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...
Grow with
AL Circle
The Government of India has yet again refrained from giving any assurance to the domestic aluminium industry on its demand for an import duty hike. For the second time in a little over a month, on Thursday the top officials of aluminium majors BALCO, Hindalco, Vedanta Ltd and others, under the aegis of the Aluminium Association of India, met senior officials from the Mines Ministry, Department of Revenue, NITI Aayog and the Prime Minister’s Office to press their demand for an import duty hike. The industry has been seeking an increase in import duty of aluminium metal to 10 per cent from the existing 5 per cent and aluminium scrap to 10 per cent from the existing 2.5 per cent. However, no assurances were given on any timeline for the import duty hike, said a member of the Aluminium...
Facing the double whammy of plummeting prices and subdued capacity utilisation, the domestic aluminum industry hinted at resorting to production cuts and retrenchment if the government does not raise import duty to 10% immediately from 5% to protect the home turf from rising imports. “The domestic aluminium industry is bleeding. All producers are running at an EBITDA loss. We are at a situation where the more we produce, the more we incur losses. Though we have not resorted to any production cut so far, if this situation continues for some more time, we would not have any option left which may also lead to job cuts,” said Abhijit Pati, a member of the governing council of Aluminium Association of India (AAI), said. The industry employs 7.5 lakh people directly and indirectly. An AAI...
Aluminium settled down -0.49% at 100.75 tracking weakness from LME aluminum which opened at USD 1,567/mt on Tuesday. LME aluminum touched an intraday high of USD 1,573.5/mt, but was then dragged down by a strong dollar to USD 1,549.5/mt. Finally, the light metal ended at USD 1,551/mt. Also pressure seen after China’s railway shipment fell 10.9% YoY in July, and the country’s power generation dropped 2% YoY in July, pointing to weak Chinese economy. Poor Chinese economic data mean that selloffs in commodity market will persist. Aluminum dropped to the lowest since 2009 as demand concerns mounted on the outlook for slower growth in China, the world’s biggest user. A recent study showed housing starts in the U.S. to have inched up to a nearly eight-year high in July, but also indicated a...
Delhi High Court today sought the Centre's response on Bharat Aluminium Company's (Balco) plea challenging government's decision rejecting its representation to reconsider cancellation of its bid for a Chhattisgarh coal block. A bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva issued notice to the Coal Ministry and sought its reply to Balco's plea by September 17, the next date of hearing. Balco, a Vedanta group firm, had initially moved the court in March this year after its bid, which was the highest for Gare Palma IV/1 coal block, was cancelled by the government amid speculation of cartelisation. The court had thereafter asked the government to consider Balco's plea as a representation and appointed Coal India Ltd as a temporary custodian of the mine. The government in the...
Meridian Energy Ltd, New Zealand's leading electricity generator and retailer, said in a briefing for its annual report, it thinks New Zealand needs a new source of energy by 2019. Earlier the corporation held that the country had adequate power sources and will not require additional power stations for years; however, with uncertainty hovering around demand for electricity which might arise from Tiwai Point aluminium smelter, the company has recently changed its outlook for the country's electricity requirement. Tiwai Point aluminium smelter, controlled by Rio Tinto's subsidiary Pacific Aluminium uses one seventh of New Zealand's electricity. It has been long since talks are on regarding its prospective closure. Despite an agreement inked earlier this month, it could still operate till...
China’s aluminum stocks have been falling for three months running, but the pace will slow down due to robust growth in new capacity, Shanghai Metals Market notes. On the supply side, the scale of aluminum production cuts will be small this year due to falling production costs. Some 2-3 million tonnes of cost-effective new capacity will come on stream in H2, SMM statistics found. Slowing consumption will exacerbate oversupply pressure in H2, SMM’s aluminum research team said.
The government of India said the demand by primary producers to raise import duty is a "tricky" case as the move will help the bigger players -- Hindalco, Balco, Nalco and Vedanta -- but may hurt smaller firms that import scrap. The Ministry is reviewing the case for increasing import duty on aluminium and has met with both the primary producers as well as the small companies who import aluminium scrap for various purposes. "In this case there are two things. On one side there are firms who are importing scrap. On the other hand primary players are only four -- Hindalco, Vedanta, Balco and Nalco -- who tell us to raise the import duty on Aluminium. But if we increase it then the firms who import scrap will be adversely affected. They have also come to us and said that import duty should...
Noranda Aluminum Holding Corporation has lost 4.97% during the past week and dropped 17.98% in the last 4 weeks. The shares are however, negative as compared to the S&P 500 for the past week with a loss of 5.61%. Noranda Aluminum Holding Corporation has underperformed the index by 16.61% in the last 4 weeks. Investors should watch out for further signals and trade with caution. The company shares have dropped 90.02% in the past 52 Weeks. On September 12, 2014 The shares registered one year high of $5.64 and one year low was seen on July 22, 2015 at $0.41. The 50-day moving average is $0.62 and the 200 day moving average is recorded at $2.2. S&P 500 has rallied 6.56% during the last 52-weeks. The company has received recommendation from many analysts. 1 analysts have rated the company as a...
Aluminium settled down -0.25% at 101.25 as prices of major traded-metals tumbled to multi-year lows since last month as weak Chinese manufacturing data added to the brew of excess supply and a strong dollar that has put pressure on several commodities. China’s consumption of industrial metals fueled a more-than decade-long rally in prices after the turn of the century. But concern over the nation’s slowing economic growth has caused metals prices to start sliding over the last twelve months. Data out already shows Japan’s preliminary GDP dropped 0.4 percent q/q, which was slightly better than the 0.5 percent fall expected, but it was the first quarter-on-quarter fall after two quarters of positive GDP. The GDP price index also rose less than expected. Data out later included the EU trade...
Aluminium gained 0.49 per cent to INR 103.40 per kg in futures trade after speculators widened positions amid positive cues from global markets. Besides, increased demand at domestic spot markets influenced prices. At the Multi Commodity Exchange, aluminium for delivery in August rose 50 paise, or 0.49 per cent, to INR 101.75 per kg in a business turnover of 188 lots. Also, the metal for delivery in September traded higher by 40 paise, or 0.39 per cent, to INR 103.40 per kg in seven lots. Market analysts said the rise in aluminium prices at futures trade was mostly supported by a recovery in metal at the London Metal Exchange and rising demand at spot markets here.
Hind Aluminium Industries has reported a standalone total income from operations of INR 188.35 crore and a net profit of INR 2.58 crore for the quarter ended Jun '15. Other income for the quarter was INR 0.33 crore. For the quarter ended Jun 2014 the standalone total income from operations was INR 81.17 crore and net profit was INR 0.87 crore, and other income INR 1.31 crore. Hind Aluminium shares closed at 76.40 on August 14, 2015 (BSE) and has given 57.20% returns over the last 6 months and 64.83% over the last 12 months.
Aluminum dropped to the lowest since 2009 as demand concerns mounted on the outlook for slower growth in China, the world’s biggest user. Stocks in Shanghai tumbled the most in three weeks as Chinese investors lowered expectations for further monetary stimulus after data showed home-price gains are spreading. The Asian nation, which consumes about half of aluminum, is growing more slowly than official data suggest. “China’s sharply lower stock prices makes everyone nervous, and the overall situation for copper is concern that global demand is going to continue to deteriorate,” said Bill O’Neill, a partner at Logic Advisors in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. “The Chinese situation is crucial for metals in general, and there’s little incentive to buy the market.” Aluminum fell as much as...
Indian aluminium producers such as Vedanta and Hindalco will meet officials at the Prime Minister's Office and policy think tank NITI Aayog this week to press for higher import duty on aluminium in the face of falling global prices. The domestic industry leaders will meet the mines secretary on Wednesday and the PMO and NITI Aayog on the following two days, industry insiders said. International aluminium prices had fallen to $1,523 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange on Tuesday, down from $2,200 in over a year. The Aluminium Association of India said increasing imports have led to the share of domestic producers dropping to 45% in 2014-15 from 60% in 2010-11. The association has been lobbying for a doubling of duty from 5% to 10%, and for 10% duty on aluminium scrap. In a statement in...
Century Aluminum has announced several cost reduction initiatives during its 2Q15 earnings call. Several mining companies, including Freeport-McMoRan, have announced such initiatives. As commodity prices from aluminum to copper are testing their multi-year lows, cutting down on every possible cost has become imperative for companies operating in this space. The company is expecting annualized cost savings between $15 million and $20 million from a headcount reduction. A similar amount is expected from a reduction in operating expenses. Century Aluminum is also expecting annualized savings of $5 million to $10 million each from lower raw material costs and closure of the Ravenswood plant. According to Century Aluminum, it has negotiated some price concessions with its power suppliers. As...
Vedanta Ltd, the mining and oil and gas arm of Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta Resources Plc., plans to raise INR 2,000 crore by issuing non-convertible debentures (NCDs) in a bid to refinance a part of the company’s debt, the company informed the stock exchanges on Monday. This issue is part of the overall approval to raise INR 8,000 crore given by its board and its shareholders during the company annual shareholders’ meet held on 11 July 2015. “Vedanta Ltd is subject to favourable market conditions in the process of issuing Secured, Rated, Non-Cumulative, Redeemable Non-Convertible Debentures (NCDs) of INR 10,00,000/- (Rupees Ten Lakhs Only) each up to INR 2000,00,00,000/- (Rupees Two Thousand Crores Only) on Private Placement basis,” the company said in its statement. The NCDs will be listed on...
Romanian aluminium producer Alro S.A. posted an adjusted net profit of RON 113 million (EUR 25.58 million) as a result of cost cutting and increase of income during the first half of 2015, shows a company financial report. In H1 2014 the company had registered an adjusted net loss of RON 80 million (EUR 18.11 million). Alro also increased its turnover to RON 1.2 billion (EUR 270 million), against the H1 2014 value of RON 966 million (EUR 218.65 million). EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and impairment) saw a positive upturn to RON 214 million, compared to RON 3.04 million, in H1 2014. Its production saw rises for the first half of the year both in primary aluminium production (134,760 tonnes against 127,605 tonnes in H1 2014) and processed aluminium...
Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba), one of the world’s leading aluminium smelters, is on schedule with its cost-improvement programme - Project Titan. Project Titan, launched in February 2014, is a 2-year programme that aims at reducing Alba’s cash cost by $150/mt. At the end of June 2015, the programme has unlocked $129/mt of savings and Alba is on track to achieve the set target of $150/mt by January 2016. Directed by Alba’s Chief Executive Officer, Tim Murray, Project Titan was launched to ensure that Alba maintains its position as one of the leading, low cost producers in the aluminium industry. Commenting on the Project, Mr. Murray said: “Project Titan is not just a cost-cutting programme; it is also a training programme where we leverage the use of our operational excellence expertise...
LME aluminum will fall to $ 1,550-1,580 per tonne this week, Shanghai Metals Market foresees. Expectations are running that that Chinese aluminum semis will flood into overseas market after Chinese yuan depreciated. This, combined with strong resistance at moving averages, will pressure LME aluminum. SHFE 1510 aluminum might drop to 19,950-12,150 yuan per tonne, as production cuts are insufficient to offset slowing consumption. In China’s spot market, spot discounts will widen to 40-80 yuan per tonne over SHFE 1508 contract.
