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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National Aluminium Company (NALCO) has been allocated Utkal D and E Coal Blocks, in Angul district of Odisha, where the company's 4.6 lakh tonne aluminium smelter and 1200 MW captive power plant are located. The company's smooth operation and expansion plans hinged on the allocation of these blocks by the government of India. With this, NALCO's captive resources add 200 million tonnes of coal, which will see the company through the next three decades and more. Utkal E Coal Block was allotted to NALCO by Government of India in 2004. The company had spent INR 126.34 crore for this block, including INR 98 crore towards compensation against land acquisition. The company had also spent considerably on infrastructural facilities and various CSR activities in the area. However, the cancellation...
Aluminium prices edged up by 0.28% to INR 107.25 per kg in futures trade today as participants enlarged positions amid a firming trend overseas. Besides, strong demand in spot markets influenced metal prices. At Multi Commodity Exchange, aluminium for delivery in the current month inched up 30 paise, or 0.28%, to INR 107.25 per kg in a business turnover of 212 lots. Metal for delivery in October contracts also rose by a similar margin to trade at INR 108 per kg in 20 lots. Traders said that apart from increased domestic demand, a firming global trend despite concern over an economic slowdown in China, the world's largest consumer, helped aluminium futures trade higher.
LME aluminium faces a resistance at $1,644 per tonne, a break above which will lead to a gain to the next resistance at $1,660. These two resistances are identified respectively as the 38.2 percent and the 50 percent Fibonacci projection levels of an upward wave c, the third wave of a three-wave cycle that developed from the Aug. 24 low of $1,506. The longer the wave c hovers below $1,644, the more likely it will retrace to the support at $1,624, the 23.6 percent level. A rise to $1,648 may signal a break above $1,644.
Unifor, Canada’s largest private sector union, has successfully argued before the BC Supreme Court that Rio Tinto’s Kitimat aluminum smelter must reviewed by the Environmental Assessment Board (EAB). The project, to be built without a sulphur dioxide scrubber, had been approved by the province’s ministry of transportation. Without a scrubber, the sulphur dioxide emissions would increase to 42 t/d from 27 t/d, according to Unifor. The decision to approve the smelter without scrubbers will now be sent back to the EAB. Rio Tinto is currently in the midst of a US$4.8 billion modernization and expansion to increase Kitimat capacity by 48%, to 420,000 t/y from 282,000 t/y. Rio’s AP™ technology will be installed as it has been at Alma and Arvida, QC, smelter. The company says that the new...
Base metals nickel and aluminium are likely to experience a price hike by the middle of September due to various positive global cues, observed a market research group. The white metal will get a price boost on production upgrade from a giant Russian bauxite producer, the analysts forecast. “ We expect aluminium prices to trade higher in September 15 as supply glut concerns will likely get a breather as Russia’s Rusal, the world’s top aluminium producer, is considering capacity cuts of 200,000 tonnes a year this year,” the group added. Earlier this year, Rusal deputy chief executive Oleg Mukhamedshin had said that bauxite producers across the globe are forced to either cut production or completely shut operations down due to the losses obtained from weak global prices. “Chinese smelters...
Some have blamed China’s economic slowdown for slump in global aluminum prices , which have fallen to the lowest since July 2009. However, that is most unlikely, opined Rusal’s Deputy CEO Oleg Mukhamedshin. Mukhamedshi argued that supply glut is the true culprit behind lower aluminum prices. In fact, demand for the light metal remains strong, Oleg Mukhamedshin said in an interview with finance.qq.com. The biggest issue facing the industry is the entry of new market players, which exacerbates already oversupplied market, Oleg Mukhamedshin added.
East Hope Group will bring online its vertically-integrated aluminum project in Lingshi County, Shanxi Province, next year. The project covers 3 million-tpy aluminum hydroxide , 300,000-tpy primary aluminum, 300,000-tpy carbon, 300,000-tpy aluminum semis, etc., the media said. Shanxi is rich in bauxite , coal and limestone, giving easy access to East Hope’s project.
President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo (Jokowi) visited a container seaport and an aluminum processing plant in Dubai during his recent visit to the Emirates. The president closely evaluated the seaports management, which is run in an efficient and timely manner. "We have prepared the guidelines for cooperation for the dry port in Surabaya, and we will also develop them in Tanjung Api-api. I have ordered a two-week survey, and in Jakarta, we have decided to implement it immediately," Jokowi noted while visiting Dubai Port World. The head of state thereafter visited an aluminum processing plant to explore cooperation in aluminum processing in Asahan. "Aluminum in Asahan is also similar. There is also silica sand and nickel that we could process as good as here. Between two and three weeks,...
The investment peak in China’s aluminum processing industry might have come to an end. Fixed asset investment in China’s aluminum processing industry totaled 87.5 billion yuan in January-July period, up 4.5% from a year ago. The growth slowed down markedly from over 20% average growth over the past two years. The 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020) will see gradual release of the country’s new capacity, accompanied by industry restructuring and upgrading, opines industry insiders.
Correlations between metals prices were high ahead of the Great Financial Crisis (GFC) and in the immediate aftermath of it. Prior to the GFC, this was heavily influenced by exceptionally strong global economic growth and Chinese demand, which swept the quotations of most commodities higher, said Bank of America Merrill Lynch in a research note. Meanwhile, immediately after the Global Financial Crisis, cross-asset correlations remained high partially because several governments implemented large fiscal stimulus packages and many central banks flooded the markets with liquidity. Yet, more recently, individual metals have increasingly traded on their idiosyncratic fundamentals. This has been reflected in a sharp drop in correlations. According to BofA Merrill Lynch, the decline in...
India's aluminium industry on September 12 called on the government to raise duties on import of the metal to stem the flow of cheap imports from China. An Aluminium Association of India delegation, led by Vedanta Group chief executive Tom Albanese, Hindalco deputy managing director D Satish Pai and Nalco chairman TK Chand, met finance minister Arun Jaitley here to impress upon him the need to hike duties to prevent imports from impacting industry investments of over INR 100,000 crore. "We are here to present aluminium industry's case and the difficulty we are facing. Finance minister gave us a patient hearing. He is aware of our situation and we are quite sure that he will take the right decision," Pai told reporters here after the meeting. Imports accounted for 56 per cent of aluminium...
Aluminium India 2015 concluded successfully after playing host to a congregation of global aluminium industry players from 7 to 9 September in Mumbai. Given the fact that aluminium industry is currently going through a challenging phase, this international exhibition-cum-conference held at Bombay Exhibition Centre, Mumbai served as an apt platform for domestic and international industry players to network, brainstorm ideas and opportunities and showcase their cutting-edge technologies and applications in front of a global audience. The three day event, which covered every part of the aluminium industry value chain right from Raw Materials and Aluminium Processing Machinery to Aluminium Extrusions and End User segments, saw leading industry figures coming under one roof. There were over...
Vedanta Group is getting aggressive with capacity expansion in Tamil Nadu. The company, which has its copper smelter in Tuticorin and an aluminium factory in Mettur, has drawn up a INR 6,000-crore investment programme to be spent over the next 12 to 24 months. It is also planning a foray into solar in the state. P Ramnath, CEO of Sesa Sterlite said, the group was planning to restart Malco, the aluminum plant in Mettur, by bringing in aluminium ingots, and make wires and end products. "Basically, we want to restart the plant for downstream products in the short term and see how we can make the entire plant work in the long term," he said. On plans to set up 50MW solar power plants near Mettur, he said, "We have lands for solar project. To begin with we will have 5MW plant and feasibility...
Alstom has signed a contract, worth approximately €36 million, with Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) to supply equipment on a turnkey basis for Potlines 1 & 3 at EGA’s core operating subsidiary, Dubai Aluminium (“DUBAL”, also known as EGA Jebel Ali), in Dubai (United Arab Emirates). The project will be executed from Alstom’s competence centers in Europe and the Middle East. Continuous site activities will commence from June 2015, with project completion scheduled for March 2018. As part of this contract, Alstom will improve the performance of four Gas Treatment Centers (GTCs) at the DUBAL aluminium smelter by adding compartments and supplying a complete new pot feed system (Alfeed) for the transportation of alumina from the GTCs to 520 new D18+ electrolysis cells. The new cells are the...
LME aluminium may seek a support in a zone of $1,611-$1,618 per tonne, before rising again. The zone has been formed by the 150 percent and the 161.8 percent Fibonacci projection levels of an uptrend from the Aug. 26 low of $1,525.50, based on the rise from the Aug. 24 low of $1,506 to the Aug. 25 high of $1,563. A trendline from $1,525.50 will provide a support in the zone as well. The uptrend may extend to $1,686 eventually, as revealed by a Fibonacci retracement analysis on the fall from the May 6 high of $1,977 to of $1,506. Amid weak global cues, aluminium prices in Indian market edged lower by 0.14 per cent to INR 107.90 per kg in futures trade yesterday after traders reduced their exposure. Besides, subdued demand in the domestic spot market weighed. At Multi Commodity Exchange...
Mining giant Vedanta Resources has resorted to "aggressive cost reduction" and "workforce reduction" in its aluminium segment amid subdued and volatile market conditions globally.The Anil Agarwal-led mining conglomerate said sharp rise in Chinese exports has led to a short-term market saturation and the cost of the metal in global market suggests that over 50 per cent of the world capacity is at loss, based on current prices at the London Metal Exchange (LME) plus premium. Vedanta is taking bold decisions in the current low price environment. A disciplined approach towards smelter ramp-up in light of current market volatility, it said in a statement. The ramp up of the first line of the 312 kilo tonne capacity at Jharsuguda will commence in the second quarter (July-September) this fiscal,...
The Aluminum Association, which represents producers and suppliers to the North American aluminum industry, expressed strong concern about a recent call from the Chinese Non-Ferrous Metals Industry Association for the removal of a long-standing 15 percent tax on primary aluminum exported from China. The Chinese government, which relies heavily on imported bauxite, has long applied export taxes on primary aluminum as part of a broader strategy to discourage exports of energy-intensive products and emphasize sustainable, quality growth. The unilateral removal of these taxes could have unforeseen impacts on the balance of trade and the global aluminum market. In the United States, domestic primary aluminum production is an essential element to American manufacturing. This segment could come...
JW Aluminum Company posted its 2015 quarterly report for the three months ended July 4 on September 2, Wednesday. The quarterly report is being furnished pursuant to the Indenture governing JW Aluminum’s Senior Secured Notes due 2017. The quarterly report will be made available to holders and beneficial owners of the Notes, qualified prospective investors in the Notes, and certain security analysts and market makers. JW Aluminum will post all of its annual reports, quarterly reports and current reports that are required to be delivered pursuant to the Indenture governing the Notes on JW Aluminum’s secure investor website maintained by Intralinks. JW Aluminum’s management will host an investor conference call to discuss the 2015 second quarter financial results on Friday, September 11....
