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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The Mines Ministry of India, after being approached by AAI and leading aluminium makers of the country last week, has agreed on the issue of increasing import tax on aluminium. The Ministry will ask its counterparts in the government’s finance department to double the import tax to counter cheap imports from China and the Middle East. Producers have sought a 10 percent increase in custom duty, confirmed Mines Secretary Balvinder Kumar. “The industry is in a difficult situation and they need some sort of government support to tide over the situation,” he said. Cheap imports from China and the Middle East along with plunging LME prices because of global glut have made aluminium smelters across the country economically unviable. The metal slumped 18.6 percent to a six-year low on LME in the...
Noranda Aluminum Holding Corporation today reported results for second quarter 2015 on July 23, 2015. "In a volatile second quarter 2015 aluminum price environment, we successfully managed cash and available liquidity while continuing to focus on improving our operational reliability and implementing key productivity initiatives," said Layle K. "Kip" Smith, Noranda's President and Chief Executive Officer. "At a time when aluminum prices have declined sharply, maintaining cash and liquidity is a strategic priority. We believe our cash and available liquidity position supports our business as we execute our other strategic priorities." "Our strategic priorities are to preserve cash and liquidity while reducing our costs by improving our operational reliability and implementing key...
China’s aluminum exports that are compounding a glut of the metal are unfair competition to overseas producers, according to Norsk Hydro ASA. China accounts for half of the world’s aluminum supply and has been producing record amounts of the metal, which it then ships out in the form of semi-fabricated products. A “significant amount” of primary material is also leaving the country disguised into shapes that circumvent the country’s tax rules, said Hydro’s Chief Executive Officer Svein Richard Brandtzaeg. “This is definitely unfair competition,” Brandtzaeg said in an interview in London on Tuesday. “This is absolutely damaging the industry. It’s taking the market share from other companies.” Aluminum is trading near a six-year low amid an oversupply that Hydro, Europe’s third-largest...
The most recent statistics released by the International Aluminum Institute (IAI) indicates that the global aluminum output during the month of June this year, excluding China, dropped when compared with the prior month. As per IAI data, the total aluminum production during June this year totaled 2.056 million mt, down by almost 3.7% when compared with the revised output figure of 2.135 million mt in May. The average daily aluminum output during the month of June this year was slightly lower month-on-month. The daily output, excluding China, averaged at 68,500 mt per day, lower by 400 mt per day when compared with the average daily output of 68,900 mt per day during May this year. The average daily output in China stood at 91,900 tons, significantly higher when compared with 87,200 tons...
Aluminum slid to the lowest in almost two weeks as increasing supply from China adds to a global glut in the metal. Chinese exports of unwrought aluminum and products swelled 35 percent in the first half from a year earlier to 2.5 million metric ons, according to customs data. While demand in the rest of the world will exceed supply this year, the excess supply in China will mean a global surplus of 500,000 to 1 million tons, according to Norsk Hydro ASA. “A number of commodity complexes, ranging from aluminum, to copper, steel and oil among others, are all are saddled with too much supply,” Edward Meir, an analyst at INTL FCStone Inc. in New York, said in an e-mailed report. There’s “no willingness on behalf of their respective producers to ratchet down output in order to lend an element...
BHP Billiton spin-off South32 will record a $US1.9 billion writedown on manganese and coal assets, and said curtailing production of manganese and aluminium was designed to maximise shareholder value, rather than volume. South32 today said the $US1.3bn reduction in book value of the manganese assets largely offsets the previous "fair value uplift" of $US2.1bn described in its listing documents. The company also flagged a $US539 million writedown on its Wolvekrans Middelburg complex at its South Africa energy coal unit. "The associated reduction in book value will result in a lower depreciation charge for the manganese assets than previously indicated," South32 added. BHP Billiton spun off its non-core assets into South32, in May, as the parent miner focusses on commodities including iron...
China's Shandong Electric Power Corporation or SEPCO on Tuesday handed over the first unit of Balco's INR 5,000-crore 1,200 MW power plant to the aluminium producer. Bharat Aluminium Company (Balco), a part of the billionaire Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Group, said work will start on the remaining three units of the power plant shortly. Vedanta holds a 51 per cent stake in Balco, while the remaining is with the government of India. "The first unit of the 12,00 MW power plant established by Balco has been handed over by Sepco to the Balco management for operation," Balco said in a statement. Balco's head for 1,200 MW operations Pankaj Sharma said SEPCO had started the reliability run test (RRT) on July 3, 2015, and the plant was run with average load continuously till July 16, and no...
Hydro's underlying earnings before financial items and tax declined to NOK 2,667 million in the second quarter from NOK 3,208 million in the first quarter of 2015, mainly reflecting lower aluminium prices and premiums. Highlight: • Underlying EBIT of NOK 2,667 million • Record downstream results on seasonally stronger sales • Lower realized alumina and all-in aluminium prices • New ICMS tax-framework in place • Long-term power sourcing secured for Rheinwerk • Continued challenging global market balance • 2015 global primary aluminium demand growth ~5% "Results this quarter are affected by weaker prices, but I am pleased to see demand growing and aluminium taking over as the preferred metal in more and more applications, contributing to record results in our downstream operations," says...
Despite speculations regarding production cuts in Chinese smelters, global aluminium prices have shown no signs of improvement. This has forced India's Vedanta Group to scale down their aluminium business. They may also consider substantial job cuts to reduce overhead cost, said Abhijit Pati, CEO, Vedanta Limited. Presently, about 1.5 million of India's annual aluminium demand is met through imports from the Middle East and China. Imports rose further to 390,000 tonnes in the last quarter from the same period previous year. Rising imports from China and West Asia, moderate demand in the domestic market, and costlier raw materials and power tariffs have been adding to the concerns of aluminium players in India for a while now. Last week they approached the government to seek increase in...
Tracking a weak trend in the base metals pack at the London Metal Exchange (LME) and low demand at spot market, aluminium prices eased by 0.33 per cent to INR 105.55 per kg in futures trade today as speculators reduced positions. In futures trading at the Multi Commodity Exchange, aluminium for delivery in July traded lower by 35 paise, or 0.33 per cent, to INR 105.55 per kg in a business turnover of 371 lots. The metal for delivery in August also fell by a similar margin to trade at INR 107.15 per kg in 13 lots. According to market analysts, weakness in copper and other base metals at the LME in tune with a broader selloff in raw materials as a stronger dollar reduced demand for the commodities as alternative assets, weighed on aluminium futures here. Besides, slackened demand at...
Daily average primary aluminum output excluding China fell to 68,500 tonnes in June from a revised 68,900 tonnes in May, data from the International Aluminium Institute (IAI) showed on Monday. Global production for June, excluding China, was 2.056 million tonnes, down from a revised 2.135 million recorded in May.
Forced to operate their plants at nearly half the capacity due to burgeoning imports from China, aluminium companies on Thursday urged the government to raise import duty on aluminium metal scrap and the metal itself to 10% from 2.5% and 5%, respectively. In a presentation to the mines ministry, aluminium producers said though the country’s installed production capacity currently stands at 4.2 MT, the production was just half of that in the previous fiscal, mainly because of cheaper imports. As a result, their share in domestic consumption fell to 44% last fiscal from 60% in FY11. During the same period, the share of imports went up to 56% from 40%. China and West Asia contribute to a lion’s share of aluminium imports to India, which consumed around 2.8 MT last fiscal. Companies from...
Vedanta Resources plc will announce its production results for the first quarter ended 30 June 2015, on Friday, 31 July 2015 at 7:00 a.m. UK time (11:30 a.m. India time). Following the release, a conference call will be held on the same day at 9:00 a.m. UK time (1:30 p.m. India time), where senior management will discuss the results. The results will be webcast and can be accessed via investor relations section of the Vedanta website.
Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd (HKEx) No money was paid by either side in arriving at the settlement, the HKEx-owned LME said in a statement. Under the settlement announced by HKEx on Sunday, the plaintiffs agreed to drop the LME from appeals against a U.S. court’s decision last August dismissing them from their cases, the exchange said. This leaves the plaintiffs free to ask the LME for publicly available data, which they were prevented from doing while the LME was a defendant in the lawsuits. LME data includes inventory levels in the warehouses it monitors. "These are the only principal terms of the settlement," the London-based LME said. The lawsuits, brought last year by companies in the United States, accused banks and traders of hoarding metal in LME warehouses, driving up the...
Aluminum ingot production in Iran reached 93,836 metric tons during the first three months of the current Iranian fiscal year, starting March 21 till June 22. The figure shows five-percent growth compared to the same period of preceding year, Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO) reported. Iranian Aluminum Company (IRALCO), produced 46,230 metric tons of aluminum ingots in the 3-month period, while the volume of aluminum ingot production in the Al-Mahdi Aluminum Corporation (AAC) and Hormozal companies stood at 21,100 and 26,506 metric tons respectively. Iran produced 62,601 metric tons of alumina powder in the period as well. Some 29,404 metric tons of aluminum ingots and 21,454 metric tons of alumina powder have also been produced in the...
Speculations about production cuts in Chinese smelters and high selling pressure are all set to drive LME aluminum prices to $ 1, 700 – 1,740 per tonne next week, says Shanghai Metals Market. Prime trading indicators- KDJ and MACD are both pointing upwards. A Strong US dollar, however, is likely to cap the price rise in the foreseeable future. In China’s spot market, no demand turnaround will keep favoring spot discounts at 60-100 yuan per tonne over SHFE 1508 contract.
National Aluminium Company Ltd (Nalco), the navratna PSU under the Union mines ministry, has entered into an R&D (research & development) cooperation agreement with Aluminium Pechiney (AP) / Rio Tinto Alcan. The agreement was signed between B K Satpathy, executive director, Nalco and Bernard Allais, director (sales and marketing), AP Smelter Technology recently. N R Mohanty, chairman cum managing director, S C Padhy, director (human resources), K C Samal, director (finance) and other senior officials of Nalco were present on the occasion. Various developmental research activities in collaborative efforts will be taken up between the two companies under this agreement.
The stock and finance trade is investing in Japanese aluminum again and republicans in the US House unveiled an $8.1 billion infrastructure bill. Big Banks Investing in Aluminum Again Aluminum stocks at major Japanese ports fell for the first month in more than a year in June as western banks started snapping up metal in Asia after spot premiums fell to two-year lows. Aluminum stocks held at three major Japanese ports fell 0.5% to 499,900 metric tons at the end of June from a month earlier, trading house Marubeni Corp. said on Wednesday. It was the first decline since March last year. Prior to June’s fall, stocks had risen to record levels over several months due to rising exports from China and lackluster Asian demand. Republicans Unveil Infrastructure Bill Republicans in the US House of...
