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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State-backed China Securities Journal reported, the vice-president of one of the country's leading industry associations has prediced that aluminium consumption in China will peak in 2020 as new industrial uses drive growth. Chinese aluminium consumption will peak at 44 million tonnes (mt) a year, Wen Xianjun, vice-president of the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association, told a forum, according to the report. As per the report, in 2016, aluminum consumption is expected to grow 7.2 percent to 32.8 million tonnes. Fuelling the next five years' growth will be new industrial uses, including the manufacture of lighter commercial vehicles, new energy vehicles and airplanes, said Wen.
Norsk Hydro ASA has entered into an agreement with Oslo Pensjonsforsikring AS regarding the sale of Herøya Industripark AS. The transfer will likely occur during the first quarter of 2016. "After a thorough process, and based on an overall assessment, we concluded that Oslo Pensjonsforsikring AS (OPF) would be the best new owner of Herøya Industripark. We see them as a long-term and very serious owner. Oslo Pensjonsforsikring already has a diverse portfolio of real estate, including industrial operations, and has broad experience in property management," says Executive Vice President Eivind Kallevik in Hydro. Almost a year ago, Hydro announced the decision to offer the industrial park in Herøya for sale, a consequence of changes Hydro has undergone in recent years. Hydro has developed...
Vedanta owned aluminium smelter plant in Jharsuguda has received the second prize in the National Energy Conservation Awards in aluminium sector. General Manager of the Vedanta Smelter Plant, Bijneswar Mohanty received the award in New Delhi recently. Various companies were audited by the Ministry of Power for energy consumption and Vedanta was shortlisted. The minerals and metal behemoth has bagged the prestigious award for the third consecutive time.
Century Aluminum Co has abandoned plans to slash output at its Sebree, Ky., smelter due in part to a modest rebound in prices, a spokesman said on Thursday, the latest aluminium maker to backtrack on steps to cope with weak market conditions. The move comes as the company, whose largest shareholder is Glencore Plc, is considering launching a trade case against China, which it blames for the tumbling prices that have prompted smelter cutbacks and closures. It has launched an aggressive pressure campaign with U.S. trade groups, criticizing rising Chinese aluminium exports and overcapacity. In late October, Century said it would reduce output at the 210,000-tonne-per-year Sebree plant by one-third by December 31 due to a drop in aluminium prices on the London Metal Exchange to more than...
The possibility of increase in import duty on aluminium by 2.5 per cent this year is "very bleak" despite the Mines Ministry pushing the case. "Although Mines Ministry has written to Finance Ministry to raise import duty by 2.5 per cent, the chances of this happening in 2015 are very bleak," a source said. Confirming the development, a senior government official said: "It seems the duty hike might happen in the first half of January or the government may put it in the budget, which will happen only in February 2016." Earlier this month, Mines Secretary Balvinder Kumar told PTI that his Ministry has written to the Finance Ministry to hike the import duty on aluminium to 7.5 per cent from 5 per cent. The domestic aluminium industry says it is facing "a very tough time" on account of the...
World aluminium major Norsk Hydro estimates that in 2016 without China, the world will have a 1.5 million to 2 million metric ton aluminum deficit, compared with a surplus of as much 1 million when including the world’s second-biggest economy. The plunge in price of primary aluminium has caused high-cost producers to reduce output and will probably lead to a better market balance next year and possibly a supply deficit in 2017, observed Hydro Chief Executive Officer Svein Richard Brandtzaeg. The benchmark three-month price has fallen by almost 50 percent since 2011 and last month hit a six-and-a-half-year low of $1,432 per tonne as the economic slowdown in China continues to weaken demand. "The need for adjustments is perhaps coming more rapidly than some imagined," said Brandtzaeg. “It...
The latest report published by the World Bureau of Metal Statistics (WBMS) indicates that global primary aluminium market has recorded a deficit during the initial ten months of the year. As per the report, the market reported a deficit of 279,000 tons when matched with the deficit of 589,000 reported during entire year 2014. The production of primary aluminium was up by 7.3% during the ten-month period from January to October this year. The global production rose by 3,260 kt during this period, when compared with a year ago. The total reported stock of metal has declined further by 184,000 tonnes during the month of October. The stocks at the end of the initial ten-month period stood at 3,961 kt, which is sufficient to meet 27 days demand. It must be noted that the stock levels at the...
Chicago-based Century Aluminum has announced its decision to operate the Mt. Holly, South Carolina smelter at 50% capacity. The company had earlier threatened to close the smelter on disputes with state-owned power supplier Santee Cooper over power rates at the smelter. Meantime, the company has initiated shutdown of its first potline starting Monday. According to Century Aluminum, the power rate of nearly $50/MWh at the Mt. Holly smelter is one of the highest among aluminum smelters across the US. This makes it difficult for the company to compete with its peers under the current market situation. The existing deal with Santee Cooper is about to expire during the end of December this year. The company had warned of serious actions including closing of smelter operations, if Santee Cooper...
The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) provided a USD 60 million long term loan to Alro S.A., Romania’s only aluminium producer. The loan will help finance the company’s investment program with the total cost of USD 190.3 million to be co-financed by other IFIs and commercial banks. The program aims at capacity increase, quality improvements and development of new products, more efficient energy consumption, as well as less exposure to the aluminium and electricity price swings, according to BSTDB. BSTDB's financing is expected to generate a significant development impact in Romania mainly through increased export and tax revenues. Alro S.A. was established in 1961 and is the largest primary aluminum manufacturer in Central and Eastern Europe, with installed production capacity...
Some large aluminium smelters in China are likely to participate in a commercial stockpiling programme, which would cut the availability of the metal to support prices and increase cash to producers, industry sources said on Wednesday. An executive at a medium-sized aluminium smelter said the volume of stockpiling had not been set and would depend on the scale of production cuts by participating smelters in the second half of 2015. "That means a smelter can sell as much as the capacity it idled," the executive said. The timing of the financing deal was one year and could be extended, he added. He said the buying price would be a monthly average of the front-month aluminium contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange in the late third quarter or the fourth quarter of this year. The first...
Aluminium makers in India, including Vedanta, are pitching for a correction of the prevailing inverted duty structure, under which taxes on the raw materials are higher than on the finished products, by reducing the import duty on inputs to 2.5% from 5-7.5% now and raising customs duty on the metal to 7.5% from 5%. “Import duty on aluminium metal is only 5% in India, whereas the duty on import of its raw material varies from 5-7.5%. This has led to higher production cost for Indian aluminium, especially for alumina, which accounts for 40% of the production cost of aluminium,” said a Vedanta official. With the gradual decline in the prices of aluminium on the London Metal Exchange (LME) over the last one year, many aluminium producing nations have come up with a series of measures to...
UC RUSAL, a leading global aluminium producer, announced that it has joined the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (“ASI”) with a view to take part in developing global sustainability standards for international application in the aluminium value chain. The ASI standards are designed to be applicable to all stages of aluminium production and transformation, with a specific focus on; bauxite mining, alumina refining, primary aluminium production, semi-fabrication (rolling, extrusion, forging and foundry), material conversion, and refining and re-melting of recycled scrap, as well as material stewardship criteria relevant to downstream users of aluminium. The importance of the aluminium industry’s sustainable development has acquired greater attention with the 2015 United Nations Conference...
Aluminium prices fell by 0.59% to INR 100.50 per kg in futures trading today, tracking a weak trend in global markets. Furthermore, muted demand in the domestic spot markets weighed on the metal prices. At the Multi Commodity Exchange, Mumbai, aluminium for delivery in January month eased by 60 paise, or 0.59% to INR 100.50 per kg in business turnover of 31 lots. Similarly, the metal for delivery in December contracts traded lower by 55 paise, or 0.55% to INR 99.75 per kg in 716 lots. Analysts attributed fall in aluminium futures to a weak global trend on concern commodities risk extending declines on slowing demand from China, the world's biggest user. Meanwhile, aluminium fell 0.8% at the London Metal Exchange.
43% of the 42 Chinese aluminium smelters surveyed by SMM are bullish toward this week’s aluminium prices. Another 33% expect prices to stabilize, while the rest 24% paint a gloomy picture. The optimists expect LME aluminium to rise above USD 1,500/mt and SHFE 1602 aluminium to climb above RMB 10,800/mt. Aluminium production cuts in China are yielding result, as reflected in decline of aluminium stocks in China’s five major trading markets to around 810,000 mt. Tight supply in spot market will trigger a short squeeze. Most smelters will not open short positions for hedging purpose at current price level, as they expect prices to rise further. Those neutralists see SHFE 1602 aluminium meeting resistance at the 60-day moving average, arguing that longs will be cautious about entering. On the...
2014 was the safest year on record for the U.S. aluminum industry, according to recently released data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The report - the BLS Workplace Injury and Illness Summary – showed that the number of recordable workplace safety incidents in the aluminum industry fell to their lowest level since tracking began in the current system in 1994. Recordable incidents declined 17 percent year-over-year in 2014 to a rate of 3.4 per 100 full-time employees while DART (Days away from Work, Restricted, or Transferred) cases similarly dropped 16 percent to 2.1 recordable incidents per 100 full time employees that resulted in lost or restricted days or job transfer. Both of these rates surpassed the performance of U.S. manufacturing as a whole which averaged a 4.0...
Qatalum in cooperation with Hydro organized the annual Aluminium Symposium in Doha, Qatar on 14 December at the Intercontinental Hotel. Titled “Aluminium, The Engine for Growth in the Region”, the day-long event was co-sponsored by Hydro, Qatar University, CAM (Centre for Advanced Materials) and hosted a number of key members of the industry, education sector, and several postgraduate students. Amongst those representing Qatalum were Mufeed Odeh and Olaf Wigstoel, who delivered speeches addressing the importance of the aluminium industry in the Middle East during a period of stagnation in the energy sector. Dr. Odeh, Sustainability Advisor at Qatalum delivered the keynote message to the symposium. In his message, Dr. Odeh emphasised the importance of education to attract new staff,...
Aluminum Corporation of China Limited (Chalco) has been reported to be making foray into green building materials business. The company made an announcement to this effect on December 15 following establishment of a joint venture with China State Construction Engineering Corporation. The JV, located in Chengdu, Sichuan province, will invest nearly 5 billion yuan ($774 million) over the next five years to develop new building materials, said industry sources. As per industry reports, products of the JV project will encompass renewable building materials, such as aluminium alloy scaffold and van room, as well as other new materials, such as composite and high-molecule materials.
Berkeley County lawmakers are scheduled to meet Monday afternoon with Santee Cooper’s chief executive officer over the fate of the Century Aluminum plant in Mount Holly. The informational meeting between the legislative delegation and CEO Lonnie Carter starts at 5 p.m. at the state-owned utility headquarters in Moncks Corner. It is open to the public. It is not a board of directors meeting, so Santee Cooper cannot take any action. The discussion with lawmakers is part of an effort to avoid a complete Dec. 31 shutdown over electricity service at the Century smelter, which employs 600 workers and has an estimated annual economic impact of nearly $1 billion on the Charleston region. It is being hold the same day the company began shutting down one of it two main production lines in the...
