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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A partnership between a Chinese and an Icelandic company has been struck to build an aluminium smelter in north Iceland. Kjarninn reports that Klappir Development ehf. and China Nonferrous Metal Industry’s Foreign Engineering and Construction (NFC) have signed an agreement to build a smelter in Hafursstaðir, in Skagabyggð, north Iceland. The smelter will be capable of producing 120,000 tonnes of aluminium every year, if completed. Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson and Chinese ambassador to Iceland Zhang Weidong were present at the signing, which took place at the Ministerial House in Reykjavík. A statement from the two companies says that they plan to cooperate in both the funding and managing of the smelter. The total cost of construction is estimated to be about 100 billion...
The power supply contract deadline that could see New Zealand Aluminium Smelters close is looming but a report from the smelter shows it was still investing capital and upping production. Despite this, industry analysts are still not confident of the outcome as aluminium prices had fallen from more than US$2000 a tonne late last year to about US$1700 this month, around one-year lows. The NZAS 2014 sustainable development report shows the Tiwai Pt smelter increased production of aluminium by 3500 tonnes since 2013. However, this still fell short of the 5000 extra tons smelter bosses had projected because fewer potlines had been operating. Under a contract with Meridian Energy, NZAS has the option to terminate its power deal on July 1 2015, with effect from January 1, 2017, or to reduce the...
Aluminium prices eased by 0.32 per cent to INR 108.90 per kg in futures trade today as speculators reduced positions amid weak demand at the spot market. At the Multi Commodity Exchange, aluminium for delivery in July traded lower by 35 paise, or 0.32 per cent, to INR 108.90 per kg in a business turnover of 260 lots. Likewise, the metal for delivery in August month shed 25 paise, or 0.23 per cent, to INR 110.45 per kg in 34 lots. Analysts said offloading of positions by speculators due to sluggish demand at spot market mainly weighed on aluminium prices but a higher trend in base metals overseas, limited the losses. INR 63.54 = 1 $ (Dollar)
Shares in South32, the diversified miner spun out of BHP Billiton, have dropped 17.3% in the past six weeks as the prices of its key commodities have weakened. The shares were trading at R16.74 on Wednesday compared with their close of R20.24 on the first day that South32 became a separate entity. In the same period, BHP Billiton’s shares have shed 11% to around R243. BHP Billiton shareholders received South32 shares on a one-for-one basis and it was expected that some shareholders would sell South32 to rebalance their portfolios. The share price drops show that continued weakness in commodity prices has also played a role in selling. South32 took over all BHP Billiton’s South African assets, including thermal coal mines, aluminium smelters, manganese mines and ferromanganese processing....
Base metals edged higher on Wednesday on hopes that demand would recover in China and that Greece would eventually agree a bailout with creditors. There was also some buying by investors who took profits from short positions over the past two days when some metals hit multi-year lows and others who saw the low prices as good value. Metals joined euro zone stocks and peripheral bonds in climbing after a report that Greece was ready to accept most conditions from its international creditors. "There's a recognition that even in the worst scenario, if Greece leaves the euro zone, it's not necessarily going to have a deep negative impact on global growth, which is ultimately what commodities are interested in," said Caroline Bain, senior commodities economist at Capital Economics. Three-month...
UC RUSAL, a leading global aluminium producer, announces the appointment of Christophe (Chris) Hoet as Director of Asian Sales. Chris Hoet joins RUSAL following a similar role within Vale, where he was Regional Director Sales & Marketing Base Metals, Asia Pacific. At RUSAL, he will be responsible for leading and developing the Company’s Asian sales portfolio, reporting to Steve Hodgson, RUSAL’s Sales & Marketing Director. Chris will replace Geoff Watson, who is retiring from RUSAL after nearly 5 years in this role. ‘Asia represents a strategically important market for RUSAL and Chris’s appointment continues our commitment to building enduring partnerships in the region, founded on the strong technical and commercial capabilities established under Geoff’s leadership’ Steve Hodgson, RUSAL’s...
Vedanta Resources Plc will today host its first Sustainable Development Day in London. As part of the Group's ongoing commitment to safety and sustainability as a key business imperative, Vedanta is hosting this event to explain how it is embedding sustainability across its operations and to provide an update on progress in the past year. Tom Albanese, Chief Executive Officer, and other senior management will be presenting. The presentations from the event and the Group's 2014-2015 Sustainable Development Report will be available on our Vedanta website.
Aluminium settled down -0.47% at INR 105.65 on the possibility of a Grexit increased, allowing market panic to grow. Also pressure seen after China imported 6,738 mt of primary aluminum in May, down 71.98% YoY, customs data showed. Also pressure seen after last ditch Greek debt negotiations broke down over the weekend, bringing the country a step closer to a debt default ahead of a looming deadline for a repayment to the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday. Despite the deposit reserve ratio and interest rate cut by the PBOC, CSI 500, IH 50 and IF 300 indexes plummeted as a large number of financiers closed positions, though clawed back some losses at the end of trading. This depressed market confidence. The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) expects to ease market panic. The...
Chinese imports of primary aluminium ingot are likely to rise in coming months after the price of the metal fell on the global market, prompting end-users to buy, industry and trading sources said on Thursday. The weak London Metal Exchange (LME) price is opening a rare arbitrage opportunity for Chinese investors to sell aluminium futures in Shanghai and buy on the LME, which may result in some imports, the sources said. Imports of primary aluminium fell 79 per cent in the first four months of 2015 compared with a year before. Spot primary aluminium ingots have been offered at premiums of about US$105-$130 per tonne to Chinese buyers, down nearly two-third from January
Rio Tinto's aluminium smelter in New Zealand, which has suffered losses in two of the last three years, faces a July 1 deadline to decide whether to extend its power supply contract with utility Meridian Energy. The decision could determine the future of the 350,000-tonne-per-year smelter, which is the country's single biggest energy consumer, beyond 2017 following a battle by the plant's owners to slash its power costs. The smelter has struggled with weak aluminium prices and a high New Zealand dollar for several years, and has been seeking cheaper power, even though it returned to an underlying profit of NZ$56 million in 2014 after two years of losses. The plant was given a NZ$30 million subsidy in 2013 by the government to bridge the price gap between Meridian and the plant's owners,...
Lightweight metals leader Alcoa today announced that it will permanently close its Poços de Caldas primary aluminum smelter in Brazil on June 30, 2015. The smelter has been curtailed since May 2014 and the underlying market conditions that led to the curtailment have not improved. “The closure of the Poços smelter permanently removes a high-cost smelting facility from the Alcoa system and is another step in creating a more profitable Primary Metals business,” said Alcoa Global Primary Products President Bob Wilt. Once the Poços smelter is closed, Alcoa’s total global smelting capacity will be reduced by 96,000 metric tons, to 3.4 million metric tons. The Poços mine, refinery, aluminum powder plant and casthouse will continue normal operations. As a result of the closure, Alcoa expects to...
China imported 6,738 mt of primary aluminum in May, down 71.98% YoY, customs data showed. Imports totaled 46,723 mt January-May, plunging 78.01% YoY. The SHFE/LME aluminum price ratio slid from 7.5 in early April to 7.0 in early May, unfavorable for imports. However, imports might rebound in June as the SHFE/LME aluminum price ratio has been rising since May and overseas aluminum premiums fell sharply.
The Bharat Aluminium Company Limited (BALCO) honoured as many as 118 employees with the “Excellent Production Award” for the fourth quarter of the financial year 2014-15. The employees of Human Resources Management (HRM)-3, Customer Relations Management (CRM)-2 and FLA-5 were honoured in the presence of their family members. BALCO’s Aluminium Business Head Deepak Prasad, Fabrication and Services Head PS Tur, Process Control (FLA) head Sanjay Agrawal and SRS head Ajay Sharma wished a very bright future to all the winners of the award. The officers asked the employees to have solidarity to reduce the production cost and to maintain high quality Aluminium production. The programme was organised in Alumina canteen. Rajesh Kumar Sahu, AS Sidar, Prateek Saraswat, KK Soni, RS Khar, BL Maitri, SK...
Global aluminium production continued its upward trend since the end of last year, according to statistics of the International Aluminium Institute (IAI). Even though the production slightly decreased in April, the output still grew since May. China and GCC are still the largest contributors to total global production, and they have an important role on the monthly and the annual world production of aluminium. The primary aluminium production in China almost accounts of the half of the global aluminium production, according to IAI.
Global aluminium producer RUSAL, headquartered in Moscow, has opened a new office in Istanbul, according to a press release issued by the company. The office will be led by Ihsan Kösoglu, who joins RUSAL from the Turkish aluminum producer Assan Alüminyum, and brings more than 19 years of experience in the Turkish aluminum industry in various commercial roles. According to RUSAL, its metal now accounts for close to 50 percent of Turkey's aluminum imports. Steve Hodgson, RUSAL director for sales and marketing, comments, “Turkey has always been an important market for us and we are logistically ideally situated to service this region via our Black Sea ports. In 2014 approximately 500,000 metric tons of our total sales were consumed in Turkey where more than 25 percent of these sales were in...
Noranda Aluminum Holding Corporation announced today the hiring of Julio Costa as President of the Company's Bauxite and Alumina business. Noranda also announced that Mike Griffin, the Company's Vice President of Manufacturing, has been named President of the Primary Aluminum business. Costa and Griffin join Scott Croft, who continues as President of the Flat-Rolled Products business, and who has also been named Noranda's Chief Commercial Officer, as the core of Noranda's senior operations management team. "Julio is an excellent operational leader with deep experience in bauxite mining and alumina refining. We are proud to add his talents to our team," said Layle K. "Kip" Smith, Noranda's President and Chief Executive Officer. "The appointment of Julio and Mike to their respective senior...
China is unlikely to relax its tariff policy on the export of raw aluminum, according to United Company Rusal Plc. Rusal chief executive Vladislav Soloviev said China wants to discourage the export of raw aluminum but has reduced tariffs on value-added downstream products of the metal, the Hong Kong Economic Journal reported Monday. He said such a policy, which is aimed at encouraging the export of value-added aluminum products, remains strong and sustainable. China currently charges a 15 percent tariff on raw aluminum exports but provides waivers for value-added products. About 40 percent of Chinese aluminum enterprises are operating inefficiently, while the sector is struggling with an oversupply, Soloviev said. Still, Soloviev sees rising demand for metal amid a rising trend among...
The latest figures from the International Aluminium Institute (IAI) showed daily average output in May falling marginally from April's 158,100 tones to 157,800 tones. But that shouldn't distract from the underlying trend, which is rising and at an accelerating pace. The world's smelters produced 4.892 million tons of aluminium in May, up almost 12 per cent year-on-year. That was the fastest growth rate since 2011. May's output of 2.67 million tons represented a year-on-year growth of 22.3 per cent while showing a cumulative output of 12.46 million tons over the first five months of 2015 that shows a growth of 13.5 per cent. China's soaring production and its massive exports of semi-manufactured products are attracting ever more negative scrutiny from non-Chinese producers. But production...
