China Steel Aluminum, a subsidiary of China Steel, will invest approximately TWD 1 billion (USD 32 million) to build a smart manufacturing plant in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The investment was among two expansion applications approved by the Invest Taiwan Office on October 1, with a combined value of TWD 1.1 billion (USD 33 million). The new facility will be located in the Xiaogang District and focus on smart manufacturing and lower-carbon production. China Steel Aluminum, Taiwan’s largest manufacturer of aluminium rolled products, produces aluminium plates, sheets, coils and foil, as well as zinc alloy and hot-dip galvanised ingots. The investment supports the company’s shift toward high-end and low-carbon aluminium materials. The plant will integrate artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet...
This week, the overseas aluminium market was generally mediocre, with limited trading activity across major markets. In South Korea, purchases were mainly small-scale restocking, with little change in prices. In Thailand, demand remained weak, and some sellers slightly lowered their offers due to shipment pressure. The market focused on Q4 MJP quarterly pricing, with Rio Tinto's latest offer further reduced, and market expectations suggested there is still room for the final settlement price to move lower. South Korea: Mediocre market, transactions mainly small-scale restocking This week, trading in the South Korean market was very subdued, with purchasing demand limited to small-scale restocking and no concentrated procurement seen. Sellers showed moderate willingness to offer, with...
Grow with
AL Circle
Aluminium futures traded a shade higher at INR 106.90 per kg today as participants strengthened their positions, supported by an upward trend overseas. Further, a rising demand at the domestic spot market also influenced metal prices. At the Multi Commodity Exchange, aluminium for delivery in June inched up by 15 paise, or 0.14 per cent, to INR 106.90 per kg in a business turnover of 558 lots. Likewise, the metal for delivery in July traded marginally higher by 10 paise, or 0.09 per cent, to INR 108.65 per kg in 71 lots. Marketmen said apart from an increased domestic demand, a firming global trend in the base metals pack at the London Metal Exchange , mainly influenced metal prices at futures trade here. 63.78 INR =1 $ (Dollar)
A three-week production halt last month at Press Metal Bhd’s smelting plant due to a fire may have cost the company up to RM160 million in lost revenue. “It would not be an entire loss, it’s a production loss. But certainly, the aluminium price is a big impact to revenue,” group chief executive officer Datuk Paul Koon said. “At the moment, the aluminium price is around US$2,000. But we have substituted this revenue by doing trading ,” he said. He was speaking to reporters after the company’s AGM yesterday. A three-week production halt on May 17 at its smelter in the Samalaju Industrial Park, Sarawak, had resulted in an output loss of around 60,000 to 80,000 tonnes for the company. The company’s current production capacity stands at 440,000 tonnes. It is nearing completion of the third...
Noranda Aluminum Holding Corporation announced today that it has engaged Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC ("Morgan Stanley") to serve as financial advisor for the Company as it evaluates a variety of strategic alternatives. The Company also announced that its Board of Directors has decided to suspend the Company's quarterly dividend and will seek stockholder approval of a reverse stock split at a ratio to be determined. "We are pleased to announce the engagement of Morgan Stanley as an advisor as we proactively identify and evaluate prudent actions to continue to create stockholder value across the aluminum price cycle," said Layle K. "Kip" Smith, Noranda's President and Chief Executive Officer. "In the face of low aluminum prices, I am proud of the progress we have made in improving our cost...
Aditya Birla-led Hindalco today said insurance giant LIC has raised its stake in the aluminium maker to over 13 per cent. In a BSE filing, Hindalco said LIC acquired 2.009 per cent stake in the firm through open market transaction between April 16 and June 17, 2015. After the transaction, the state-run firm's stake in Hindalco increased from 11.328 per cent to 13.337 per cent. The aluminium maker had reported a 36 per cent fall in standalone net profit to Rs 160 crore for the quarter ended March 31 against Rs 248 crore in the year-ago period, mainly on account of Rs 146 crore liability towards Renewable Power Obligations (RPO). The Aditya Birla Group flagship firm's standalone net sales rose by 10 per cent to Rs 9,219 crore in January-March quarter, from Rs 8,360 crore in the same quarter...
Bosnia's regional government will soon offer for sale its 44 percent stake in the country's sole aluminium smelter Aluminij Mostar to help cover a budget deficit, the Prime Minister said on Thursday. The sale of Aluminij, one of Bosnia's top exporters, is part of the government's plan, endorsed last week, to sell its minority stakes in eight companies. "The sooner, the better," Prime Minister Fadil Novalic said on Thursday when asked about the timing of the sale of Aluminij Mostar, adding: "We need money." He said the privatisation agency would prepare a sell-off plan, but declined to be more specific about the timing of a sale. The Bosniak-Croat Federation is struggling with a widening budget deficit which has exceeded 800 million Bosnian marka ($466 million). It hopes a possible new...
The Tadawul, popularly known as the Saudi Stock Exchange opens doors to direct foreign investment in Saudi Arabia. Foreign investors who have more than £5bn reported assets supported by a five year track record can now invest directly, investment limited to overall 10 per cent of the Tadawul’s value. It will also allow single stock ownership up to five per cent of a listed company, with a total foreign ownership of 20 per cent. Investors will also be able to participate in initial public offerings on a case-by-case basis. For foreign investors, there is no dearth of untapped opportunities in the kingdom. Although Saudi is synonymous with oil production, the kingdom’s investment and business options are no more limited to petrochemicals. Aluminium sector has invited notable foreign...
Surcharges for physical aluminum have settled close to equilibrium levels after tumbling by up to three-quarters this year, supported by consumer buying and more attractive conditions for financing deals. Tapering Chinese exports of the metal will also help stabilize surcharges; a glut of aluminum had been a big factor in setting off a slide in premiums late last year and early in 2015. The surcharges, or premiums, which consumers pay on top of the London Metal Exchange cash price for immediate delivery of metal, have settled closer to levels seen several years ago before a sizzling rally sent them to record highs. "Everybody's looking for some stabilization, both producers and consumers don't want to see this volatility any more," said a trader in Europe. "If you look at historic levels,...
Academic collaboration allows for further research in developing metallurgical competence in Qatar and Increases competence on specific casthouse products for process optimisation. This results in a wider product portfolio of high quality aluminium products for a larger global market. Qatalum's casthouse has defined a joint student project together with Qatar University. The project's objective is to study microstructure development during the homogenisation process of aluminium alloys. Therefore, further developing aluminium metallurgy competence amongst the students. The specific research and development case concerns a commercial alloy and is directly related to Qatalum potentially gaining increased market share with extrusion billet alloys containing chromium. This type of alloy is...
Aluminium prices edged up 20 paise to INR 108.55 per kg in futures trade today as participants enlarged positions amid a firming trend overseas. Strong demand in the spot market also influenced metal prices. Aluminium for delivery in June inched up 20 paise, or 0.18 per cent, to INR 108.55 per kg in a business turnover of 143 lots in futures trade at Multi Commodity Exchange. Likewise, the metal for delivery in July traded higher 10 paise, or 0.09 per cent, to INR 110.30 per kg in 12 lots. Marketmen said apart from increased domestic demand, a firming trend in global markets, helped aluminium futures trade higher. At the London Metal Exchange, aluminium for delivery in three months gained 0.3 per cent to USD 1,721.50 per tonne.
Press Metal Bhd (Press Metal) will likely rebound from the myriad of setbacks faced this financial year 2015 (FY15) as RHB Research Institute Sdn Bhd (RHB Research) viewed the group to currently operate low-cost aluminium smelters in in the first quartile of the global cost curve. At a visit to Press Metal’s smelting operations in Samalaju last Friday, RHB Research witnessed repair works at the group’s Phase II smelter which caught fire last month, and saw that things were well in progress with six pots energised at the point of visit. According to the research house, management targets the plant to be back in full operation by end-third quarter of 2015 (3Q15). “Separately, Press Metal also brought us to its Phase III expansion, with construction well into advanced stages despite works...
LME aluminium contract which was supposed to be launched in November 2015 may fail to serve the purpose as the aluminium premiums are falling at a higher rate. LME aluminium contract was a strategy to withstand rising aluminium premiums and long LME warehouse queues as well as to free the metal tied up in financial deals. However premiums or the price that is paid to get physical delivery of aluminium have fallen down abruptly in last few months in all major locations around the world. The queues at the warehouses in Detroit and the Dutch port of Vlissingen have become much shorter and the metal is leaving the warehouses at a much faster rate. The process will be faster from August with the implementation of new LME rules which require warehouses to ship out more aluminum than they take...
Alro SA, one of the largest aluminium producers in Central and Eastern Europe, salutes the conclusions of the investigations conducted by the European Commission (EC) in respect to its contracts with the electricity generator Hidroelectrica. As per the EC press release sent out on June 12th, “following an in-depth investigation, the European Commission has concluded that electricity supply contracts signed by the state-owned Romanian electricity generator Hidroelectrica with certain electricity traders and industrial customers did not involve state aid within the meaning of the EU rules”. Moreover, “in particular, the analysis revealed that Hidroelectrica charged prices that were fully in line with the benchmark market price to nine customers” among them Alro as well. The EC press release...
The Board of Approvals for Special Economic Zones (SEZs) under Union commerce & industry ministry has extended the validity of Vedanta Ltd's product specific SEZ at Jharsuguda by one year. The BoA has granted the extension to the developer at a recent meeting. The validity of the SEZ has been extended till May 22, 2016. Earlier, the development commissioner, Falta SEZ had recommended the Vedanta's case to BoA. Formal approval for the SEZ was granted on May 23, 2007. Vedanta claimed to have completed 95 per cent work on the SEZ and hopes to complete the unfinished work by May 22 next year. Vedanta's product specific SEZ includes an aluminium smelter complex where the proponent has already invested Rs 12,000 crore. The project was set up as a sector specific SEZ for producing aluminium...
Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) on Thursday said it is cutting its workforce by 4 percent as part of a strategic restructuring to reduce costs and boost operational efficiency. EGA was created by the merger of two state-owned aluminium companies - Dubai Aluminium (Dubal) and Abu Dhabi's Emirates Aluminium (Emal) - to create what was at the time the world's fifth largest aluminium company with an estimated value of $15 billion. The move, which would see around 250 support positions cut, is aimed at creating a leaner entity and increasing competitiveness as it looks to expand in the UAE and abroad, EGA said in a statement. EGA is jointly owned by Abu Dhabi's investment fund Mubadala and the state company which holds Dubai's most high-profile assets, Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD)....
Noranda Aluminum Holding Corporation announced today that it has obtained $15 million of project-specific financing that will allow it to complete a state-of-the-art redraw rod mill at its aluminum smelter in New Madrid, Missouri ("New Madrid"). The new rod mill will increase Noranda's production capacity by approximately 43% and will exemplify the latest cutting-edge technology in the North American marketplace. The rod mill is geographically located in an advantageous section of North America which affords customers shorter transportation distance and lower freight costs. Consequently the Company has already received interest from customers for a majority of the new rod mill's capacity. The Company expects the new Rod mill to cost approximately $55 million, of which approximately $15...
Rio Tinto will launch a C$12 million project aimed at enhancing the aluminium smelting technology currently employed at several of the company's plants to drive productivity gains. The project will be conducted by Rio Tinto's aluminium technology teams at the Arvida Research and Development Centre in Saguenay, Quebec and Voreppe, France and will be tested at the Alma aluminium smelter in Quebec's Saguenay – Lac-Saint-Jean region. Arnaud Soirat, president and chief executive officer, Rio Tinto Alcan Primary Metal said "This project demonstrates how our leading technology position supports our business through innovative and cost-effective solutions to drive performance enhancements. Rio Tinto operates the aluminium industry's largest, most modern, most competitive fleet of smelters and we...
Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba), one of the leading aluminium smelters in the world, announced the appointment of financial advisors for its Line 6 Expansion Project - J.P. Morgan, Gulf International Bank (GIB) and National Bank of Bahrain (NBB) - at a signing ceremony held on Monday June 15, 2015. The signing ceremony, held in Alba, was attended by Alba's Chairman of Board of Directors, Shaikh Daij Bin Salman Bin Daij Al Khalifa and the Chief Executive Officer, Tim Murray; the Senior Country Officer and Managing Director of J.P. Morgan in Bahrain, Ali Moosa; the Head of Wholesale Banking for GCC (excluding KSA) & International at GIB, Ravi Krishnan, Head of Debt Capital Markets at GIB, Roderick Gordon and the Head of Equity Capital Markets/ Investments at GIB, Fakhr-e Fazli; in addition,...
Century Aluminum of Kentucky General Partnership, a subsidiary of Century Aluminum Company, announced today that a new, five-year collective bargaining agreement was ratified by the United Steelworkers Local 9423 on June 11, 2015 for the Company's Hawesville, Kentucky smelter. The new contract is effective today through April 1, 2020. "We welcome this positive development for the smelter, its entire workforce and the community," commented Mike Bless, CEO and John Hoerner, SVP North American Operations. "Century's employees have always been and will always be a critical part of our success. We now look forward to working with everyone who shares our commitment to make the Hawesville plant the safest and most productive business it can be." Workers will return to their regular shifts...
