Southeast Asia’s largest integrated aluminium producer extended its record earnings run as higher aluminium prices, regional premiums and Middle East supply disruptions supported performance. Press Metal Aluminium Holdings Bhd has extended its record earnings streak into 2026, with the Southeast Asian aluminium producer posting a 51 per cent year-on-year increase in net profit to MYR 1.43 billion (USD 350.78 million) in 1HFY2026. The company had already delivered back-to-back record profits in FY2024 and FY2025, supported by higher aluminium prices, increased sales volumes and a more favourable cost environment. Its latest performance comes as the global aluminium market remains tight, with RHB Research expecting a deficit of around 900,000 to one million tonnes in 2026. Press Metal’s...
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...
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Japanese aluminium shipments rose for a fifth month in November, as strong domestic demand offset continued weakness in exports. Shipments jumped 4.9% year-on-year to 168,387 tonnes in November, according to the Japan Aluminium Association (JAA), though volumes were down 5.6% from the previous month. Buyers in Japan recently agreed on aluminium premiums of $255-256 per tonne for the first quarter of 2014, up from $245-247 in the fourth quarter of this year.
The aluminium sector in India is in a slowdown phase. Data from the World Bureau of Metal Statistics shows that aluminium consumption in India declined by 22 per cent in 2013 (till October) compared with an increase of 7.2 per cent and 6.4 per cent in 2012 and 2011 respectively. The metal’s production too declined. It was down by 23 per cent in 2013 compared with an increase of 3.3 per cent in 2012 and 3.1 per cent in 2011. The aluminium market experienced surplus supply of 5.86 thousand tonnes in 2013. Over supply could continue to keep the price lower for a while. However, if the economy recovers and demand increases, aluminium price can see a recovery going forward. Data from the International Aluminium Institute shows that the global production in 2013 was down by 4.9 per cent...
The Bharat Aluminium Company Ltd (BALCO) has achieved several key milestones during 2013 and received awards for productivity, quality, human resource management and other areas at different forums, the company said in a Press release on Saturday. Its plant received National Award for Excellence in Energy Management 2013 in August for Energy Efficient Unit in general category organised by CII in Hyderabad. Mehfooz Ahmed, AGM, CPP-1 and Sujit Mathew, Manager, Pot Room, received the award from Ajay Mathur, Head, Bureau of Energy Efficiency. LS Ganapati, Chairman, National Award for Excellence in Energy Management-2013 was present in the function. Balco also bagged the ‘Chairman Sustainability Trophy’ for January-June 2013 for its performance on sustainability indicators. The company, being...
The Aluminum inventories declined marginally by 22,900 MT in the last week. However, from a broader perspective, aluminum stockpiles have increased by 116,750 MT since the month of Nov ember as per the data av ailable from the LME warehouses. --Aluminum ended Friday's trading session lower by 1.6% at the LME platform broadly declining along with the other base metals in the pack. --The Aluminum inventories declined marginally by 22,900 MT in the last week. However, from a broader perspective, aluminum stockpiles have increased by 116,750 MT since the month of Nov ember as per the data av ailable from the LME warehouses. --During the day, we have a ranged view on aluminum. We also hold a similar view on the commodity for the week as on one hand, it might get support from the positive...
South Korea’s state-run Public Procurement Service (PPS) bought 5,000 tonnes of aluminium through various tenders at the end of last week, a South Korean trader source told Metal Bulletin. Glencore won the tender to sell 1,000 tonnes of western-origin aluminium at a premium of $234.9 per tonne over LME cash price. The metal will be sold on Incheon cif basis. As part of the same tender, Dreample will sell 1,000 tonnes of western-origin aluminium at a premium of $231.5 per tonne cif over LME cash price. The port of delivery is Incheon. LG International won the tender to sell 2,000 tonnes of Indian-orogin metal to the PP at a premium o $236.5 per tonne. The metal will be delivered to Incheon port on a cif basis. Dreample also won a separate tender for 1,000 tonnes of aluminum for non-western...
The Saudi Arabian Mining Company, Ma'aden, has announced that the aluminium rolling mill operated by subsidiary Ma'aden Rolling Company has begun operations. The $590m mill, built under an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract by Samsung Engineering, is part of the $10.8bn complex that has been built by joint venture partners Ma'aden (which owns a 74.9% stake in the mill) and Alcoa (25.1%). It has been built at Ras Az Zawr and is the first mill of its kind in the Middle East capable of producing food-grade can sheet metal. It will initially produce up to 380,000 tonnes of aluminium sheets per year, which will be used to produce food cans. Ma'aden said that the sheet metal needs to go through certain qualification procedures but that production should begin in the second...
Soaring summer Queensland electricity prices are severely impacting on the Gladstone based Boyne Smelter with output to fall and 1100 jobs at risk. Talks with the State Government and electricity suppliers have failed to find a solution to the dilemma and the company admits it is at a loss to understand why it can't get competitive energy or what the cause of the high prices may be. Because it can't get a competitive electricity price it will now reduce aluminium production by about 14,000 tonnes for the first three months of 2014 "due to the high Queensland electricity prices over the summer months making production uneconomic in current market conditions". Boyne Smelters general manager, Joe Rea, said the company wanted to operate Boyne Smelters at full production however the price for...
MARC has removed the MARCWatch Negative placement on the rating of Press Metal Berhad's (Press Metal) Redeemable Convertible Secured Loan Stock (RCSLS) and concurrently affirmed RCSLS' rating at BBB with a negative outlook. The rating was placed on MARCWatch Negative on July 3, 2013 to enable the rating agency to assess the impact of the damage on Press Metal's aluminium smelting plant in Mukah, Sarawak on the group following the power outage in the state on June 27, 2013. MARC notes that the capacity loss at the 120,000 MT/pa Mukah plant as a result of the shutdown has been partly offset by the increasing capacity operations of Press Metal's 320,000 MT/pa Samalaju plant in Bintulu. An additional 80,000 MT/pa to Samalaju plant's initial capacity of 240,000 MT/pa has come onstream and has...
New Zealand Aluminium Smelters' safety performance at the Tiwai Pt plant was disappointing in 2013 and this year it must improve, its boss says. NZ Aluminium Smelters general manager Gretta Stephens highlighted safety in the recent Tiwai Pointer newsletter. "Unfortunately, our safety performance in 2013 has been disappointing with eight recordable injuries year to date. "We need to do something differently in the New Year if we are to get to zero," Ms Stephens said. "I firmly believe we can reach this goal as there are many examples of teams and individual people on site, both employees and contractors, who are already there." If it was possible for other individuals to stay safe, then it was possible for the whole site to stay safe, she said. "A great example of this is the Mobile...
Alcoa will hold a conference call on Thursday, January 9 beginning at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time to discuss fourth quarter and full-year 2013 results and business developments. The conference call will be webcast live via Alcoa's website, with presentation materials available online. The conference call will be hosted by Klaus Kleinfeld, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and William Oplinger, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. One can go to Invest section of the Alcoa website to listen and view slides only. Presentation materials used during this meeting will be available for viewing at 4:30 p.m. at www.alcoa.com. A replay of the call will be available from 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time on January 9 until January 23 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time. Alcoa is the world’s leading...
Vedanta Aluminium Ltd (VAL) has sought the state government's approval to run its smelter unit at Jharsuguda and use 600 MW power from Sterlite Energy. The company's chairman, Anil Agarwal, has written to chief minister Naveen Patnaik in this regard recently, official sources said. "We have set up our aluminium smelter in Jharsuguda under the state's SEZ policy of 2003 and are awaiting approval. We'll be very grateful if approval can be granted immediately," Agarwal stated in his letter. He added, "Allow us to use 600 MW power plant to run our smelter". He pointed out that the company was losing almost Rs 10 crore a day in spite of having made the largest ever investment in underdeveloped Kalahandi district but appreciated the state government's commitment to provide long-term bauxite...
SmarTrend identified an Uptrend for Century Aluminum on September 11th, 2013 at $8.75. In approximately 4 months, Century Aluminum has returned 17.71% as of today's recent price of $10.30. In the past 52 weeks, Century Aluminum share prices have been bracketed by a low of $6.26 and a high of $10.60 and are now at $10.30, 65% above that low price. The 200-day and 50-day moving averages have moved 0.40% higher and 1.36% higher over the past week, respectively. Century Aluminum Company produces primary aluminum, in both molten and ingot form, through facilities located in the United States. The Company owns and operates a reduction facility in Ravenswood, West Virginia, and owns a partial interest in a reduction facility in Mt. Holly, South Carolina. Century is also the operating partner of...
Aluminium prices moved up by 0.73 per cent to INR 110.90 per kg in futures market today as speculators enlarged positions on the back of increased demand from consuming industries in the spot market. At the Multi Commodity Exchange, aluminium for delivery in January moved up by 80 paise, or 0.73 per cent, to INR 110.90 per kg in a business turnover of 573 lots. Similarly, the metal for delivery in February traded higher by 30 paise, or 0.27 per cent, to INR 112.15 per kg in 13 lots. Analysts said speculators enlarged their positions on the back of increased demand from consuming industries in the spot market which mainly helped aluminium prices to trade higher at futures trade.
LME aluminium may hover above a support at $1,796 for one trading session or rebound moderately to $1,805 per tonne before falling towards $1,780. The support is provided by the 61.8 percent Fibonacci projection level of a downward wave c, the third wave of a three-wave cycle that developed from the Dec. 30, 2013 high of $1,839. This wave may eventually travel to $1,780, its 100 percent projection level. A break above the 38.2 percent projection level at $1,805 will make signals neutral. However, only a rise above $1,821.50 could confirm the resumption of the uptrend. 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 advisers for business,...
A large amount of aluminium business would be taken away by competitors from Queensland due to Boyne Smelter Ltd's three-month production cutback. The smelter will be producing 14,000 tonnes less than usual from January to the end of March. The decision to reduce aluminium production has stemmed from months of negotiations with Queensland electricity suppliers to try to secure a competitive price for 140mW of the smelter's electricity, which ended on December 31. Workers' jobs will be safe during the cutback, as BSL managers decided natural attrition should deal with any required staff reductions. Although production officially reduced on January 1, management said the process wasn't as simple as flicking a switch, nor was it cheap, but with the high price of Queensland power over the...
The rise of aluminum production in China has been, in a word, relentless. National output has risen by 3.36 million tons per year equivalent since the first quarter of 2013, according to Reuters, while that in the rest of the world has shrunk by 1.06 million tons over the same period. Note, however, that the rest of the world’s loss includes a temporary shutdown of Alcoa’s 370,000-ton-per-year Ma’aden smelter – assume that will restart next year – and that Western world closures have not been as dramatic as they could be. Much of China’s new capacity is being added in the country’s northwest provinces, particularly Xinjian, where a new generation of smelters is being built based on cheap coal-fired electricity production. The area is a major coal producer, but so geographically remote...
Sohar Aluminium (SA) recently launched its Hands & Fingers Safety campaign, where SA management, the Health and Safety committee and SA staff children from Al Batinah International School, all made the commitment of “keeping their hands and fingers safe”. The launch of the campaign was symbolised by everyone using paint to imprint their hands and fingers on the commitment board at SA. Prior to that, the school children had received an educational session about Hands & Fingers Safety through a special tailored presentation for their age group. SA will deliver customised trainings for safety to its entire workforce and everyone will make the commitment to keep their Hands and Fingers safe. Injuries to hands and fingers are the most common types of injuries in an industrial environment and...
Aluminium prices edged up by 0.32% to INR 110.45 per kg in futures trade today as participants enlarged their positions, supported by a firming trend at spot markets on strong demand. At the Multi Commodity Exchange, aluminium for delivery in January inched up by 35 paise, or 0.32%, to INR 110.45 per kg in business turnover of 39 lots. Likewise, the metal for delivery in February traded higher marginally by 25 paise, or 0.22%, to INR 111.90 per kg in 1 lot. Marketmen said speculative positions created by participnants following rising spot demand, helped aluminium futures to trade higher. They said, however, weakness in the entire base metals in yesterday's trade overseas, limited gains.
