Ahead of the National Day holiday, domestic aluminium ingot inventories continued to set fresh year-to-date lows. According to SMM statistics, as of September 30, electrolytic aluminium ingot inventories in China's major consuming regions stood at 638,000 tonnes, down 36,000 tonnes from Monday and 40,000 tonnes from last Thursday. The pace of pre-holiday destocking was relatively fast overall, leaving ample buffer for inventory accumulation during the holiday. Source: SMM On the supply side, domestic downstream demand recovered somewhat month on month in September, but processing fees for some fabricated products came under pressure, leading some downstream enterprises to cut or suspend production, which lowered their willingness to purchase molten aluminium and pulled the...
In the final three trading days before the National Day holiday, the South China spot market stayed soft: aluminium prices continued to edge lower, the SHFE aluminium backwardation structure strengthened, and premiums over the next-month and far-month contracts were actually elevated. Ahead of the holiday, the willingness to cash out at the high basis was strong, and amid ongoing destocking, discount-priced cargoes still dominated spot circulation; demand was largely subdued, with only localized bargain-hunting replenishment and quite limited buying interest. On the whole, however, the high spot premium for aluminium ingots in South China remained largely intact. As of September 30, the SMM A00 aluminium (Foshan) spot premium over the 2610 contract stood at RMB 260 per tonne, still within...
Grow with
AL Circle
LME officials saw a flat week, with cash prices hovering about $2,025/metric ton. The promise of additional policy support that helped rally prices over the past five weeks (September’s European Central Bank interest rate cut and October’s Bank of Japan QE announcement) has collided with fresh evidence of continuing softness in aggregate demand, highlighted this week by disappointing flash Purchasing Manager Index reports for both the Eurozone and China. The more interesting story, however, was in premiums, which continued to rise globally and have now crashed through $500/metric ton in North America. While much attention has been focused on the reasons why premiums are elevated, (see the U.S. Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations report on bank involvement in commodity...
Shares of Century Aluminum have earned an average rating of “Buy” from the eleven ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Stock Ratings News reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $24.40. Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Analysts at BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on shares of Century Aluminum in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. They set an “outperform” rating on the stock. Separately, analysts at Zacks upgraded shares of Century Aluminum from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 30th. They now...
Abdulla Kalban (Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer) and the executive team of the UAE's industrial giant Emirates Global Aluminium PJSC ("EGA") hosted H E Sheikh Daij Bin Salman Bin Daij Al Khalifa (Chairman) and Tim Murray (Chief Executive Officer) of Aluminium Bahrain BSC ("Alba") at EGA operating subsidiary Emirates Aluminium ("EMAL") in Al Taweelah, Abu Dhabi on 20 November. The focus of the visit was EGA's high amperage, best in class DX+ Technology, which is installed in the 444 reduction cells housed in EMAL Phase II (Potline 3) and was specified by Alba for its Line 6 Bankable Feasibility study in December 2012. Before taking their guests on a tour of EMAL's Potlines 1 & 2, where EGA's DX Technology is installed in 756 reduction cells, executives and senior managers of...
BHP Billiton on Monday outlined plans to cut costs further as the world's biggest miner battles falling commodity prices, pointing to its planned demerger as helping to drive productivity gains. The Anglo-Australian resources group is aiming to simplify and strengthen its business, and said it was looking to save $4-billion a year in running costs - $500-million more than previously flagged - by the end of the 2017 financial year. Chief executive Andrew Mackenzie said the proposed spin-off of some poorer performing assets, including aluminium, manganese, silver and selected coal and nickel operations, would allow BHP to better organise operations. “By significantly simplifying the portfolio the proposed demerger will allow us to redesign BHP Billiton and create an organisation that...
The Chinese aluminium industry is not expected to recover in the near term - even though the number of aluminium producers has fallen - because industry fundamentals are likely to remain weak for the foreseeable future. China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently released lists of Chinese aluminium producers that comply with industry regulations, which showed the industry has consolidated rapidly. There were 31 producers with total annual capacity of 29.85 million tonnes (Mt), or 80 per cent of national capacity, as at the end of October 2014, compared with 91 producers in 2013 and 120 producers 10 years ago. The 10 biggest producers now account for 77 per cent of the 29.85Mt of consolidated capacity, while the 20 biggest account for 95 per cent. It is believed that...
Dr. Niranjan Kumar Singh has been appointed as Part-time official Director of National Aluminium Company Ltd with effect from November 12, 2014 vide Order dated November 12, 2014 of Ministry of Mines, Government of India. Shares of NATIONAL ALUMINIUM CO.LTD. was last trading in BSE at Rs.60.8 as compared to the previous close of Rs. 60.95. The total number of shares traded during the day was 497253 in over 4523 trades. The stock hit an intraday high of Rs. 62.8 and intraday low of 60.5. The net turnover during the day was Rs. 30720669.
National Aluminium Company (Nalco) announced a sharp rise in standalone net profit for the quarter ended September 2014. During the quarter, the profit of the company rose 90.57% to INR 3,415.00 million from INR1,792.00 million in the same quarter last year. Net sales for the quarter rose 14.80% to Rs 19,955.00 million, compared with INR 17,382 million for the prior year period. Earnings per share for the quarter stood at INR 1.33, registering 90.00% growth over previous year period. Shares of the company gained INR 3.7, or 6.31%, to trade at INR 62.35. The total volume of shares traded was 786,602 at the BSE.
As the world aluminium supply continues to tighten, the premiums on the metal continue to rise. Analysts and industry experts believe these premiums will continue to stay on a high, at least for the next two years which is good news for India’s aluminium producers like Hindalco and NALCO. Premiums that are charged over the LME price are usually to cover the transport and the insurance costs at the same time reflecting a region’s demand and supply but for the past few months the premiums have been 2-3 times the transport costs underlining the serious market scarcity. It is not like there are no aluminium stocks in the world. The London Metal Exchange has started to mobilize its stocks from its authorized warehouses which had been stuck in queues for months. The off-exchange warehouses are...
In 2011, when Ray Mastogi joined the Bell Bay Aluminium as general manager, the conditions were very weak and it was almost close to a shut down. Now, although the conditions are still bleak, they have recovered greatly since then. The 59-year old smelter has had to cut down its workforce by 20 percent over the last two years which has saved the company $250 million. Now the company has 435 direct and around 1500 indirect employees generating $690 million p.a. contributing significantly to the state’s GDP. Bell Bay Aluminium has produced more than 189,000 tonnes of aluminium in 2013. The smelter recovered under the clever guidance of Mr Mostogi and some tough decisions like job cuts, pay freeze and cutting through redundancies. The company has also had to resort to buying lower grade...
The Henan Provincial Nonferrous Metals Guild said on Wednesday, that China’s total number of aluminium producers has nearly halved in decade falling from 120 to just 64. The 64 producers are operating across 32 aluminium enterprises, spread over sixteen Chinese provinces while the rest have been “wiped out of the market”, the group said. The Shandong provinces in the top producer with an annual output of 6.62 million mt, followed closely by the Xinjiang province with an output of 6.25 million mt/ year while Henan produces 3.67 million mt/year. Shandong Weiqiao Aluminium & Power alone produces 4.02 million mt/year making it China’s largest aluminium producer. Beijing Antaike, a Chinese metal consultancy had predicted in July that by the end of 2014 China’s refined aluminium capacity will...
Alcoa was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Investors acquired 30,462 call options on the stock, AnalystRatings.NET reports. This represents an increase of 142% compared to the average volume of 12,590 call options. A number of analysts have recently weighed in on AA shares. Analysts at BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on shares of Alcoa in a research note on Tuesday. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. Separately, analysts at Deutsche Bank upgraded shares of Alcoa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 27th. They now have a $20.00 price target on the stock, up previously from $16.00. Finally, analysts at Macquarie reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Alcoa in a research note on Friday, October 17th....
Press Metal Bhd rose as much as 11% after the firm signed a power supply term sheet with Syarikat Sesco Bhd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sarawak Energy Bhd. The term sheet is for the supply of 500MW of power by Sarawak Energy to Press Metal's proposed phase III aluminium smelter at the Samalaju Industrial Park, Sarawak. At 5pm, Press Metal was traded higher at RM3.42 with some 5.4 million shares done, making the stock the third largest gainer on Bursa. Earlier, the stock rose as much as 34 sen to RM3.45. In a statement to Bursa Malaysia today,, Press Metal said the firm and Sarawak Energy would enter into exclusive negotiations for a long-term power purchase agreement for the 500MW, which both parties would conclude soon. “We are grateful that SEB (Sarawak Energy) has entrusted us with...
The LME stock prices of aluminium for Midwest delivery, has risen from 20 cents per pound to 22.5 cents per pound which is a double hike. This amount is payable both by the fabricators as well as the aluminium merchants. The rise in price will raise many questions about the domestic availability as the market is known to be always in a state of declining demand and surplus of supply. Aluminium traders across the world are already showing concerns about the declining availability of aluminium ingots as well as the steep rise in surcharges, especially in the regions of Europe and Japan. In the United States, the premium too is on the higher side ranging between 460 dollars per tonne to 495 dollars per tonne. In Europe, this range is between 460 to 480 dollars per tonne while Japan premiums...
Aluminium settled up 0.36% at 126.3 as prices recovered later on better-than-expected New York Fed manufacturing data. Base metals prices consolidated overnight on mixed economic indicators. Japan's Q3 growth unexpectedly slid, and European Central Bank President Draghi stated they will push additional easy measures. Mixed economic indicators from the US kept investors cautious. US industrial production edged down 0.1% MoM in October again after picking up in September. Manufacturing production, however, rose 0.2% MoM for the same month even as the mining, public service and automobile manufacturing sectors encountered declines. European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi reiterated that the ECB should adopt other unconventional stimulus measures including government bond purchases...
Dubai Aluminium from Dubai (United Arab Emirates) has ordered a batch homogenising plant from Hertwich Engineering. This is the fourth plant of its kind that Hertwich is to supply to the company. The batch homogenising plant is designed for very short heating times. A reversing air concept and regulation by flaps accelerates the heating by an estimated 20% and achieves improved temperature uniformity. The plant is fully automated, with heating being controlled by measurement of the air and metal temperatures. The furnace has a capacity of 55 t for billet diameters between 152 and 406 millimetres. Start of production is scheduled for the third quarter of 2015.
Hulamin, a company based in Pietermaritzburg (South Africa), has signed a contract with Hertwich Engineering for the delivery of an Ecomelt PS-250 melting furnace for aluminium. The furnace has an annual capacity of around 80.000 tons, allowing Hulamin to expand its capacity and enhance its competitiveness. The multi-chamber melting furnace with preheating shaft processes aluminium scrap with up to 10 percent organic impurities, such as painted sections for example. The plant uses the inherent energy from the impurities for scrap preheating and furnace heating. Thanks to proven technology Hertwich Ecomelt furnaces achieve low energy consumption and low metal loss. The specific energy consumption of this Ecomelt PS-250 furnace is around 600 kWh/t at a melting capacity of up to 250 t/day....
Trading house Marubeni Corp said on Tuesday, aluminium stocks held at three major Japanese ports were 332,200 tonnes at the end of October, up 6 percent from 313,400 tonnes a month earlier, Marubeni collects data from the ports of Yokohama, Nagoya and Osaka. The stock level at Yokohoma was 149,900 as recorded in Oct ‘14, up from September’s 141,700 and last year’s 110,100 as recorded in October. Nagoya aluminium stocks have also seen a significant improvement when compared to last month’s reading rising to 166,300 from 156,700 in September. On October 2013, the stocks were at 135,500. Similarly, Osaka aluminium stocks too rose from 15,000 in September to 16,000 in October 14, unchanged from last year’s October stocks. Correspondingly, the total aluminium stocks rose from 261,600 in...
Research analysts at BMO Capital Markets began coverage on shares of Noranda Aluminum Holding in a report released on Monday, TheFlyOnTheWall.com reports. The firm set an “outperform” rating on the stock. A number of other firms have also recently commented on NOR. Analysts at Zacks upgraded shares of Noranda Aluminum Holding from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 4th. They now have a $4.70 price target on the stock. Separately, analysts at Citigroup Inc. reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Noranda Aluminum Holding in a research note on Tuesday, November 4th. They now have a $5.20 price target on the stock, up previously from $4.60. Finally, analysts at Bank of America reiterated an “underperform” rating on shares of Noranda...
