årdal's primary aluminium production capacity is temporarily shut down. Hydro expects to leave customers unaffected by the incident by increasing remelt of cold metal at the plant’s cast house, compensating the temporarily reduced primary production. Full primary aluminium production is expected to resume in Q2 2016, and financial effects are expected to be limited, based on the current information. Casthouse operations at the plant has fully resumed after the incident, and efforts are ongoing to further stabilize the plant’s primary aluminium production processes. It was under adverse weather conditions in the region Hydro’s primary aluminium plant experienced almost four hours power outage due to a technical fault....
Upbeat about a rise in aluminium consumption in India, Navaratna PSU Nalco is all set to invest INR 30,000 crore in various projects in the next five years. “Nalco plans to invest to the tune of INR 30,000 crore in the next five years,” Nalco’s CMD Tapan Kumar Chand said in his Republic Day message, adding that a INR 6,000 crore refinery project in Damanjodi is on the anvil too. “Sunny days are ahead for aluminium industries as consumption in the country is slowly picking up against the backdrop of an increase in GDP to 7.5 per cent this fiscal and availability of consumption potential of more than three multiples,” the CMD said. Noting that the average consumption was 2.2 kg in India as against the global 8 kg per capita, Chand said growth in electrical and electronics sectors as well as...
Aluminium prices fell 0.38% to INR 103.90 per kg in futures trading today, taking weak cues from global markets. Further, subdued demand in the domestic spot markets also weighed on the metal prices. At the Multi Commodity Exchange, aluminium for delivery in current month shed 40 paise, or 0.38%, to INR 103.90 per kg in business turnover of 301 lots. Metal for delivery in February contracts traded lower by 30 paise, or 0.29% to trade at INR 104.50 per kg in 89 lots. Market analysts said the weakness in aluminium at futures trade was mostly in tune with a downtrend in base metals pack at the London Metal Exchange (LME) and subdued demand at the domestic spot markets.
Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd. said it expects to swing to a small full-year profit after shutting loss-making capacity. Its shares rose. China’s largest publicly traded aluminium smelter is contending with a global glut of the alloy and faltering demand at home, which have pushed prices to a six-year low in recent months. The company, known as Chalco, joined other producers in December in pledging to halt new mills and idle capacity. Chalco expects net income of about 200 million yuan ($30 million) in 2015, after a net loss of 16.2 billion yuan the year before, according to a statement Thursday. It said its primary aluminium production costs fell about 9 percent, while the cost of alumina, a material used in the making of the refined metal, dropped about 13 percent. It also cited gains...
The Environmental Protection Agency officials said recently that the disciplinary authority will put off a decision on whether to approve Superfund cleanup of the shuttered Columbia Falls Aluminum Company plant. Regional project manager for the EPA, Mike Cirian, had recently told community members that a decision could come as early as March. But Cirian told The Flathead Beacon on Tuesday that agency officials informed him that a decision won’t come until this fall. The aluminium plant closed last year and was determined eligible for long-term remedial cleanup under the federal Superfund program. The community has been awaiting the EPA’s decision on a potential Superfund listing, as the 960-acre industrial site has been out of operation since 2009. Tests at the property owned by Glencore...
National Aluminium Company (Nalco) chairman and managing director TK Chand on Tuesday said that the company’s profitability would remain depressed during the current fiscal despite achievement of higher production. Chand said that the company is set to close the fiscal 2015-16 with a bauxite production of 63 lakh tonnes registering a growth of 10% over the last fiscal. Similarly, he added, there would be growth of 2.6%, 14 % and 14% respectively in the production of alumina hydrate, aluminium and net power by the end of this fiscal. The CMD pointed out that even though the profitability of Nalco has registered 39% growth in PAT (profit after tax) in Q2 over Q1, it has remained depressed as compared to last year due to continuous downturn in the market. He, however, said that the company...
