European aluminium premiums have climbed to their highest level in almost four months as the market weighs the potential impact of lower US tariffs on Canadian aluminium supplies. The front-month COMEX European duty-paid aluminium premium rose 10 per cent to USD 574 per tonne on October 1, Thursday, according to LSEG data. The premium, which is paid on top of the London Metal Exchange (LME) aluminium price for physical metal, reached its highest level since June 8. Canadian metal flows drive European supply concerns The European premium has risen in recent weeks amid reports that the US could reduce its 50 per cent tariff on Canadian aluminium imports to 25 per cent. A lower tariff could make the US market more attractive to Canadian producers, potentially reducing the metal available to...
LME aluminium prices softened on October 2 compared with the previous trading day, with cash and three-month prices recording modest declines. LME aluminium stocks also edged lower, while live warrants remained unchanged and cancelled warrants decreased. The LME aluminium cash bid price stood at USD 3,109 per tonne on October 2, down from USD 3,119.5 per tonne on October 1, marking a decline of 0.34 per cent. The cash offer price fell to USD 3,109.5 per tonne from USD 3,120 per tonne, down 0.34 per cent. The LME aluminium 3-month bid price declined to USD 3,121.5 per tonne on October 2 from USD 3,130 per tonne on October 1, a decrease of 0.27 per cent. The corresponding offer price fell to USD 3,122 per tonne from USD 3,131 per tonne, down 0.29 per cent. Explore- Most comprehensive and...
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The coalition over Renewable Energy Target (RET) faces new pressure as one of the aluminium smelters warns of sacking their workers without making any major changes to employee scheme. A key regulator has even warned that it is hitting the consumers with unnecessary costs. During the RET review panel’s discussion session, the NSW IPART said that renewable energy is relatively costlier in comparison to the proposed emission reduction fund in the Coalition as well as the existing carbon price. The RET made an addition of 107 dollars to a typical electricity bill in 2013-14 in NSW, but “these costs are unnecessary and avoidable if the same amount of emissions ¬reduction can be achieved through less expensive means,” IPART chairman Peter Boxall says in the submission. It comes as the Bell Bay...
On the 30th of April 2014, Qatalum participated in The 7th GCC Quality Conference at the Sharq Village and Spa Hotel, Doha, Qatar. The premise of the Quality Conference was to align and inform participants and audiences about government and private sector environmental advances, practices and laws within Qatar. Several issues were discussed along environmental grounds and during the afternoon’s second session, Dr. Mufeed Odeh, Qatalum Sustainability Manager presented “Environment Drivers at an Environmental Smelter”. The afternoon’s presentations were followed by a panel discussion also with representation from Qatalum. Discussions from the panel covered environmental initiatives in Qatar and their incorporation into the design of new projects. Additionally, the Minister of Interior’s...
Warren County Fiscal Court on Friday approved resolutions to donate land and issue industrial revenue bonds for the construction of an aluminum production facility at the Kentucky Transpark. Earlier this month, European aluminum company Constellium N.V. and Japanese aluminum company UACJ Corp. announced their plans to establish an aluminum production facility in Bowling Green. The company is expected to make a capital investment of $155,850,000 and bring in up to 80 new jobs at an average annual salary of $65,000, according to the bond resolution. Under one resolution, Warren County granted its consent for the Inter-Modal Transportation Authority to donate 50.61 acres of land at the transpark for the facility. The value of the property is about $2.7 million, said Kim Phelps, director of...
Emirates Global Aluminium plans to use the platform of 19th World Aluminium Conference by Commodity Research Unit’s to raise the brand awareness of new business entity and also want to promote state-of-the-art facilities, superior product portfolio, sustainable practices and advanced technologies to global market. The World Aluminium Conferences attract senior executives regularly from aluminium industry all over the world. This is the place where they discuss the issues concerning the aluminium industry. As CRU 2014’s platinum sponsor, EGA is expected to have a strong presence at this event. They might also have a stand in the exhibition that will be held alongside the aluminium conference.
Negotiations with the unionized workers at 10 U.S plants and Alcoa Inc. did not reach a conclusion as there were many divided opinions regarding wages as well as increase in healthcare premiums. The union said this before a day of the expiry of the labor contract. According to sources, 4 local United Steelworkers have voted in favor of the negotiators going for a strike if they cannot successfully make any contract deal. A contract between an aluminium producer based in Pittsburg and union expired on Friday. The union comprises of 6,100 Alcoa employees at the plants that make aluminium and products for various sectors including aerospace, automotive and consumer packaging. "The main sticking points are health care premium increases, wage package and two tier benefits and pension packages...
The future of New Zealand Aluminium Smelters could again be under the spotlight after workers won an employment dispute that will cost the company an estimated $20 million. In May last year 64 Printing and Manufacturing Union members won an Employment Relations Authority case they took against NZAS regarding a dispute over lieu days, but the decision was appealed. A two-day hearing was held in December. The workers found out late yesterday the appeal has been overturned and are understood to be delighted. Not surprisingly, smelter bosses are disappointed by the decision, which could have a significant impact on the already cash-strapped business. NZAS general manger Gretta Stephens said: "There will be a review to understand the implications for the business during this challenging time."...
The Tiwai Point aluminium smelter faces a bill for $19 million after it was ordered to compensate union members for underpaid lieu days. Shift workers moved from eight to 12 hour days in 1991 but continued to be credited eight hour long lieu days. The Employment Relations Authority said 64 union members should have been credited with 12 hour days and on Friday that decision was upheld. New Zealand Aluminium Smelters has said in a statement there will be a review to understand the implications of the decision at what it said was a challenging time. The company had already made a commitment to credit the lieu days to all of its workers, not just union members if the decision went against it. Southland organiser for the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union, Trevor Hobbs said the...
European aluminium consumers are expected to pay record amounts to get hold of physical metal in the second half of 2014, as an improved economic backdrop triggers extra demand. Persistent appetite for financing deals and logjams in releasing aluminium from storage are also seen supporting the outlook for premiums, as the LME battles to push-through reforms aimed at freeing-up metal stuck in queues at its warehouses. Aluminium premiums in Europe are already trading at around record high levels of $350-380 a tonne for duty-paid material. The premium, paid over the London Metal Exchange (LME) cash price, covers the cost of freight and insurance, and reflects regional demand and supply. At current levels premiums are up 30 percent since the start of this year, and traders said a recovery in...
Aluminium prices declined by 0.38 per cent to INR 105.25 per kg in futures trade today as speculators reduced positions amid weak demand in the spot market. At the Multi Commodity Exchange, aluminium for delivery in May traded lower by 40 paise, or 0.38 per cent, to INR 105.25 per kg in a business turnover of 66 lots. Likewise, the metal for delivery in June shed 30 paise, or 0.28 per cent, to INR 106.75 per kg in 3 lots. Analysts said offloading of positions by speculators due to sluggish demand in the spot market and a lower trend in other base metals in global markets mainly influenced aluminium prices at futures trade.
Aluminium futures in Shanghai may perform better than their London counterparts in the next few months as the outlook brightens for what has been one of China's most chronically oversupplied commodities. Shanghai futures lost 6.4 percent in yuan terms and 15.3 percent in U.S. dollar terms from the start of the year to the close on Wednesday. In contrast, the benchmark London Metals Exchange contract has been steady, rising 0.5 percent from the start of 2014 to Wednesday's close. The Shanghai Futures Exchange contract has also been in a sustained downtrend so far this year, while the London equivalent has had periods of strength, being up 5.1 percent at its closing peak on April 10. In dollar terms, the premium of futures in Shanghai narrowed to $298.18 a tonne over London on Wednesday,...
The Chinese aluminum sector will take a leading position in mergers and acquisitions in domestic nonferrous metals industry in the future, Securities Daily reported today. From January to 13 May, 22 M&A deals, valued at 23.35 billion yuan ($3.8 billion), were made in domestic non-ferrous metals industry, the report quoted data from Zero2IPO Group as saying. China’s State Council’s new nine measures, a guideline detailing an array of capital market reforms, and problems facing the industry are reasons behind such an expectation, it said. The Chinese aluminum industry, featured by high pollution, high energy consumption, overcapacity and loss-making, was added to the list of inefficient capacity elimination released last year by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. This will...
Spot aluminium stockpiles continued to fall in China as a lower Shanghai-London price ratio increased export orders for the metal products, according to a survey by Shanghai Metals Market. Stockpiles of the lightweight metal on a spot basis in China’s four major trading regions – Shanghai, Wuxi, Nanhai and Hangzhou – were down by 21,000 tonnes last week to 1.16 million tonnes, the survey shows. Over 1.8 million-tpy aluminium-making capacity has been closed in China this year, with 600,000 tonnes shut alone in April, causing market supply to fall significantly, according to SMM’s research team. At the same time, a lower Shanghai-London aluminium price ratio allowed fabricators to report a significant growth in export orders while domestic demand remained modest. China’s exports of...
Financial and operational highlights • Turnover of RON 496 million, compared to RON 507 million in Q1 2013 • Net loss of RON 144 million, compared to a net profit of RON 11 million in Q1 2013 • Primary aluminium production of 62,500 tonnes, from 62,400 tonnes in Q1 2013 • Processed aluminium production of 20,100 tonnes, from 18,800 tonnes in Q1 2013 Alro SA, one of the largest aluminium producers in Central and Eastern Europe, announces today its financial results, prepared in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), for three months ended on 31 March 2014. In Q1 2014, the Company reported an adjusted net loss* of RON 51 million, compared to an adjusted net loss* of RON 27 million in Q1 2013. The net loss for Q1 2014 was of RON 144 million, compared to a net...
The Aluminum Association, in cooperation with the Aluminum Association of Canada, reported primary aluminum production in North America (U.S. and Canada) was at an annual rate of 4,626,898 tonnes during April 2014, down 59,725 tpy (1.3%) from the previous month's rate of 4,686,624 tonnes. Compared to a year ago, the annual rate of production was 8.6 percent below the April 2013 rate of 5,061,346 tonnes. During the first four months of 2014, actual production totaled 1,539,265 tonnes, 7.1 percent below the 2013 total of 1,656,981 tonnes. Shipments of primary aluminum by North American producers totaled 1,150 thousand metric tonnes (kmt) in the first quarter of 2014, down 5.9 percent from the first quarter 2013 total of 1,222 kmt. Shipments of primary billet were up 6.6 percent...
The board of Arab Aluminum Co. endorsed financial results for Q1 that ended on March 31, 2014. These results showed EGP 2.9 million net profit, with a drop by 56% from EGP 6.7 million net profit in the same period a year earlier. The company’s FY13 profit had netted EGP 18.473 million, compared with EGP 9.894 million in FY12.
A sustainable cost effective energy supply, the increasing costs of maintenance and the high cost of steel shots used in shot blasting machines are just a few of the concerns aluminium smelters are facing nowadays. With technical assistance from Rockwell Automation, a new Stub Cleaning Technology developed by MetalTech Gulf, and manufactured by Lefebvre Engineering in Sharjah, helps aluminium smelters solve one of their operational challenges, optimise power conservation and reduce investment costs. The high cost in the supply and installation of conventional and large "shot-blasting chambers" for cleaning the stubs on anode rods, prompted MetalTech Gulf to develop this new stub cleaning technology in close cooperation with a local Gulf smelter. The Local Middle East branch of Rockwell...
Fata Aluminum’s range of products goes from Automated casting plants for aluminum castings (automatic carousels, casting machines, Pouring robots, etc) to an environmentally friendly Sand Regeneration technology that reduces cost and improves the quality of the sand. Fata Aluminum will present the paper “A New Concept For Thermal Sand Regeneration Systems” about its innovative way of thermal regeneration of sand, based on the experience of more than fifty thermal Sand Regeneration systems in major foundries worldwide. Fata Aluminum engineered the brand new Compact Rec with reduced overall height, to allow installations in small foundries., It has a productivity range between 0,5 and 2,5tons/hour and it does not need any heavy or big supporting structure. Consequently the return of...
BHP Billiton, leading global resources company as a part of its internal business reformation created a new aluminium firm through the Australian securities regulator. The creation mainly comes as a part of BHP’s board and management decision to spin off the noncore asset into new firm worth $20 billion, which would be given back to its shareholders. The new aluminium company was created on May 6 and registered to BHP’s Perth office, Brookfield Place. John Slaven and Stefan Giorgini have appointed as its two directors and Robin Lees is its secretary. The company’s sole shareholder is Brisbane-based Coal Holdings but this is the company which has the ultimate holdings and it is unclear whether the new Aluminium Company keeps any physical assets. The company has also secured tax exemption...
