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...
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Taking positive cues from global market and strong demand at domestic spot markets, aluminium prices edged up 0.38% to INR 106.65 per kg in futures trade today as participants enlarged positions. Marketmen said apart from increased domestic demand, a firming global trend as Chinese economic data came in ahead of estimates, boosting demand prospects in the world's biggest consumer of base metals, helped aluminium futures to trade higher. At the Multi Commodity Exchange, aluminium for delivery this month inched up by 40 paise, or 0.38%, to INR 106.65 per kg in a business turnover of 112 lots. Likewise, the metal for delivery in August traded higher by 30 paise, or 0.28%, to INR 108.35 per kg in five lots.
Aluminum prices, though rebounding from six-year low thanks to China’s efforts to stabilize plummeting stock market, still face downward pressure from poor market fundamentals, enanchu.com predicts. Expansions of low-cost new capacity are exacerbating already oversupplied market. For example, Xinjiang Qiya Aluminum just put online 250,000-tpy capacity, which will bring its total operational capacity up to 850,000-tpy by the end of July. Xinjiang East Hope is in the process of commissioning its 900,000-tpy new project. More capacities might enter operations once aluminum prices become attractive. Small-scale production cuts have been reported in Henan, but these are just a tip of the iceberg in relation to overwhelming capacity in operation. Aluminum demand has taken a hit by sluggish...
Aluminium stocks at 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. Aluminium stocks held at three major Japanese ports fell 0.5 percent to 499,900 tonnes 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 slack demand in Asia. Japan is Asia's biggest importer of the metal used in cans and window frames. Big western banks were among buyers recently, after spot premiums over LME cash prices crashed to two year lows around $70-$80 a tonne in the second quarter. That left reduced...
The International Conference on Non-Ferrous Minerals and Metals; organized by Corporate Monitor, which has earned its reputation as a forum for the domestic and international Non-Ferrous industry players as well as industry experts, just concluded its 19th session on July 10, 2015 in Bhubaneswar. Though, currently the non-ferrous metal and mining sector is going through a tough period due to dwindling metal prices, the conference speakers highlighted a positive outlook for the industry, especially for India. Chairman and Managing Director of NALCO, NR Mohanty, said that the Indian market is becoming highly competitive despite the overall pessimistic situation in the metal sector. “It is high time for aluminium companies in India to maximise production from scrap. Recycling scrap into...
Chalco reversed losses in its aluminum segment in H1 2015, it said during its mid-year conference. The Chinese aluminum giant attributes the surprising result partly to cost reduction and higher production efficiency.
Coal-electricity- aluminum -processing industry chain is developing in full swing in Yichuan Industrial Park, Henan Province, local media reported. The park is now home to 2.22 million Kw installed power generating capacity, 840,000 tonne aluminum capacity and 650,000 tonne aluminum processing capacity, the media added.
Despite being set up well prior to the act's establishment Tiwai aluminium smelter needs to comply with environmental obligations under the Resource Management Act, a Ministry for the Environment spokesperson says. A new policy in the proposed Invercargill City District Plan "encourages" New Zealand Aluminium Smelters (NZAS) to rehabilitate Tiwai Point if the smelter closes - but the smelter maintains it has strict internal requirements around any such eventuality. A question arose around where the smelter sat in terms of environmental obligations - as it was established in the late 1960s under a far more permissive regime. Although the smelter was set up prior to the Resource Management Act coming into force, the smelter still needed to comply with environmental obligations under the...
Saudi Arabian Mining Co (Ma'aden) posted a 27 percent fall in second-quarter net profit on Tuesday, missing analysts' forecasts as higher sales by the Gulf's largest miner could not make up for lower prices for its products. Net profit for the three months to June 30 was 270 million riyals ($72 million) versus 370.8 million riyals in the corresponding period of 2014, it said in a bourse statement. Three analysts surveyed by Reuters had forecast on average that Ma'aden would report a net profit of 380.4 million riyals. Ma'aden cited the falling prices for aluminium, ammonia and gold and an increase in costs from higher sales for the profit drop without elaborating. Saudi companies issue brief earnings statements early in the reporting period before publishing more detailed results later....
The Aluminum Association’s “Index of Net New Orders of Aluminum Mill Products” for the month of June 2015 have increased slightly by 1.8% from the previous month. The orders jumped 7.6% from June ’14 levels. The year-to-date new mill orders index was up by 5.80% in 2015. New orders for plates have increased 4.5% in June this year when compared with the month before. The June ‘15 plate orders were up by 12.7% when matched with June ‘14 levels. The heat-treatable sheet orders during the month of June this year declined by 2.7% from May ’15. However, the orders climbed higher by 205.0% over the previous year. Non-treatable sheet orders were up by 9.4% year-on-year, but declined marginally by 1.8% from the previous month. New orders for extruded products and domestic can were up in June,...
The earnings performance of metal companies, both ferrous and non-ferrous, is expected to remain lacklustre for the second consecutive quarter because of a decline in steel realisation, increased cost of provisioning for the district mineral foundation fund, and a significant fall in aluminium premiums. “The June quarter will be the third consecutive quarter of net profit de-growth. Such consecutive de-growth was last witnessed in September 2009, during the global financial crisis,” said a report by Motilal Oswal Securities. “Metals will be reporting their lowest PAT (profit after tax) in eight years,” it added. Large integrated steel producers like Tata Steel, Steel Authority of India and Jindal Steel & Power and non-ferrous metal companies like Vedanta and Hindalco were expected to put...
Aluminum oversupply in China is worsening as new capacity expands rapidly, Shanghai Metals Market understands. The country’s new capacity is expected to surpass 5 million-tpy this year, most of which enjoy low costs, SMM statistics showed. Capacity cuts, including capacity closed for maintenance, have been less than 1 million-tpy since the beginning of this year, according to SMM data.
National Aluminium Company Limited (Nalco), a navratna PSU under the Ministry of Mines, has entered into a co-operation agreement for research & development with Aluminium Pechiney (AP) / Rio Tinto Alcan. The agreement was signed between B K Satpathy, Executive Director (Business Development), Nalco and Bernard Allais, Director (Sales and Marketing), AP Smelter Technology on July 10, 2015. N R Mohanty, Chairman-cum-Managing Director, S C Padhy, Director(HR), K C Samal, Director ( Finance) and other senior officials of Nalco were present on the occasion. The two companies plan to take up several developmental research activities in collaborative efforts under this agreement, Nalco said in a statement on Monday.
To protect the interest of homegrown companies from rising imports of aluminium metal and its scrap, the aluminium industry has demanded that the Centre increase import duty on these products. As per statistics of Aluminium Association of India, Indian Aluminium Industry has seen a huge surge in imports in recent years from 8.81 lakh tonne in the year 2010-11 to 15.63 lakh tonne in 2014-15 financial year -- primarily from Middle East and China. Similarly, the import of aluminium waste and scrap has increased at a compound annual growth rate of 16 % in the same period. "The Indian Aluminium Industry is at a critical phase where it requires support from the government to maintain not only its current viability but also protect its growth plans that have significant economy contributions and...
Romanian aluminum producer Alro Slatina will get USD 200 million (EUR 179 million) loans from local and international banks. It will borrow USD 60 million from the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB), a financial institution whose shareholders are the 11 countries bordering the Black Sea. The bank was founded by Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine, which are also the 11 founding countries of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation. The aluminum producer will also take USD 120 million from a syndicate of banks, to finance an older loan taken from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. It has also borrowed USD 27 million from local lender Raiffeisen Romania. The company, which is the biggest aluminum...
Alcoa Inc.’s revised outlook for aluminium in 2015 comes close on the heels of a sharp fall in metal prices. Aluminium on the London Metal Exchange (LME) has fallen 15.3% since a year ago and by 6% since 1 June. Alcoa’s results for the June quarter reflect the impact of falling prices, although the company benefited from productivity gains. Alcoa’s outlook for aluminium is more interesting for Indian investors. There is good and bad news. The demand growth forecast for 2015 is held steady at 6.5%. And aluminium inventory is down at 62 days at the end of the June quarter compared with 66 days in the preceding quarter. But this did nothing to prevent prices from falling during the quarter. The bad news is on the supply-demand balance. The surplus in the aluminium market is projected at...
Manufacturers of goods from cars to soda cans are benefiting from declining aluminum costs, a sign that new warehouse rules aimed at loosening the grip of Wall Street banks are having the desired effect. For the past four years, customers have had to wait months and sometimes years to remove aluminum from storage, or pay large fees to avoid the delays. The London Metal Exchange, the world’s largest venue for metals trading, in February forced clogged warehouses to remove more metal than they take in. Aluminum-delivery charges, called premiums in industry parlance, have plunged 65% since the LME implemented the new rules. At the time, premiums accounted for 22% of the total cost of metal borne by industrial consumers. Now, they make up just 9.7%. Other factors are helping reduce the prices...
High-cost aluminum smelters in China are under growing pressure to cut output against falling aluminum prices, Shanghai Metals Market notes. Some 7.85 million-tpy aluminum capacity in China - 22.3% of the country’s operational aluminum capacity - were operating above the cash costs of 13,000 yuan per tonne as of the end of June, SMM statistics showed. These capacities concentrate in Guizhou, Guangxi, Qinghai, Ningxia, Hubei, Yunnan, etc. Of them, 60% of smelters are small ones with annual capacity at less than 200,000 tonne. A majority of these small smelters suffer from high power costs due to a lack of captive power plants, thus bearing the brunt of falling aluminum prices. SMM spot aluminum prices hit over six-year low of 12,050 yuan per tonne on July 8.
Attuned to get closer to its customers around the globe, Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba), a world’s leading aluminium smelter, has had official delegation visiting some of its key customers in Asia and Pacific Region. The delegation comprised of Alba’s Chief Executive Officer, Tim Murray, along with the Acting Chief Marketing Officer, Khalid A. Latif, Sales Manager of Asia & Pacific, Yogesh Kumar, and Sales Officer of Alba’s Hong Kong Office, Enoch Kwok. This visit aimed to improve customer satisfaction, give more insights on Line 6 Expansion Project as well as expand Alba’s customer base across Asia. In addition, Alba took part in Aluminium China 2015 from 8-10 July 2015 at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre in China. Held every year, this conference is considered as one of...
