A 15,000-ton shipment of primary aluminum from Venezuela has arrived at the Port of Avondale in New Orleans, Louisiana, marking the first Venezuelan aluminum shipment to the United States in nearly a decade and potentially reopening a long-dormant supply route between the two countries. The cargo was unloaded on October 5 in an event attended by US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Representative Julia Letlow. The shipment is part of a broader commercial initiative involving US investment firm Heeney Capital and commodity trader Mercuria Energy Group, with the aluminum produced by Venezuela’s state-owned CVG Venalum. The shipment is considerably larger than Venezuela’s last reported US-bound aluminum cargo. The country last shipped primary...
The London Metal Exchange (LME) aluminium price chart continued to slip across the pricing and contract segments on the October 5 trading session, reporting declines over the October 2 close . Meanwhile, the LME three-month Asian Reference Price benchmark alone reported a gain of nearly one per cent. The LME aluminium cash bid price dipped slightly by 0.1 per cent day-on-day, shifting from USD 3,109 per tonne to USD 3,106 per tonne. The offer price contracted from USD 3,109.5 per tonne to USD 3,107 per tonne, reflecting an even more modest 0.08 per cent decline. Explore- Most comprehensive and forward-looking industry-focused report — Global Bauxite & Alumina Market Forecast to 2036: Supply–Demand, Trade Flows & Price Outlook The LME aluminium three-month bid and offer prices faltered by...
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Rusal, the aluminium producer controlled by oligarch Oleg Deripaska, is taking the London Metal Exchange to court, claiming a crackdown on the metals warehousing industry is a breach of its “human rights”. The lossmaking Russian company confirmed that it had filed a judicial review in the UK, demanding proposed rule changes by the LME are overturned. In response to barrage of criticism about queues of more than a year to withdraw metals from some of its registered warehouses, the LME announced a package of measures in November to tackle the backlog and combat abusive behaviour. Some consumers have alleged the delays have artificially pushed up prices and led to vast extra costs. But Rusal and other aluminium producers have reacted furiously to the proposed changes amid concerns they will...
Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba) continues to add value to its customer services across regional and global markets by implementing superior customer technical support services and initiatives, which in turn boost the company's productivity. Alba's Metallurgy, Laboratory & Customer Technical Support Department has made substantial headways in its customer services by increasing its promptness to customer queries and has successfully established a proven 3-day response time for any customer query. Further enhancing its customer relations, the Department has initiated dedicated productivity workshops for its clients through which the company informs them on best practices to maximise results from Alba products at their own location. The team also offers customers assistance with trouble...
Japanese trading house Marubeni Corp expects London Metal Exchange (LME) aluminium prices to gradually rise next year to as high as $2,300 a tonne in the fourth quarter, on the back of strong demand in Asia and active financial deals. "We have more bullish views for 2014 than some financial institutions that made forecasts," Takeshi Kondo, general manager at Marubeni's light metals section, told reporters on Friday. LME aluminium prices have lost almost 14 percent this year to trade close to $1,800 a tonne on Friday, and Marubeni forecast they will be between $1,950-2,300 in the fourth quarter next year, moving up from an expected $1,750-1,950 range in the first quarter. "Financial deals will likely continue even after the LME warehouse rule change. And recovery of the U.S. economy and...
Dr Mohammed bin Hamad al Rumhy, Minister of Oil and Gas, recently visited Sohar Aluminium smelter site. Welcomed by Mulham al Jarf, Chairman of Sohar Aluminium Board and Said al Masoudi, Acting CEO of Sohar Aluminium, the minister was taken on a tour of the plant where the minister was provided with an overview of the company’s world-class ‘Greenfield’ facility. Dr Rumhi was in Sohar for the inauguration of Oman Aluminium Rolling Company (OARC), and visited Sohar Aluminium; the supplier of molten aluminium to OARC. During the tour, the minister greatly appreciated and acknowledged Sohar Aluminium’s pursuit for excellent working conditions amidst a safe and pleasant environment. Said al Masoudi stated, “Safety of our workforce is at the heart and is the essence of Sohar Aluminium’s...
China will impose tiered power pricing on all aluminium smelters starting from January in an attempt to weed out inefficient plants and tackle severe overcapacity in the sector. The aluminum industry has been suffering from overcapacity for years, depressing prices and forcing many producers, including Aluminum Corp of China Ltd (Chalco) , the country's top aluminium maker, to suffer heavy losses. The move to revise power tariffs, which account for about 40 percent of a smelter's operating costs, is the latest in a series of measures to slim the bloated sector and comes as Beijing has vowed to let market forces play a decisive role in the allocation of resources. Power prices will remain unchanged for smelters that do not use more than 13,700 kilowatts (KWs) for each tonne of aluminium...
Antitrust lawsuits alleging the world's largest metal exchange, two of Wall Street's biggest banks and big commodity merchants conspired to raise the price of aluminum will be heard in New York, a panel of U.S. judges has ruled. Judge Katherine Forrest will hear the case in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, at least for pretrial purposes, the panel said in an order on Monday, the first big hurdle in one of the biggest commodity market manipulation lawsuits in years. About 30 lawsuits allege that the London Metal Exchange and other defendants - including investment banks Goldman Sachs Group Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co and merchants Glencore Xstrata and Trafigura AG - manipulated the warehousing of aluminum in order to lift the price of the metal. The U.S. Justice...
Efficient management of available energy resources has been one of the major thrust areas of Vedanta’s operations across the World. Adding feather to its rich collections of awards and accolades over the years, for exhibiting and discharging its commitment towards the cause of environment, focusing on superior energy management, Sesa Sterlite Aluminium Smelter Plant, Jharsuguda (formerly Vedanta Aluminium Ltd.) has been awarded with the prestigious “National Energy Conservation Awards 2013” in Aluminium sector across the country, during the recently concluded “National Energy Conservation Day Celebrations” organized by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) , Ministry of Power, Government of India on 16th December 2013. This prestigious award was received by Head Aluminium Smelter Plant,...
Sapa has announced its intention to close operations at its Precision Tubing plant in Seneffe, Belgium. On November 7, Sapa communicated that the company had conducted a process of reviewing restructuring needs in Precision Tubing Europe to improve profitability and adjust to the market situation in Europe. As a result of this process, the company announced its intention to close the operations in Seneffe, Belgium. Since then a consultation process was conducted with the employee representatives of Seneffe, which has now been concluded. Following the completion of this information and consultation procedure, Sapa today confirmed the decision to close the Seneffe plant. The closure is necessary to ensure the continued long-term competitiveness and success of the new combined company. Sapa...
Alcoa Inc. plans to curtail its Rockdale, Texas, aluminum powder operations as it looks to cut costs in its primary products business. That process is expected to be completed by the end of February, a spokeswoman for the Pittsburgh-based aluminum producer told via e-mail Dec. 18. The facility currently employs 37 people, she added. "We made this decision to continue strengthening the competitiveness of our upstream business," the spokeswoman said. Alcoa is working with customers and suppliers "to ensure a smooth transition," she said, noting that aluminum powder operations in Po?os de Caldas, Brazil, aren’t impacted. The Po?os de Caldas plant makes powdered aluminum for the refractory, metalworking and chemical industries in Brazil as well as for export to other South American countries,...
Noranda Aluminum (NYSE:NOR) is one of today's best performing low-priced stocks, up 9.6% to $2.62 on 1.4x average daily volume. Noranda Aluminum has traded 503,000 shares thus far today, vs. average volume of 362,000 shares per day. The stock has outperformed the Dow (9.6% to the Dow's 0.1%) and outperformed the S&P 500 (9.6% to the S&P's -0.1%) during today's trading. In the past 52 weeks, Noranda Aluminum share prices have been bracketed by a low of $2.21 and a high of $6.85 and are now at $2.62, 19% above that low price. Over the last five market days, the 200-day moving average (MA) has gone down 0.8% while the 50-day MA has advanced 0.2%. Noranda Aluminum (NYSE:NOR) has potential upside of 25.6% based on a current price of $2.62 and analysts' consensus price target of $3.29. Noranda...
The Aluminum Manufacturing industry fought through tough economic conditions the past five years. The onslaught of the Great Recession caused demand from the industry's major industrial manufacturing and construction markets to plummet, particularly car and automobile manufacturers and aluminum-based packaging product producers. In addition, demand from the United States, the industry's largest trading partner, fell heavily as US industrial production and construction activity declined. As a result of these factors, industry revenue fell over the past five years, which includes a slight drop in 2013 alone. Tough demand conditions were coupled with extreme volatility in the price of aluminum. Overall, the world price of aluminum fell from 2008 to 2013. However, individual year-to-year...
Indonesia's government is re-examining provisions in a mining law that would ban exports of unprocessed metal ores from next year, chief economic minister Hatta Rajasa said on Thursday, asserting that the law must not be breached. A furious debate has erupted over the scheduled export ban, an issue that pits nationalist-minded lawmakers against officials and companies desperate not to lose revenue. From January 12, mining companies must process their ore before shipping it overseas, a measure that aims to boost the value of exports from Indonesia, the world's top exporter of nickel ore, thermal coal and refined tin. But uncertainty over details on the processing requirements set out in the law has drawn protests from small mining companies as well as major players, including U.S. giants...
Europe's aluminium premiums - or costs to get metal out of storage - are approaching record highs despite reforms aimed at stemming them, as persistent use of material for collateral in financing deals squeezes availability. Premiums had fallen to their lowest in a year late in September, before an embattled London Metal Exchange (LME) beefed up its powers to free-up access to backlogged metal, but costs have steadily risen since then. Aiming to appease critics of its global storage network, the LME in November slashed maximum wait times for metal, boosted its powers to act against market abuse and said it would review its agreement with warehouse owners. But duty-paid aluminium premiums in Rotterdam climbed to $250-275 a tonne in December, from around $235-255 a tonne in September....
A recent study by the Centre for European Policy Studies has shown that the aluminium industry in Europe is at an 11 per cent cost disadvantage with the rest of the world. Carl Tomlinson, President of the Aluminium Federation (ALFED), argues that this is a "direct result of energy taxation”, with aluminium products now being made and imported outside of Europe. Speaking to the Information Daily following a Breakfast Briefing with members of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the UK Aluminium Industry, Tomlinson says the additional carbon usage of importing products will be "detrimental" to an industry attempting to hit global warming targets. Simon MacVicker, the upcoming president of ALFED, also slammed the high costs of energy taxes in Europe, explaining that as a consequence "a lot...
SURF Coast residents are calling for Alcoa to consider renewable energy solutions amid fears the smelters seeks to sell coal directly to the market. The Anglesea brown coal-fired power station supplies 40 per cent of Point Henry's aluminium smelter electricity requirements. An Alcoa spokesperson said the company had applied to the Essential Services Commission to enable Anglesea power station to continue to fuel Point Henry. However, Surf Coast Air Action spokeswoman Dr Jacinta Morahan said with the future of the smelter uncertain, the group believed Alcoa will propose to sell or operate the mine and power plant as an electricity generator. "Granting Alcoa a licence to generate electricity will not promote the long term interests of Victorian consumers," she said. In 2012 the company...
Ormet Corp. plans to auction equipment and raw materials used in the aluminum smelting process at 10 a.m. today, according to records in the U.S. District Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. Ormet closed the Hannibal aluminum smelter in October amid high utility costs and low global metal prices. CEO Mike Tanchuk announced the closure of the plant that opened in 1958 after the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio refused to lower Ormet's electricity costs from $60 to $45.89 per megawatt-hour as the company requested. Because the company is bankrupt and cannot pay its debts, the court is allowing raw materials to be sold to help pay off the debt. Documents filed Tuesday show Ormet is looking to auction its baked carbon anodes today. According to Pittsburgh-based aluminum giant Alcoa Inc., anodes...
So much for supply side of our Aluminum Outlook 2014 honestly, supply will likely continue to outstrip real demand for some years to come, never mind just in 2014 – but we couldn’t touch on demand in the aluminum market without including the stock and finance trade. It is this activity more than any other that has created the circumstances allowing warehouse operators to offer massive incentives to store metal in their warehouses, distorting the physical delivery premiums. Load-out rates have played a significant part as they have created a guaranteed minimum return for warehouse operators, sustaining the model; but without the stock and finance game, it is hard to see where the demand to store metal in such massive volumes would have come from. Threats to this model are probably the...
Franklin-based Noranda Aluminum Holding Corp. announced this week that it will be cutting 190 employees and contract workers from its workforce. The company said the cuts, which represent about 7 percent of the company’s total employee count, will generate annual savings of $15 million per year, and are part of Noranda's CORE productivity program that targets $225 million of savings from over the next two years. "While this workforce reduction is difficult, it is a necessary part of our commitment to continue to enhance our cost structure and create shareholder value," said Layle K. "Kip" Smith, CEO and President. "This reduction has been a thoughtfully planned part of our CORE program and will not impact service levels for our valued customers or the other ongoing growth and productivity...
