The ANZ World Commodity Price Index rose 0.6 per cent month on month and 1.0 per cent year on year, with prices increasing across most categories. The rise was largely driven by higher energy prices, while a weaker New Zealand dollar pushed the index in local-currency terms up 2.8 per cent. Oil surge lifts aluminium prices along with milk powder Aluminium benefited from supply disruption linked to the Middle East conflict. Prices rose 1.1 per cent during September and are around 23 per cent higher year on year, with production and exports in the region remaining disrupted. Dairy prices increased 1.0 per cent in September, led by skim milk powder. Prices for the product jumped 9.2 per cent month on month and are now 41.1 per cent higher than a year earlier. ANZ said milk powder prices are...
Mexico is approaching the final stages of negotiations with the United States on reducing tariffs on aluminum and steel products, with officials indicating that a deal could significantly lower the effective tariff burden on Mexican exporters. Luis Rosendo Gutiérrez, Mexico’s undersecretary of foreign trade, said talks had made progress during the National Auto Parts Industry congress. Discussions covering the automotive sector are targeting a 15% tariff, which could fall to an effective rate of around 4% to 5% after deductions linked to regional value content. The potential reduction would bring Mexico closer to tariff levels faced by competitors including Japan, South Korea and Germany, improving the position of Mexican suppliers in the US market. Explore the production, demand and...
Grow with
AL Circle
Aluminum Corporation Of China Limited (Chalco) has issued CNY 3 billion 270-day fixed-rate unsecured bills on interbank market. This is the company's first issuance of super and short-term commercial papers in 2014. Financing will be used to repay bank loans, replenish working capital and lower financing costs.
A bid by the London Metal Exchange (LME) to ensure clients can obtain aluminium faster from owners of warehouses in its global network risks eroding its function as the world's top metals marketplace. Some warehouse companies are starting to walk away. Industry leaders and analysts say shed owners, who profit from keeping aluminium stockpiles in long-term financing deals or to earn rent, are preparing to move metal to depots that are beyond LME supervision. This could mean the LME, bought by Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (0388.HK) in 2012, will lose its unique grasp on the location and quantity of stored aluminium, which lends transparency to the market. Less metal will also be available to industrial companies that have bought LME warrants - quality-assured ownership certificates -...
Noranda Aluminum has requested the Missouri Public Service Commission (PSC) for a rate design change that would reduce electricity costs at its aluminum smelter in New Madrid, Missouri, US. Supported by testimony of the United Steelworkers Union, community organizations, legislators, Missouri Retailers Association, and the Missouri Industrial Energy Consumers, the filing requests an initial rate of $30/MWh for New Madrid. Noranda Aluminum chief executive officer and president Layle Smith said, "New Madrid should have competitive power rates to remain sustainable in today's aluminum price environment." "Noranda respects the Commission's process and seeks to actively participate in this process and to engage in a constructive dialogue with all stakeholders," Smith added. Under the proposed...
Svein Richard Brandtzaeg , Chief executive of Norsk Hydro, said to Reuters that aluminium’s overall price, including delivery premium paid to producers, is expected to rise in the year 2014 as demand of the metal growth outpaces production. "Demand will exceed production, so there is reason to believe we'll see an improvement in the all-in metal price," Brandtzaeg said. "It's difficult to say if this will come as part of the market price or on the ingot premium." Currently the price of aluminium trades at multi-year lows above $1,700 per tonne while there is a rise in the price of delivery premiums. It is expected that the prices will be t $450 dollars per tonne in the United States and at $350 in the EU during 2014 end, Hydro said.
A lot of remarkable figures and things have been noticed in 2013 results of Rio Tinto. The company made a profit of $US10.2 billion beat market consensus comfortably. The turnaround in aluminium business was the most remarkable thing. The breakdown of the company’s profit in 2013 shows their net earnings from aluminium have gone up from miserable $US54m in the year 2012 to $US557m. This could be achieved as a result of the production cutback strategies that Rio as well as the other industry leaders has adapted. Rio has worked very hard at cutting down costs. The company reckons that earnings on aluminium increased by $US392m from their cash cost improvements. It has been quite painful for the company to bring the aluminium figures back to shape, with Rio selling, closing or curtailing...
Hindalco Industries' net profit for the third quarter ended December was INR 334 crore, down 23% compared with INR 434 crore a year ago, hurt by weak demand for aluminium and higher taxes. Analysts were expecting a standalone net profit of INR 364 crore, according to a poll conducted by Bloomberg. Net sales of the company, controlled by industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla, rose 6% to INR 7,273 crore, helped by higher volumes. Bloomberg poll had forecasted it at INR 6,904 crore. Aluminium revenue jumped 11.5% to INR 2,471 crore from a year-ago quarter, while copper business revenue inched up 3% to INR 4,817 crore. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation for alumium business fell 18% to INR 170 crore, while profit in the copper business soared 33% to INR 300 crore....
Things are changing… “Glencore Xstrata’s Pacorini (warehousing and logistic subsidiary of Glencore Xstrata) has delisted 14 metals warehouses in the Dutch port of Vlissingen, the London Metal Exchange (LME) said on Tuesday, as storage firms get ready for big changes in the business,” reports Reuters. “The LME, the world’s largest marketplace for metals such as copper and aluminium, announced new regulations aimed at cutting wait times to access metal in warehouses following complaints, lawsuits and regulatory pressure.” “Pacorini in Vlissingen has rivalled Goldman Sachs’s Metro warehousing subsidiary in Detroit in having the longest queues for aluminium. Wait times for both still stretch for longer than a year.” “To support the mechanism of physical delivery the LME approves and licenses...
Aluminium financing deals will continue to lock up substantial amounts of metal in the London Metal Exchange system, Rio Tinto Chief Financial Officer Chris Lynch said on Thursday. Most of the roughly 5 million tonnes of aluminium in LME warehouses is locked up in financing deals. This involves an investor borrowing money at low rates to buy physical aluminium, striking a warehouse deal to store it cheaply and taking advantage of the market's contango structure to sell it forward immediately at a profit. This is partly responsible for the long wait times for metal that consumers have complained about. The LME last year announced plans to reduce queues, but financing deals remain popular.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Wednesday approved residual stake sale by the government in Vedanta-owned Bharat Aluminium Company (Balco). The move could fetch about Rs 3,000 crore to the exchequer at a time when the finance ministry is trying hard to contain the Centre's fiscal deficit at 4.8 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP). The finance ministry has already initiated the process of arriving at the company's valuation, a bone of contention between Vedanta and the government. Currently, London-listed Vedanta holds 51 per cent stake in Balco. In January 2012, Vedanta had proposed to acquire the government's remaining stake in the erstwhile public sector undertaking, after various legal hurdles. Vedanta's board has the approval of shareholders to offer up to Rs...
Base metals at London Metal Exchange(LME) closed with a higher rate, backed by an upbeat trade data of the top consumer China, while the market focus turned once again to controversial warehousing system of the bourse. On the closure of an open-outcry trading on Wednesday, Aluminium rose to about 1.6 %to $US1, 734 a ton. The metals took strength from trade surplus of China, which widened in January to $US31.86 billion ($A35.35 billion) from $25.6 billion in December, beating economists' median forecast of a $27.1 billion surplus. This data is alleviating the fear that the Chinese economy is slowing down and so is the consumption of industrial materials and investment in commodity. Elsewhere, the LME was back in focus after some of the aluminium industry said getting metal from some...
Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba) released its full-year and fourth quarter of 2013 results as per the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) accounting rules during a meeting of the company’s Board of Directors on Wednesday, February 12, 2014. The Full-Year 2013 results are summarized below: • Alba increases 2013 total dividend by 28% to US$ 135 million (BD 50.7 million) versus US$ 105 million (BD 39.5 million) in 2012 • Alba reports 2013 Net Income of US$ 212 million (BD 79.8 million) • Record breaking year with production reaching 912,700 metric tonnes Alba’s sales for the full-year of 2013 were US$ 1.993 billion (BD 749.3 million) versus US$ 1.978 billion (BD 743.7 million) in 2012. As for the fourth quarter of 2013, Alba’s sales totalled US$ 488 million (BD 183.4 million)...
The government's plan to sell its residual stake in Hindustan ZincBSE 0.48 % (HZL) and Bharat Aluminium Company (Balco) may be pushed to next fiscal if the mines ministry continues to dither on the processes for stake sale due to ongoing investigations . Last week, an inter-ministerial group started the process of looking for both a valuation firm and merchant bankers for stake sale process. The Cabinet has cleared the stake sale in HZL through auction route while a decision on Balco is expected soon. "The ongoing investigations by CBI and the change in AG's stand, has made the mines ministry more conservative in their approach," said a government official, aware of the deliberations . The decision to appoint valuators was taken after receiving directions from the Prime Minister's Office...
Press Metal Bhd is selling 20% of its stake in Press Metal Bintulu Sdn Bhd to Summit Global Management XII. SGM is a 70 per cent owned subsidiary of Sumitomo Corporation. Press Metal reported that the proposed sale of shares will provide an opportunity to realize the value of its investment in Press Metal Bintulu at a good valuation. The company said that the stake sale will gain about RM341.693 million for the company. The company added that the amount raised from the proposed sale will be partially used to repay short-term bank loans and to finance the compulsory early redemption of its 2011/2019 redeemable convertible secured loan stocks RCSLS. It hopes to improve its credit ratings and provide support to overall operations with the help of this disposal. The company also added that...
Premiums paid in Europe for releasing aluminium from storage have remained steady at record levels this month. Traders said they may be contained by new rules of London Metal Exchange (LME aimed at cutting wait-times aluminium. Premiums competed to record highs early in the month of February, above 30% from this year beginning, as the smelter shutdowns and financing deals squeezed the aluminium availability in the spot market. European prices for duty-paid aluminium have remained high since then, around $360 a tonne above LME cash aluminium price , although below levels in North America, where Midwest aluminium premiums rose to a record 20.5 cents/lb ($452/tonne). "Premiums rose very quickly and took a lot of people by surprise. The magnitude of the rise was very surprising. But now...
Hydro's underlying earnings before financial items and tax (EBIT) fell to NOK 483 million in the fourth quarter 2013 from NOK 659 million in the third quarter, mainly due to seasonal effects and lower hydropower production. For the full year, underlying EBIT rose to 2,737 million from 1,297 million in 2012, helped by cost savings, strong performance at the Qatalum aluminium plant combined with higher product premiums. Highlights: • Underlying EBIT NOK 483 million • USD 300-program completed, yielding NOK 1.5 billion improvements • Alunorte production rising, offset by ICMS tax charges • Primary Metal lifted by Qatalum insurance proceeds • Downstream seasonality, lower power production • Proposed 2013 dividend NOK 0.75 per share • Expect 2-4% aluminium demand growth outside China in 2014...
The Aluminum Association of Canada reported that primary aluminum production in Canada declined three-tenths of one percent in January to an annual rate of 2,901,891 metric tonnes, off 9,114 tonnes from the December rate of 2,911,005 TPY. Compared to a year ago, production was off 3.2 percent from the January 2013 rate of 2,998,181 TPY. Actual production in January totaled 246,462 metric tonnes. (The Aluminum Association's statistical programs provide industry information on primary aluminum production, new orders of mill products, industry shipments, end use market estimates, inventories, recycling and foreign trade on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis. Special surveys provide data on specific subjects such as primary capacity, flat roll capacity, inventories and castings shipments....
Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C (Alba) announced a three-year partnership renewal with Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) on Sunday, February 09, 2014. As part of the partnership, Alba will be allocated a special lounge at BIC's Oasis Complex, which will be used to host its guests for all local and international events at BIC - “The Home of Motorsport in the Middle East”. Alba will also have the opportunity to place its logo at strategic locations across the venue, thus maximising its brand presence during year-round events held at the BIC. The partnership agreement was signed between Alba’s Chief Executive Officer, Tim Murray and BIC’s Chief Executive Shaikh Salman bin Isa Al Khalifa at Alba’s Oasis Hall. Also present at the ceremony were Alba’s Chief Operations Officer, Isa Al Ansari, Acting...
Alcoa might announce the closure of its aluminium plant at Geelong soon, which may cost jobs in hundreds. This is causing fear among the 700 full-time workers of the Point Henry smelter as they are waiting for this annoumcement. ‘‘I’m very pessimistic about what that announcement will be,’’ said Ben Davis, state secretary of the Australian Workers Union. He fears Alcoa will confirm its exit from Geelong ‘‘in the next few weeks’’. It comes just after Toyota announced the closure of its Altona car-making factory in Altona in 2017, which may cost about 2500 jobs. Mr. Davis also added that Alcoa would not be interested in seeking government aid to run the smelter. Geelong workers have already suffered job cuts in the manufacturing sector at its Shell refinery and Ford factory. Mr. Davis...
