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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China Hongqiao Group. Ltd., the world’s biggest maker of aluminium, will raise nearly half a billion dollars from a rights offer underwritten by its founder, highlighting the difficulties of producers amid five-year-low commodities prices. The company’s shares fell in Hong Kong. The Shandong province, China-based company aims to bring in HK$3.84 billion ($490 million) by offering seven shares for every 50 held by shareholders, the company said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange after close of trading on January 8. Chairman and founder Zhang Shiping, who has pledged to underwrite 99 percent of the issue, holds more than 78 percent of Hongqiao through a holding company, according to the statement. “Strategically the raising will address working capital needs and highlights the...
LME aluminium may edge up to $1,511 per tonne, as it has cleared a resistance at $1,479. The resistance was provided by the 38.2 percent Fibonacci projection level of a downward wave C, the third wave of a three-wave cycle from the September 9, 2015 high of $1,655.50. The next resistance will be at $1,511, the 23.6 percent level, around which the current bounce may end and the wave C will resume. A fall below $1,479 could also signal the resumption of the wave C towards $1,453, the 50 percent projection level.
Noranda Aluminum Holding Corporation today announced that production has been idled at two of the three pot lines at its aluminum smelter in New Madrid, Missouri, following an electrical supply circuit failure. The electrical supply circuit failure occurred shortly before 1:00 p.m. Central Time on January 7, 2016 and no serious injuries were reported. Noranda is assessing the incident to determine its root cause. The third pot line was not directly affected and production in that line has continued. As Noranda's Flat-Rolled Products business sources metal from a portfolio of suppliers, the Company believes it has access to sufficient sources of aluminum to meet customer commitments for flat-rolled products. The Company is evaluating its ability to meet customer commitments for its primary...
About 42% of the 34 Chinese aluminium smelters surveyed by SMM expect aluminium prices to stabilize this week. These market players expect SHFE 1603 aluminium to consolidate. On the one hand, smelters will open short positions for hedging purpose after SHFE aluminium rise, which will put downward pressure on prices. On the other hand, short selling eased after SHFE aluminium touched the 20-day moving average. With a lack of positive or negative news, both longs and shorts will stay cautious. Another 29% are optimistic that LME aluminium will rise above USD 1,490/mt and SHFE 1603 aluminium will climb above RMB 10,900/mt, citing a series of positive factors. 1. More smelters have cut production, and new capacity is delayed from coming online; 2. Alumina producers cut output in response to...
CME Group has logged the first trades in its Japan aluminium premium contract, data from the exchange showed on Monday, just days after the industry hammered out the first quarter premiums for Asia's biggest importer of the metal. The trades, coming in the wake of the quarterly industry negotiations, deal a blow to the London Metal Exchange as the U.S. bourse builds up its metals business in Asia. CME's premium contract, which launched Dec. 7, traded 622 lots in several block trades on Friday for contracts from January to December 2016. The January contract settled at $108.78 a tonne, while those along the curve settled at $108. The contracts were bid at $95 a tonne and offered at $115 on Monday. Japan is Asia's biggest importer of the metal and the premiums for primary metal shipments it...
Lightweight metals leader Alcoa announced full-year 2015 results yesterday, ending the year on solid operational footing. In fourth quarter 2015, the Upstream remained profitable despite lower alumina and aluminium prices. Every segment delivered productivity gains. The company also undertook restructuring to further strengthen the Upstream portfolio and streamline overhead ahead of its planned separation in the second half of 2016. Q4 Results: In fourth quarter 2015, Alcoa reported a net loss of $500 million, or $0.39 per share. Results include $565 million in special items related primarily to closures or curtailments of capacity in the Upstream business and discrete income tax charges. Fourth quarter 2015 results compare to net income of $159 million, or $0.11 per share, in fourth...
There is still room to fall for costs at Chinese aluminium smelters in January, SMM says. The downside room will be limited, though, SMM understands. Prices for alumina and prebaked anode will unlikely see sharp declines due to cost support. Power tariff subsidies by local governments will not be as much as before. Alumina cost at Chinese aluminium smelters fell 8.68% MoM in December, versus 3.43% drop for prebaked anode cost, and 5.97% decline for power cost, SMM statistics showed. Power tariffs subsidies in Qinghai, Gansu, Xinjiang and Yunnan allowed power costs to fall at aluminium smelters.
Japan's aluminium imports are expected to shrink for a second year running in 2016, after buyers skipped or trimmed purchases for January-March shipments due to still-high levels of local inventory. The expected drop in imports could help trim domestic aluminium stocks by March by about 100,000 tonnes to around 300,000 tonnes, pushing up surcharges for physical delivery of aluminium in Japan, industry sources said. Japan is Asia's biggest importer of the metal and the premiums for primary metal shipments it agrees to pay each quarter over the London Metal Exchange (LME) cash price set the benchmark for the region. Imports have been declining since stocks at the country's three major ports hit a record high of 502,200 tonnes in May last year due to an influx of excess cheap semi-fabricated...
Following an electric supply circuit failure which occurred Thursday last week, Noranda Aluminum idled two of three aluminium smelting potlines at its New Madrid smelter. No serious injuries were reported. Noranda, the largest buyer of Ameren Missouri electricity, had bought around 10 percent of the power the utility produced in 2014. Noranda has annouced no probable date and time by which it will be in a position to restart the two downed production lines. It has been reported to be "evaluating" its ability to meet customer commitments for primary aluminium produced at the New Madrid smelter. "Accordingly, the company is taking steps to move to a one pot line operation and to adjust staffing and other activities to match this lower level of production at the smelter," an official said....
Alminium prices rose by INR 2 per kg at the non-ferrous metals market in India on Saturday ast week due to pick up in demand from consuming industries amid a firm global trend. Traders apart from pick up in demand from consuming industries, reports of a firm global trend mainly led to the rise in aluminium prices. In the national capital, aluminium ingots, sheet cutting, wire scrap and utensils scrap were up by INR 2 each to INR 142, INR 138, INR 138 and INR 136 per kg respectively.
Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba) has surpassed its annual sales' record of 931,526 metric tonnes (mt) in 2014 when its sales figures rose by 2.2% year-on-year (YoY) to reach 951,944 mt while production figures topped 960,643 mt up by 3.1% YoY versus 931,427 mt in 2014. For the fourth quarter of 2015, sales figures grew by 4.2% YoY to stand at 252,582 mt versus 242,322 mt in Q4 2014; production figures reached 243,614 mt, an increase of 9,695 mt as compared to the same period of 2014. In addition, Alba managed to close 2015 with its Value-Added (VA) sales averaging 64% of total shipments versus 66% in 2014. Commenting on Alba's sales and production for 2015, Alba's Chief Executive, Tim Murray said: "We are delighted to be celebrating yet another record in sales and production despite the...
Lindberg/MPH announced the shipment of a gas-fired aluminium stack melting furnace for a leader in the marine industry. The industrial furnace was modified to hook directly to the customer’s existing melting furnace to provide additional melting capacity and efficiency. The customer requested a system that would increase melt rate, enhance safety, and improve efficiency with state of the art process control. Lindberg/MPH took the customer’s request and designed a stack melting system to attach to the customer’s existing melting furnace via a short and enclosed launder connection trough. The two manually operated doors on adjacent sides allow for easy access to the melting chamber for cleaning. The laser charge stack level control monitors material level in the stack for maximum...
The outcome of Chinese discussions to cut the country's aluminium output will be key to determining the global price of the light-weight metal, the head of Norwegian producer Norsk Hydro told Reuters on Thursday. Aluminium prices have dropped by nearly 50 percent since 2011 to $1,459 per tonne. "The economic growth in China is on its way down while (aluminium) production capacity is building up," Hydro Chief Executive Svein Richard Brandtzaeg said on the sidelines of a business conference. Chinese data due out in the coming days are expected to show a continued slowdown in the world's second-largest economy, forecasts show. After rising slightly towards the end of 2015, the price of aluminium has again fallen at the start of the new year. "It's difficult to tell how long this will...
Lightweight metals leader Alcoa today announced it will permanently close its 269,000 metric ton Warrick Operations aluminium smelter in Evansville, Indiana by the end of the first quarter 2016. The rolling mill and power plant at Warrick Operations will continue to operate. Once the actions announced today and in the fourth quarter are implemented, Alcoa will have curtailed or closed 812,000 metric tons of smelting capacity since its announced review in March 2015 of 500,000 metric tons of smelting capacity. Alcoa forecasts improving supply-demand balance in the aluminium market for 2016, and is focused on positioning the business for success throughout market cycles. The company is on target to meet or exceed its 2016 goals of moving to the 38th percentile on the aluminium cost curve....
Vedanta Resources plc's subsidiary Vedanta Limited has appointed Mr. Samir Cairae as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Diversified Metals (India). He will report to Mr. Tom Albanese, CEO, Vedanta Resources Plc and will be a member of Vedanta Executive Committee team. "We are delighted to have Samir on board and look forward to his extensive experience in delivering sustainable growth and creating long term value for our shareholders. Samir will provide operational and strategic leadership for the performance of Vedanta Limited's Aluminium, India Copper, Power, Iron Ore divisions in addition to Commercial and Asset optimization functions" said Mr. Tom Albanese, CEO, Vedanta Resources Plc. Prior to his appointment at Vedanta, Mr. Cairae held various leadership positions at Lafarge and...
Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba), one of the world’s leading aluminium smelters, achieved an all-time record when its metal production surged to 960,643 metric tonnes (mt) in 2015, up by 3.1% YoY as compared to 931,427 mt in 2014. To mark this landmark, a ceremony was held at HRH Princess Sabeeka Oasis on Wednesday, January 6, 2016. The event was attended by Alba’s Chief Executive, Tim Murray, Chief Operations Officer, Isa Al Ansari, Chief Financial Officer, Ali Al Baqali, Chief Marketing Officer, Khalid Abdullatif, Chairman of Alba Labour Union, Ali Al Binali, Chairman of Alba Trade Union, Mohammed Ali Makki, senior Alba officials and employees. Commenting on the Company’s production record, Alba’s Chief Executive, Tim Murray said: “Alba had another exceptional year in terms of...
LME aluminium may break a support at $1,465 per tonne and fall more to the next support at $1,448, as the bounce from the Nov. 23 low of $1,432.50 could have completed. The completion has been suggested by the depth of the fall from the Dec. 24 high of $1,564. A Fibonacci retracement analysis on the downtrend from the Sept. 9 high of $1,655.50 to $1,432.50 reveals a support at $1,465, the 14.6 percent level. The support has temporarily held the fall. However, with aluminium having approached this barrier again, it has a better chance to break this level and fall more to the 7 percent retracement at $1,448. A further bounce from the current level may be limited to $1,485, the 23.6 percent retracement.
JW Aluminum Company announced that on December 29, 2015, it closed on a new $90 million asset based revolving credit facility. Proceeds from the new facility were used to pay off previous revolving loans. This refinancing completed the recapitalization of JWA that began in November of 2015 with a change in ownership and a $120 million reduction in debt. The four and a half year facility provides improved liquidity and greater flexibility, enabling JWA to capitalize on favorable conditions in markets for continuous cast aluminium sheet and foil. “As a long term domestic producer, we are committed to delivering exceptional experiences to both our customers and suppliers. This recapitalization enhances our financial strength so we can continue to be a reliable resource in the flat rolled...
