OCBC has raised its end-2026 aluminium price forecast to about USD 3,150 per tonne from USD 3,050, citing a slower-than-expected recovery in Gulf production, although strong Chinese output is expected to continue offsetting supply disruptions. Three-month aluminium on the London Metal Exchange (LME) fell 0.9 per cent month-on-month in September to USD 3,214 per tonne as of September 29, remaining 2 per cent above OCBC’s third-quarter forecast of USD 3,150. The cash-to-three-month spread was broadly unchanged at a USD 7.40-per-tonne contango, compared with USD 7.60 at the end of August. The spread suggests limited urgency for immediate metal supply despite a continued decline in global exchange inventories. Gulf aluminium recovery loses momentum OCBC said aluminium production across the...
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...
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New aluminium conglomerate sponsors 2014 Ideas. Arabia International Conference Emirates Global Aluminium ("EGA") - the jointly-owned, UAE-based aluminium conglomerate formed by Mubadala Development Corporation and Investment Corporation of Dubai - has continued its support for innovation and continuous improvement by sponsoring the 9th Ideas. Arabia International Conference in Dubai. The event takes place from 22 to 23 April 2014 at The Palace Hotel Downtown under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum. EGA's involvement in the annual Ideas. Arabia International Conference extends existing relationships whereby Dubai Aluminium PJSC (" DUBAL ") - which will become an operating subsidiary of EGA on the latter's incorporation - was the main sponsor of the event on five...
Powerdyne International, Inc., a manufacturing company that builds and leases electrical generation equipment, today announced it has finalized a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Silver City Aluminum Company in Taunton, MA. The MOU calls for Powerdyne International to manufacture two 500 kw PDIGensets for Silver City Aluminum. The agreement is based on months of planning and development along with the recently completed engineering study according to Dale Euga, President and CEO of Powerdyne International, Inc. "The MOU is a great step forward in continuing our ongoing relationship with Silver City Aluminum Company," said Euga. "We believe this initial order for two of our PDIGensets is an ideal way to demonstrate to Silver City Aluminum, as well as other potential clients, the...
Markets have a positive outlook for aluminum in 2014, and expect consumption to grow by about 6%, the same as in 2013. But capacity cuts may lower the surplus during the year as we have seen industry is shutting down inefficient plants to support prices. While most large aluminum companies are taking similar steps, new capacity coming up may result in a surplus situation still. China will be the deciding factor. It is both a large consumer and producer of the metal, and, at current prices, a significant portion of China’s aluminum capacity is estimated to be unviable. If China’s demand slows, that has negative implications. This interplay then is likely to significantly influence how aluminum prices behave in 2014. To sum it up, our take on aluminium is positive for the short to medium...
LME aluminium is expected to retest a support at $1,848 per tonne, as a drop from the April 11 high of $1,902.50 has not completed. The drop followed the completion of an uptrend that developed from the Feb. 3 low of $1,671.25. A Fibonacci retracement analysis on the trend reveals the support at $1,848, the 23.6 percent level, which has caused the current rebound. This rebound has been driven by a wave b, the second wave of a three-wave cycle starting at $1,902.50. This wave will be totally reversed by a downward wave c, which may eventually travel to $1,814, the 38.2 percent retracement. The views expressed are his own. No information in this analysis should be considered as being business, financial or legal advice. Each reader should consult his or her own professional or other...
With the announcement of its new feature, LME has given the traders more number of options than before. Specifically, LME will give the aluminium traders ability to hedge the price of the metal due to the continuous rise in the price of metal as a result of lengthy delivery times. This new contract will cover the aluminium traders in Western Europe, North America and Asia. There hasn’t been any date yet set for the contract but it seems a North American contract will start trading in May. "The LME remains committed to addressing the underlying causes of queues, and do not believe that a premium hedging contract is a substitute for such action. However, given the likely timescale for queues to diminish at LME warehouses (including the potential delays arising from legal proceedings), a...
Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C (Alba) welcomed a high level delegation of Labour party members from the House of Lords and House of Commons of the UK Parliament. The delegation -- comprising Lord Noon of St. John’s Wood KT MBE, Lord Clive Soley, Rt. Hon Hazel Blears, MP, Patricia Janet, Baroness Scotland of Asthal, QC and Lord Patel of Bradford – is on a visit to the Kingdom to familiarise themselves with the country and with Bahrain’s industry leaders. The guests were received by Alba’s Chief Executive Officer, Tim Murray, Chief Operations Officer, Isa Al Ansari, Chief Financial Officer, Ali Al Baqali, Director, Power and Utilities, Amin Sultan, Manager, Reductions Lines 1-3, Nabeel Ebrahim Al Jallabi and Chairman of Alba Labour Union Ali Al Binali. Commenting on the visit of the high-level UK...
Aluminum Corporation of China (Chalco) has announced that it would halt 600,000-tpy of the total capacity of aluminium production and 800,000-tpy of the total alumina capacity as there is a severe overcapacity in the alumunium industry. The company has planned to adopt “flexible production” in order to combat the industry’s excess overcapacity, it told Shanghai Stock Exchange today. It said the other reasons behind production costs are low aluminum prices as well as high electricity costs.
Aluminium outlook for 2014 appears positive with consumption to grow by 6% as in 2013 but new capacity creation despite shut down of inefficient plants could have a bearing on market. China, the largest consumer and produce of the metal would be a deciding factor for the commodity, according to Motilal Oswal Commodities in a monthly insight report. Aluminium prices on the LME jumped to its highest level in eight months, as a series of capacity cutbacks by top producers underpinned the market. And just a couple of weeks ago, aluminum prices were hitting their 4 year lows on excess material stocked up in inventories and the premiums set to go down from April 1st. Aluminium is one of the most widely consumed industrial metals and is used in the transportation, beverage can and construction...
Media representatives are welcome to join the May 5-7 conference to meet with leading industry experts. The final speakers list for the 4th international Aluminium and Carbon Conference has just been announced and has attracted influential delegates from smelters, producers, traders, and financial and investment companies from more than 30 countries. Presentations will focus on the key challenges and opportunities that face the aluminium industry in light of difficult economic conditions, recent closures and new developments. The theme of the conference is “2020 Vision – Aluminium Outlook” , and in that framework, speakers have been asked to cast their view forwards to the end of this decade, to share their vision for how China’s economy and the aluminium industry will evolve. With both...
Analysts are growing optimistic and raising earnings forecasts for Press Metal Bhd (Press Metal) as the group is in the early stage of an earnings upcycle. Its strong investability is premised on improved balance sheet, upturn in aluminium prices and premiums and capacity boost following the production ramp-up of its two plants, said AmResearch Sdn Bhd (AmResearch) “Press Metal’s balance sheet is being bolstered by recent initiatives such as the exit of its loss-making Chinese smelter business and a sale of a 20 per cent stake of its Samalaju plant to Sumitomo,” it said, adding that provisions have also been made for the shutdown of its Mukah plant last year. “As capex has been frontloaded, net gearing will fall to 0.9 times this year, and further to 0.5 times in financial year 2015...
As the challenges in aluminium industry persist, BHP Billiton, the global resource giant, have decided to cut down the capacity at Alumar smelter in Brazil starting in June quarter. The new curtailment by BHP follows suspension of Alumar’s 45,000t capacity in September 2013 quarter, said the company in their latest production report. The production of aluminum at Alumar had gone down by 30% to 26,000t in March quarter. But there was an increase in the output of alumina by 4% to 314,000t. Alumar smelter is a partnership between Alcoa and BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto’s Alcan subsidiary. This refinery was started in the year 1984.
We had a bullish outlook on Aluminum yesterday but, it declined sharply during the early US session when the dollar index surged. The commodity finally ended on a lower note at Rs 110.20, down by 1.50% while it settled lower at $1852 at the LME. We also believe it was a broad based sell off that pulled the commodity lower. Aluminum inventory at the LME declined to 5334175 tons but, the impact was not visible on the prices. As stated, the price fall was mostly because of a broad based sell off. This morning at the LME, aluminum prices are seen trading at $1843, down by $8 from the previous close. We believe the fall could be expected to continue in today’s trading session. Though volume participation was low in the market, we believe some more price correction can be expected. Also, the...
Government officials say recent tests turned up contaminates in the water on and near the Columbia Falls Aluminum Company site. Tonight, state and federal officials met with residents to talk about taking steps to declare it a Superfund site. A recent environmental protection agency study turned up small amounts of cyanide in water near the Columbia Falls Aluminum Company site. "It is eligible for the national priority list. We did find contamination in the ground water at the site itself, as well as in a nearby residential area,” said Rob Parker, EPA Site Manager. The EPA tested five residential wells near the CFAC site. Results indicate two contained cyanide, but at small enough levels to be still considered safe under the safe drinking water act limits. However, water on the CFAC...
Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba) demonstrated its support towards initiatives that develop the careers of young Bahrainis through its sponsorship of the Bahrain Training Institute (BTI)’s Career Week 2014, taking place from April 15 to 17, 2014 at the institute’s premises. Held under the patronage of His Excellency the Minister of Education, Dr. Majed bin Ali Al Nuaimi, the BTI Career Week 2014 presents an opportunity for Alba to interact with BTI graduates and share with them the success story of the company, as well as encourage them to consider the aluminium industry as a career option. Commenting on the support of the BTI’s Career Week 2012, Alba’s Acting Director for Administration, Abdul Rahman Janahi said: “As a Bahraini company, we remain committed towards supporting initiatives...
The aluminium smelters in New Zealand have again decided to let its finances flow after months of tough cutbacks. A project worth $8 million capital has replaced reduction lines standby transformer and is carried out at Tiwai Pt. Plant. The NZAS has employed the Southland firms for carrying out the infrastructure work. Gretta Stephens, the general manager of NZAS, said this important project was a part of $70m capital that had to be stopped in the year 2012. The project started again after negotiations were made in the power agreement. It is expected the new transformer would be shipped from Korea’s Hyosung factory to NZAS and will arrive in the coming month. Commissioning would occur in the month of June or July. Gretta Stephens said, the new transformer was a replacement for the old one...
Qatalum stepped into 2013 with the goal of becoming one of the world’s top ten smelters, by surpassing a number of targets set out in the Qatalum Improvement Programme (QIP). The Programme aims to improve the cash cost of aluminium production over the next five years. Overall by the end of 2013 the company surpassed its improvement target by 50%. The increase in efficiency was done without compromising safety as part of its ongoing mission towards zero harm. According to Deon Earle, Qatalum’s HSE Manager, a Total Recordable Injury Rate (TRIR) of 0.69 per million working hours, including directly supervised contractors, was achieved for the year 2012 amounting to a considerably better performance than the year’s target of 0.85. “This indicates how serious Qatalum Management is about HSE...
Emirates Aluminium ("EMAL") has continued its impressive Health and Safety record sustained throughout the operation of Phase I and has been recognised by receiving the prestigious 2014 Gold Award for Occupational Health and Safety from the Royal Society for Prevention of Accidents ("RoSPA"). This is the second consecutive year that EMAL has won the RoSPA Gold award, reaffirming the Operations' leading position in occupational health and safety across diverse industrial sectors. EMAL's achievement is a reflection of the emphasis placed on Safety within the Corporate Values of Emirates Global Aluminium ("EGA") - the jointly-owned, UAE-based aluminium conglomerate formed by Mubadala Development Corporation and Investment Corporation of Dubai through the combination of their respective...
Rio Tinto is raising its annual dividend by 15 per cent after adjusted profits increased last year to US$10.2 billion on a strong turnaround in its Canadian-based aluminum division. The world's second-largest miner said Thursday that its underlying earnings increased 10 per cent to US$5.53 cents per share on record production in some metals as well as cost reductions and layoffs across its operations. “These strong results reflect the progress we are making to transform our business and demonstrate how we are fulfilling our commitments to improve performance, strengthen the balance sheet and deliver greater value for shareholders," said CEO Sam Walsh. The US$1.92 per share dividend reflects the company's "confidence in the business and its attractive prospects," Walsh added. Net profits,...
