Aluminium prices came under renewed pressure on October 1 as expectations of improving supply, stronger Chinese exports and a firmer USD weighed on the market. Aluminium settled 0.73 per cent lower at INR 340.65, while expectations of tighter US monetary policy added to the broader macroeconomic pressure. The decline comes as several aluminium smelters prepare to restart previously idled capacity, while others move ahead with expansion plans. These developments are raising expectations that global aluminium availability could improve in the coming months. China exports add to supply pressure China is emerging as another important factor for the aluminium market. Rising exports are partly offsetting supply disruptions in the Gulf, with August aluminium exports increasing 17.2 per cent...
According to SMM statistics, on September 30, aluminium billet inventory in major consuming regions in China stood at 149,500 tonnes, up 500 tonnes WoW from last Thursday and down 5,000 tonnes from this Monday, with inventory consolidating at highs and basically flat overall. On a year-over-year basis, inventory was about 35,000 tonnes higher than the same period in 2025 and about 41,000 tonnes higher than the same period in 2024, with total inventory still at the highest level for the same period in the past four years. From the perspective of warehouse withdrawals, aluminium billet withdrawals from September 21 to September 28 totalled 44,800 tonnes, holding near 45,000 tonnes for two consecutive weeks. By region, Foshan inventory stood at 69,500 tonnes, down 3,000 tonnes from last...
Grow with
AL Circle
State-run National Aluminium Company (Nalco) reported a 40 percent decline in its net profit at INR 163.44 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2015. The company had posted a net profit of INR 270.99 crore in the year-ago period. Total income of the aluminium producer fell by 16 percent to INR 1,491.27 crore in April-June quarter of this fiscal against INR 1,680.04 crore in the same quarter of 2014-15. Total expenses of the company fell to INR 1,366.55 crore from INR 1,499.06 crore in the reported quarter. Nalco's Net sales from aluminium fell to 1,042.26 crore in the June quarter of 2015-16 from INR 1,042.62 crore in the same quarter in 2014-15. The aluminium unit reported a loss of INR 13.89 crore before taxes and interest against a profit of INR 31.09 crore. The company has minimised...
Government of India has raised basic customs duty on base metals by 2.5 per cent. The decision was taken after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley approached Parliament seeking the revision for specified goods falling under Chapter 72. Under the Central Board of Excise and Customs ( CBEC), this pertains to commodities such as iron and steel, copper, nickel, lead, zinc, tin, tungsten (wolfram), molybdenum, and aluminium among others. Domestic aluminium producers have been demanding import duty hike for some time now as they are facing stiff challenge from China, which is exporting aluminium products at cheaper rates. Cheap imports from Middle East too are deluging domestic market. As a result of this, market shares of the Indian aluminium producers are getting shrunk. Aluminium Association of...
State owned Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) may get to operate a commercial coal block for supply of the dry fuel to non-regulated sectors like steel, cement and sponge iron. The state government has already written to the Ministry of Coal to allocate the Patrapada coal block with reserve of 1042 million tonne to OMC. Patrapada is one of the 10 Schedule I coal blocks listed by the Ministry of Coal for non-regulated sectors. The remaining coal blocks identified are Nuagaon-Telisahi, Talabira II, Utkal, Biatarani West, Mandakini B, Rampia and dip side Rampia, Ramchandi promotional coal block and North of Arkhapal and Srirampur coal block. "The discussions with the Coal minister were very positive. We hope to get one commercial coal block from the Centre in favour of our PSU", said state...
Bharat Aluminium Company (Balco), a Vedanta group firm, has approached Delhi High Court against the government's decision to reject the company's winning bid for an auctioned coal mine in Chhattisgarh. The government last week rejected the company's plea to review the cancellation decision taken in March. The government had in March rejected bids for three coal blocks, one by Balco and two by Jindal Power, citing low prices and handed over the mines to state-run miner Coal India. The companies then moved the Delhi High Court. The court asked the government to consider Balco's plea afresh while appointing Coal India as a temporary custodian. Balco had submitted best bid of Rs 1,585 per tonne for Gare Palma IV/1 while Hindalco bagged another mine for steel sector in the same Gare Palma...
Aluminium on London Metal Exchange (LME) hit six-year lows after China devalued its currency, fuelling worries about oversupply and boosting cost of the commodity for the world's top metals consumer. "The devaluation will make commodities more expensive for China to import, so I would imagine that is the main reason for the negative reaction," said Caroline Bain, senior commodities economist at Capital Economics in London. The devaluation also makes exports more competitive, which may eventually increase industrial production and demand for metals, Bain added. "We're not too worried because ultimately it could be a factor in a pick-up in activity in the second half of the year. It could be positive for commodities in the medium term even if the initial reaction is negative." Aluminium...
Aluminium settled down -0.2% at 100.35 even after Century Aluminium curtailed capacity at one of its four smelters. Prices also seen under pressure as the market focused on a growing supply glut due to surging exports from top producer China and high stocks. China's exports of primary aluminium rose to 20,412 tonnes in the first six months of the year, a surge of 66 per cent from the same period a year ago. But the more pressing worry is exports of semi-finished aluminium products, which at 2.22 million tonnes have jumped 44 per cent. Stocks of aluminium in LME approved warehouses stand at around 3.4 million tonnes, but that does not include stocks held off exchange and by producers. Norsk Hydro, one of the world's biggest aluminium producers, last month estimated global inventories at...
Noranda Aluminum Holding Corporation announced today that it received written notice from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on August 7, 2015 that the company is not in compliance with one of NYSE's continued listing standards because the average global market capitalization of its common stock over a 30 trading-day period was less than $50 million and, at the same time, stockholders equity was less than $50 million. Under NYSE rules, the company must notify the NYSE, within 10 business days after receiving the notice, if it intends to submit a plan that will advise the NYSE of definitive action it has taken, or is taking, to bring it into conformity with the listing standard within 18 months of receipt of the notice. The company must provide such a plan within 45 days after receipt of...
The global economy lacks an immediate driver that could boost global growth and aluminium demand, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Digging a bit deeper on economic activity, China’s recent GDP report is a case point: while the country is stabilising, much of this was driven by relatively poor quality growth, including rising activity in financial markets, the bank said. A cyclical rebound is Merrill Lynch's base for the coming weeks, but China’s economic restructuring will continue. This suggests that most metals are in need of a new structural growth driver, making production curtailments, especially on aluminium, even more essential. Correlations between metals prices were high ahead of the Great Financial Crisis (GFC) and in the immediate aftermath of it. Prior to the GFC,...
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. reduced its aluminum price forecasts by at least 21 percent from 2016 through 2018 because of a global surplus. The bank cuts its predictions to $1,525 a metric ton in 2016, to $1,625 in 2017 and to $1,700 in 2018 from $1,925, $2,100 and $2,200 as it projected a glut of about 2.5 million tons to 3 million tons from 2016 to 2019. Prices fell to a six-year low on the London Metal Exchange this month as exports from China surged. While shipments from the country, the world’s biggest producer, fell in July from the highest level this year, they have still increased 28 percent in the first seven months from a year earlier, customs figures showed on Saturday. A balanced market will be difficult to achieve because most of the easy cuts outside of China have already been...
Aluminum shipments from China, the world’s biggest producer, fell from the highest level this year amid a decline in global prices. Sales of unwrought aluminum and products slumped 20 percent to 360,000 metric tons in July from 448,980 tons in June, preliminary customs data showed Saturday. While monthly exports dropped, shipments climbed 28 percent to 2.87 million tons in the first seven months, the data showed. China is heading for the slowest economic expansion since 1990 and faltering domestic demand combined with excess capacity has spurred a surge of aluminum and steel supply onto world markets, pressuring foreign producers. Prices of the metal used in everything from cans to aircraft fell for the third month in July, declining 4.3 percent, and lost 14 percent this year.
Mining giant Rio Tinto on August 6 reported a 82% drop in its first-half net profit as a supply glut and slowing demand in key market China sent iron ore prices plunging. The Anglo-Australian firm, which reports in US dollars, said net profit was $806m in the six months to June 30 from $4.4bn in the same period last year. Its underlying profit, the measure preferred by the company, was down 43% to $2.9bn. "This is a robust set of results, given the tough operating environment," Rio Tinto CE Sam Walsh said in a statement. Mr Walsh said the miner’s focus on cost-cutting had reaped savings of $641m in the six months, and it was now increasing its target to $1bn. The world’s second-largest miner is heavily reliant on iron ore, a crucial steel-making component, and added that it was expecting...
Vedanta-controlled Bharat Aluminium Company Limited (Balco) would shut down its rolling mill at Korba, Chhattisgarh, as the crises in the company reportedly deepened following recession in the sector. The rolling mill was commissioned in 1981-82. Besides the rolling mill, the company houses ingot and wire-rod mills in the facility. The closure of rolling mill would affect about 500 employees. A Balco official, confirming the report, said, “The management has decided to shut down the rolling mill that has been the most loss-making unit.” The move was inevitable since continuing with the mill, which had been recording heavy losses for the past four years, would have pushed Balco on the verge of closure, the spokesperson added. Since the other two mills were running in profit, the management...
National Aluminium Company (Nalco), the navratna PSU, has set a target to purchase goods and services worth INR 321.50 crore from the micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in 2015-16. In percentage terms, the sourcing of goods and services from the MSEs is 25 per cent of the total annual procurement of INR 1,286 crore fixed by Nalco for the current fiscal. The annual purchase value excludes steel, cement, coal and fuel. The MSEs from which the other items will be sourced includes the units owned by SC /ST entrepreneurs, who will be supplying the company Rs 1 crore worth of goods and services in the current fiscal. Such units will account for 0.08 per cent of the total procurement. In 2014-15, the central PSU had purchased goods and services worth INR 350 crore from MSEs. It also intends to...
In trading on Thursday, shares of Aluminum Corp of China Ltd. entered into oversold territory, changing hands as low as $8.44 per share. We define oversold territory using the Relative Strength Index, or RSI, which is a technical analysis indicator used to measure momentum on a scale of zero to 100. A stock is considered to be oversold if the RSI reading falls below 30. In the case of Aluminum Corp of China Ltd., the RSI reading has hit 29.8 - by comparison, the universe of metals and mining stocks covered by Metals Channel currently has an average RSI of 37.5. A bullish investor could look at ACH's 29.8 reading as a sign that the recent heavy selling is in the process of exhausting itself, and begin to look for entry point opportunities on the buy side. Looking at a chart of one year...
Global glut caused benchmark aluminium to crash on London Metal Exchange hitting a six years low at $1,576 a tonne. The metal widely used across packaging and transport sectors recouped some losses closing at $1,592.50, down 0.2 per cent. Primary aluminium exports from China surged 66 per cent in the first half of the year from the same period last year to reach 20,412 tonnes. However, what is more worrisome is the export of semi-fabricated aluminium products which has jumped a significant 44 per cent to reach 2.22 million tonnes. Vivienne Lloyd, analyst at Macquarie, expressed concern over China’s releasing of its aluminium surplus. He said, "It needs to fall towards $US1,500 to convince people smelter closures are necessary." Presently, aluminium stocks in LME approved warehouses stand...
After a sharp fall over the last one year, stocks of state-owned mining companies -NMDC and Nalco -look attractively valued for investors who prefer to buy companies with good dividend yields. Cash on the books of NMDC as on March 31, is almost half of its market cap, while in case of Nalco it is little over 50 per cent. In addition, both these firms have a strong dividend-paying history. In 2014-15, NMDC paid 56 per cent of its profits in dividend, while Nalco paid around 35 per cent in dividend. A weakness in the global iron ore and alumina prices was the key reason for the sharp fall in the stocks of these two companies. As a result, NMDC and Nalco, which supply products mainly in the domestic market, were forced to take price cuts. NMDC's stock is down 40 per cent in one year, while...
Aluminium hit a six-year low on Wednesday while other base metals also slipped as the dollar strengthened on speculation that the United States was closer to raising interest rates, a view bolstered by strong economic data. But losses were held in check after data showed activity in the services sector of China, the world's top metals consumer, expanded in July at its fastest pace in 11 months. Markets were pressured by the dollar hitting a 3-1/2 month peak against a basket of currencies after a voting member of the U.S. Federal Reserve's policy-setting committee expressed support for an interest rate rise in September. The dollar was also boosted by data on Wednesday showing the pace of growth in the U.S. service sector surged in July to its strongest level in a decade. A stronger dollar...
Noranda Aluminum Holding Corporation announced today that molten aluminum production at its New Madrid, Missouri aluminum plant is continuing at the same level as before an explosion yesterday in that facility's casthouse. Although the incident affected the company's production of extrusion billet, the company is redirecting that portion of the plant's molten aluminum output to other saleable products such as redraw rod and aluminum ingot. "We are thankful that no serious injuries occurred as a result of yesterday's incident," said Layle K. "Kip" Smith, Noranda's President and Chief Executive Officer. "We are investigating the incident's cause and assessing the damage to the casthouse. Once that assessment is complete we will determine the necessary steps and timeline for restoring our...
