Asian aluminium premiums are facing more pressure ahead of Q4 talks. CRU’s Asia CIF aluminium premium is now USD 202 per tonne, well below the USD 395 per tonne Main Japanese Port (MJP) Q3 benchmark. MJP Q4 offers have also dropped sharply. They fell from USD 325 per tonne in early September to USD 245–260 per tonne as the new quarter approaches. This shows weaker sentiment in the market. Aluminium premiums are under pressure across Asia, especially in Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan. These markets are more exposed to spot price changes, so premiums can move quickly when supply or demand changes. Explore the production, demand and consumption forecasts of bauxite and alumina in our report: " Global Bauxite & Alumina Market Forecast to 2036: Supply–Demand, Trade Flows & Price Outlook " Premiums...
Rio Tinto is connecting its Kitimat aluminum production with a new British Columbia-based supply chain through a long-term agreement with RevoCast Aluminum Billets Ltd., under which aluminum from BC Works will be combined with recycled aluminum to produce billet for North American manufacturers. Announced on September 28, the agreement gives Rio Tinto exclusive marketing rights for aluminum billet produced at RevoCast’s newly commissioned Langley casting facility. The operation combines primary aluminum from BC Works with recycled aluminum processed by RevoCast. Explore the production, demand and consumption forecasts of bauxite and alumina in our report: “ Global Bauxite & Alumina Market Forecast to 2036: Supply–Demand, Trade Flows & Price Outlook ” The deal, however, will not change...
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Aluminium futures prices fell by 0.40% to INR 112.85 per kg today as speculators trimmed positions amid a weak trend in metal at the London Metal Exchange. At the Multi Commodity Exchange, aluminium for delivery in October lost 45 paise, or 0.40%, to INR 112.85 per kg, with a business turnover of 104 lots. The metal for delivery in November also shed 30 paise, or 0.26%, to trade at INR 114.50 per kg in a turnover of 4 lots. Marketmen said a weak trend overseas as US Senate leaders struggled to draft an accord to increase the debt limit and avert a default before a deadline this week and an unexpected decline in China's exports fuelled concerns that demand may weaken from the world's two biggest users, mainly put pressure on aluminium prices at futures trade here.
Vedanta Resources PLC issued a circular Monday, that seeks to extend shareholder support for its proposed purchase of the Indian government's minority stakes in Indian zinc producer Hindustan Zinc Ltd. and aluminum company Bharat Aluminum Co. Ltd. Vedanta called upon its shareholders to back a spending limit on the combined purchase of a 29.5% stake in Hindustan Zinc and a 49% stake in Balco to $3.482 billion or no more than $487 million for just the Balco stake. This compares to a previously expired spending limit of no more than $3.379 billion for the two combined stakes or no more than $550 million for just the Balco stake. That spending limit expired in August. Vedanta exercised options to buy out the remaining shares it doesn't already own in Balco and Hindustan Zinc in 2004 and...
In the production of primary aluminium IKB Deutsche Industriebank, Düsseldorf, Germany, expects global growth to more than 46 million tonnes for 2013. The IKB presents this assessment in its current report on price trends for commodities in October 2013. According to the IKB, primary aluminium production until the end of August 2013 was strongly defined by expansion in China (+10 %), which compensated for declines in other regions. Warehouse stocks at the LME last amounted to almost 5.4 million tonnes, and those at the SHFE roughly 0.23 million tonnes. Investors had expanded their contracts by around 30% in expectation of price increases. However, warehouse stocks would limit the potential for price increases, according to the IKB. Also according the IKB, world commodities experienced a...
Ohio Governor John Kasich suggested Monday that bankrupt Ormet Corp.'s troubles are tied mainly to the weak global aluminum market, and that the state has provided more than its share of financial aid to the embattled US aluminum producer. Kasich, a first-term Republican, did not respond specifically to pleas by the United Steelworkers union last week that he personally intervene in a last-ditch effort to save Ormet and its 260,000 mt/year Hannibal smelter. All six potlines at the smelter in southeastern Ohio are now idled in the wake of the Ohio Public Utilities Commission's October 3 decision to approve only a portion of the electricity rate relief sought by Ormet. "Ohio wants to see Ormet succeed and has provided more than $300 million in support to the company," Kasich said in a...
Creditors of insolvent German aluminium plant Voerde Aluminium voted to extend production to the end of next year while the search for a buyer continues, a spokesman for Voerde's insolvency administrator said on Monday. The Voerde smelter, which makes about 10 percent - or 115,000 tonnes - of Germany's yearly aluminium output a year, declared insolvency in May 2012. The plant in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia employs about 280 staff. Uncertainty about energy policy after Germany's inconclusive general election in September was an added difficulty, said the spokesman for insolvency administrator Frank Kebekus. Germany's metals industry association WVM has said the Voerde case illustrates the danger to metal output from high electricity prices, which are among Europe's most expensive...
The joint participation of Dubai Aluminium and Emirates Aluminium at the 3rd Aluminium Technologies, Machinery and Products Trade Fair ("ALUEXPO 2013") - which took place in Istanbul, Turkey from 3 to 6 October 2013 - achieved its overall objectives. Awareness was raised of the two primary aluminium smelters' strong geographic position to serve the growing markets in Eurasia, with the ultimate aim of increasing market share in the manufacturing and construction sectors while continuing to serve the manufacturers of automotive parts in the region. Specific emphasis was thus placed on promoting the two businesses' combined portfolio of premium purity, high quality value-added products, which comprise high purity sow and ingot, extrusion billet, foundry alloy, bus bar and anode bar, and...
LME aluminium is expected to break a support at $1,862 per tonne and fall further towards $1,842, as it has completed a rebound from the Sept. 17 low of $1,775.50. The completion has been indicated by aluminium's repeated failure to break a resistance at $1.883, which is provided by the 61.8 percent Fibonacci retracement on the fall from the Aug. 19 high of $1,949 to $1,775.50. Further indication on the completion has been given by the wave structure on the rise from the Oct. 4 low of $1,813.75, which consists of five small waves labelled 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. A break above $1,883 will open the way towards $1,908, the 76.4 percent retracement.
Zacks upgraded shares of Noranda Aluminum Holding Corp. (NYSE:NOR) from an underperform rating to a neutral rating in a research note released on Tuesday morning, Stock Ratings Network reports. They currently have $2.40 target price on the stock. A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on NOR. Analysts at Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Noranda Aluminum Holding Corp. from $3.75 to $2.50 in a research note to investors on Monday. Separately, analysts at Sidoti initiated coverage on shares of Noranda Aluminum Holding Corp. in a research note to investors on Tuesday, September 17th. They set a buy rating on the stock. Finally, analysts at Merrill Lynch downgraded shares of Noranda Aluminum Holding Corp. to an underperform rating in a research note to...
Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma'aden) and Sahara Petrochemical Company (Sahara) announced that their affiliate SAMAPCO has completed exportation of its first sea shipment of ethylene dichloride and caustic soda. The shipment consisted of 10,000 metric tons of ethylene dichloride and 5,000 metric tons of caustic soda and left King Fahad Industrial Port at Jubail. SAMAPCO is a joint venture project between Ma’aden (50%) and Sahara (50%). The SAMAPCO plant will annually produce 300 thousand metric tons of ethylene dichloride and 250 thousand metric tons of caustic soda. SABIC will be the prime marketer for ethylene dichloride and caustic soda. However, future caustic soda production from this joint venture shall be used in Ma’aden alumina refinery at Ras Al Khair, which will commence...
The Middle East will produce 5 million tonnes of primary aluminium by 2015, compared with 3.7 million tonnes in 2012, according to the Gulf Aluminium Council (GAC). The region will produce 1.8 million tonnes of value-added aluminium products, compared with 1.2 million tonnes in 2012, Mahmood Daylami, the GAC's secretary general, told delegates at Metal Bulletin’s 3rd Asian Bauxite and Alumina conference on Wednesday October 30. “Out of the total primary aluminium produced in the Gulf Co-operation Council states, 70% is exported to international markets and 30% to downstream markets, which export 50% of their products,” he said. The GCC currently imports about 8 million tpy of alumina, and that is likely to rise to 10 million tpy by 2015, he added. Only Saudi Arabia has reserves of bauxite...
Aluminium producer says the exchange's 'irresponsible' move to overhaul warehousing has led to confusion and a drop in premiums. Global aluminium premiums have fallen because of "confusion" over the London Metal Exchange's proposal to overhaul its warehousing policy, Alcoa chief financial officer William Oplinger said. Premiums paid on top of the LME benchmark price had fallen 17 per cent in Europe, 4 per cent in Japan and 11 per cent in the United States in just three months after the proposal was announced on July 1, Oplinger said. The comments came as Alcoa chairman and chief executive Klaus Kleinfeld lashed out at the LME's latest proposal to solve a year-long crisis that has damaged the exchange's reputation and cost industrial users billions of dollars in additional expenses....
The Aluminum Association announced today a number of changes to its Board of Directors, including a new Chairman, Vice Chairman and members of the Board Class of 2016. In addition, the Association added two new member companies, AMCOR and Superior Flux and Manufacturing, bringing total membership to 97 companies, consisting of 49 producer and 48 associate members. The announcements were made during the Aluminum Association's 80th anniversary fall meeting at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Pennsylvania, where the industry celebrated aluminum as "the metal of modern life." Former Aluminum Association Vice Chairman Layle "Kip" Smith, President of Noranda Aluminum, was elevated to Chairman of the Association, replacing Pat Franc, President of Tri-Arrows Aluminum. Additionally, Garney B. Scott,...
Stocks of primary aluminum at the Fushiki Toyama port in northeastern Japan swelled to a record high of 41,000 mt at the end of September, a 24.2% increase compared with 33,000 mt a month earlier, Japanese sources said Wednesday. Stocks increased as Japanese trading houses and end-users built up inventories on the back of plans by Indonesia's Inalum smelter to discontinue monthly shipments to Japan from December onwards, trade and warehouse operator sources said. The 225,000 mt/year Inalum smelter is a joint venture between Japanese companies and the Indonesian government. The Indonesian government will take full ownership of the smelter when the joint-venture scheme expires later this month. The last shipment to Japan will leave Indonesia in November, traders said. Fushiki Toyama is the...
A Montenegrin court on Wednesday declared the country's sole aluminium plant and a top exporter bankrupt, paving the way for its sale to repay 380 million euros ($516.67 million) of debt. In its heyday in the late 1970s, Kombinat Aluminijuma Podgorica had 5,000 workers. With its workforce cut to a fifth and debt equalling 10 percent of the country's economic output, it has become a big burden for the government. "KAP will be sold as a whole or part by part, that is up to the creditors," said Dragan Rakocevic, who heads the commercial court in charge of the bankruptcy procedure. He said the selloff would start in 20 days. Last year KAP accounted for 30 percent of Montenegro's exports, down from 40 percent in 2011, but its business was kept afloat by big state subsidies and loans it could...
ALCOA'S miserable earnings from its global fleet of aluminium smelters in the September quarter has raised fresh concerns over the future of the loss-making Point Henry smelter at Geelong and its 500 local jobs. In an earnings call in the US on the third-quarter result, Alcoa chairman and chief executive Klaus Kleinfeld told analysts that despite already having idled 16 per cent of its high-cost global smelting capacity, Alcoa would continue to look at ways to reduce its exposure to higher-cost operations. Point Henry is one of the oldest smelters in the Alcoa network and was saved from closure in June last year only when the federal and state governments handed over a combined $44 million of taxpayers' money. The $44m injection came with a promise from Alcoa to keep the smelter going for...
Slovalco has signed a long-term electricity supply contract with power utility Slovenské Elektrárne (SE). Slovalco, the Slovak aluminium producer, wants to achieve such total price of electricity which is its most important expenses item that would equal the level of other European producers. “Given the significant decline in the selling price of aluminium, electric-power price is a determining factor in price competitiveness of a manufacturer in a global context,” the company said, as quoted by the SITA newswire. “The contract provides for the supply of electricity to the aluminium smelter, totalling 19 terawatt-hours for a period of eight years, from 2014 to 2021," Slovalco informed SITA on October 8. The company did not want to specify the price of electricity. “The price is a...
Researchers at Oregon State University and the University of Oregon today announced a scientific advance that has eluded researchers for more than 100 years -- a platform to study and fully understand the aqueous chemistry of aluminum, one of the world's most important metals. The findings, reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, should open the door to significant advances in electronics and many other fields, ranging from manufacturing to construction, agriculture and drinking water treatment. Aluminum, in solution with water, affects the biosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere and anthrosphere, the scientists said in their report. It may be second only to iron in its importance to human civilization. But for a century or more, and despite the multitude of products based...
The woes of Vedanta, which has invested Rs 45,000 crore in the aluminium and power sectors in Odisha, is not limited to the denial of bauxite from the Niyamgiri hills for its Lanjigarh refinery alone. While all the attention is focused on the agitations against bauxite mining at Niyamgiri, another high-value investment of the company, a 1.25-million-tonne aluminium smelter of Vedanta Aluminium (now Sesa Sterlite Ltd) at Jharsuguda, has suffered for the last two years thanks to the reluctance of the state government to grant it special economic zone (SEZ) benefits. The work on this smelter, built as an SEZ unit at a cost of Rs 25,000 crore, was completed in 2011. Sources said the combined loss to the company because of stunted operations of the Lanjigarh refinery due to lack of adequate...
