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 prices drifted lower on Tuesday along with other base metals as uncertainty about when the US Federal Reserve will start “tapering” its bond buying programme weighed on the market. Aluminium for three month delivery on the London Metal Exchange eased 1 per cent to $1,799 a tonne – barely half what the metal fetched at its July 2008 high. Analysts expect aluminium, used to make aircraft and fizzy drinks cans, to remain in the doldrums even if demand for the light metal remains robust. This is because of chronic oversupply. China, the world’s second largest economy, is the largest consumer and producer of aluminium. According to Credit Suisse, China’s annualised production rate hit 24.9m tonnes in August, putting it on track to produce more than 25m tonnes for 2013. That amounts...
Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), one of the largest and most modern aluminium smelters in the world, is on track to meet its growth targets despite low LME prices, said its top official. Speaking at Alba's third quarterly meeting for 2013, chairman Mahmood Hashim Al Kooheji said Alba had made a significant improvement in overall safety performance for which the entire team should be commended. "We believe that a strong safety programme and the successful financial performance of the company are closely linked. Alba is well-positioned to meet its production targets for the remainder of 2013 thanks to a combination of focused leadership of the executive team and the commitment of its dedicated workforce," said the chairman at the board meeting held on Tuesday at Sofitel Bahrain, Zallaq Thalassa...
Russia's United Company Rusal , the world's biggest producer of aluminium, said on Wednesday it has asked the London Metal Exchange (LME) to postpone the proposed overhaul of rules that govern its global warehouse network. Backlogs in metal deliveries from LME warehouses have inflated spot aluminium surcharges or premiums, sparking complaints from consumers. U.S. regulators are meanwhile enquiring whether premiums have been artifically inflated. The complaints and political pressure have led to an LME proposal to overhaul its delivery system from next April. In its recommendations for an alternative overhaul, Rusal has asked the LME to exapnd the global network of warehouses and encourage new, independent warehouse operators to enter into the business. Rusal also asked the LME to postpone...
The week’s biggest mover on the weekly Aluminum MMI was the 3-month price of aluminum, which saw a 1.2 percent decline on the LME to $1,784 per metric ton. This comes on the heels of a 0.5 percent increase the week before. The cash price of primary Indian aluminum dropped 0.9 percent this week, closing out the third consecutive week of falling prices. The primary aluminum cash price fell 0.8 percent on the LME to $1,742 per metric ton after rising 0.7 percent the week before. Chinese aluminum prices were mixed for the week. In the past week, Chinese aluminum billet saw its price shift up 0.3 percent. Following a 0.1 percent increase in the week prior, the price of Chinese aluminum scrap fell 0.3 percent last week. The cash price of Chinese aluminum rose 0.1 percent over the past week....
As our old friend Chuin-Wei Yap at the WSJ in Beijing recently observed, in spite of chronically low aluminum prices and massive global overcapacity of supply, China continues to invest in new smelters in its northwest region. In fact, as the article reports, Xinjiang Qiya Aluminum & Power Ltd., earlier this month commissioned one of the world’s largest aluminum smelters in the Xinjiang-Uighur Autonomous Region. Exploiting billions of dollars of government-supported, coal-powered electricity production, the new smelters are continuing to add capacity even as questions are being raised about the logic of building smelters long distances from imported bauxite points of entry and nearly as far from consumers – processors and fabricators sited close to end users of the finished products....
Austrian aluminium group AMAG on Thursday named Alcoa executive Helmut Wieser as its next chief executive, replacing Gerhard Falch from April 1, 2014 for a term of just over three years. Wieser, 59, was most recently global executive vice president and group president Rolled Products at Alcoa, the world's largest aluminium producer, AMAG said in a statement. Wieser had worked before for Austria Metall AG, a legal predecessor of AMAG.
New Zealand's Finance Minister said plans to sell a slew of state companies will likely raise only the bare minimum as the government priced the country's biggest-ever initial public stock offering at up to a third below estimates. The sale of shares in Meridian Energy Ltd , New Zealand's biggest hydro and wind power generator, will raise at least NZ$1.96 billion ($1.65 billion), Finance Minister Bill English said on Friday, with the top end of the range possibly at about NZ$2.2 billion. The pessimistic outlook complicates life for a government selling assets to underpin economic recovery ahead of an election next year and get the national budget back into surplus in 2015. The Meridian sale will significantly reduce overall proceeds from the sales of three power companies, a coal miner,...
Dubai Aluminium (Dubal), the world’s largest single-site smelter using pre-bake anode technology, won the top honours in four of the award categories at the inaugural Metal Bulletin Global Awards for Aluminium Excellence. The list of finalists in the various categories included several other major global and regional players in the aluminium industry including Emirates Aluminium (Emal), UC Rusal, Alcoa, Gulf Extrusions and Novelis. The accolades were presented during a special gala dinner on September 18, coincident with Metal Bulletin’s 28th International Aluminium Conference, which took place in Geneva. The four awards scooped by Dubal comprised: 1. Smelting Company of the Year; 2. Excellence in Operational Management for Smelters and Mills – which was awarded to Dubal’s Smelting and...
Abu Dhabi, UAE/Geneva, Switzerland: ADPC's Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi (Kizad) has successfully attended Metal Bulletin's 28th International Aluminium Conference, that took place 17-19 September in Geneva, Switzerland. Having participated in the conference last year in Moscow, this was the first time that Kizad was present in Geneva, showcasing their massive industry project to a wider global audience. With Emirates Aluminium (EMAL) already being an anchor tenant in Kizad, company officials took the opportunity and introduced the fully operational giant industrial zone to further potential investors and business partners, while elaborating on current industry dynamics and market potential. The International Aluminium Conference is one of the most important annual events in the...
UC RUSAL, a leading, global aluminium producer, is pleased to announce that RUSAL CEO Oleg Deripaska has been honored as Industry Ambassador of the Year by the Metal Bulletin Global Awards for Aluminium Excellence. The 28th Metal Bulletin International Aluminium Conference was held in Geneva, September 17-19, 2013 followed by its inaugural Global Awards for Excellence in Aluminium recognizing the most efficient and innovative companies globally in the sector. Independent judges and leading industry experts in the field recognized Mr Deripaska’s great influence within the global aluminium industry and the wider market with Metal Bulletin highlighting at the awards that Oleg Deripaska “has taken it upon himself to lead attempts among aluminium producers across the world to reduce the level...
LME aluminium may drop into a range of $1,639-$1,657 per tonne in three months, as indicated by its wave pattern and a Fibonacci ratio analysis. The uptrend from the Feb. 24, 2009 low of $1,279 to the May 3, 2011 high of $2,803 has been reversed more than 61.8 percent, as revealed by a Fibonacci retracement analysis on the trend. That indicates a remote chance of the uptrend to extend, as the extension should have taken place above $1,861, the 61.8 percent retracement. For a few weeks, aluminium has been hovering below this key level, such a behaviour has significantly increased the chance of a further drop to $1,739, the 76.4 percent retracement. However, support at $1,781 is preventing the drop and probably will cause a rebound to $1,861 or a sideways move for two to three weeks. This...
As it awaits a final regulatory decision that could decide its future, US aluminum producer Ormet Corp. continues to lose money and is fast approaching $100 million in total net losses since it filed for bankruptcy on February 25, according to court filings. In August, the Hannibal, Ohio-based company lost another $11.7 million, up from a $6.4 million loss in July, despite idling two more of the six aluminum-making potlines at its 260,000 mt/year Hannibal smelter, according to a filing with the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware on Friday. Ormet had cut its losses considerably from June, when it rang up $24.2 million in red ink. Since the company last turned a profit of $4.3 million in January, it has lost $94.3 million, the filing says. Sow sales, reflecting Ormet's current...
US aluminium giant Alcoa is looking at selling its sole plant in France and two production sites in Spain, the head of the French facility said Monday. "Alcoa has decided to put up for sale its factory in France and two plants in Spain," the director of the plant in the southern French town of Castelsarrasin, Franck Listuzzi, told AFP, confirming a report in a local newspaper. "The three plants are interlinked and constitute a single system," he added. The factories in Amorebieta and Alicante in Spain produce material for Castelsarrasin to turn into polished aluminium. Alcoa said in a statement that "to determine which path to follow and the means to optimise activity at Amorebieta, Alicante and Castelsarrasin, we are exploring several options, including selling the three plants." The...
In a little more than two weeks, Alcoa Inc. will report third-quarter results, and there is every reason to believe that those results will not be pretty. The consensus estimates call for earnings per share of $0.06 on sales of $5.74 billion. The earnings estimate has been cut in half over the past three months, and if comments today by another aluminum miner are any guide, the estimates for Alcoa are optimistic. A senior executive of the world’s largest aluminum producer, Russia’s Rusal, has said that 40% of global aluminum production is unsustainable at current prices. From around $1,900 per metric ton (tonne) a year ago, the price today is about $1,830. Global supply exceeded demand in the first seven months of this year by 773,000 tonnes; the surplus in all of 2012 was 506,000 tonnes....
The August North American net new aluminum mill orders index fell 3.5% year on year to 113.51, but was up 3.3% from July, according to the Aluminum Association's monthly report released Friday. Year-to-date, the new mill orders index was down 3.9%, the report said. August plate orders jumped 25.6% year on year and were also up 19.3% from July, while sheet orders slipped 1.8% year on year but gained 6.2% from July. Orders of extruded products in August edged up 0.8% year on year but slipped 0.9% from July, while orders of foil jumped 17.4% year on year and were also up 9.2% from July. August orders of domestic can stock fell 14.7% year on year but edged up 0.9% from July. Orders of export can stock, meanwhile, gained 10% year on year and were also up 1.8% from July. The association's...
Russia's United Company Rusal , the world's biggest producer of aluminium, wants to fix the price for some of its aluminium supply contracts for next year, the company's marketing chief executive said on Thursday. Rusal last year broke with tradition to switch term supply deals for 2013 to a floating premium, the amount paid on top of the London Metal Exchange (LME) price for physical delivery of metal. "Last year, we felt that floating gave a fair outcome for producers and consumers. This year, we would look to fix some of our requirements and not leave it open. We will fix what we can," Steve Hodgson said in an interview, giving no figures. "There are segments of the market that prefer that anyway. There will be a basket of different outcomes. More fixed would be our preference." The...
Iran plans to invest around 8.5 billion euros ($11.4 billion) in its aluminium industry as part of plans to nearly quadruple production by 2025, an official at mining group Imidro said on Thursday. Iran is the 20th largest producer of aluminium in the world, according to the Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organisation (Imidro), and needs the extra supplies to meet demand which is growing by 10 percent a year. Aluminium is a lightweight metal used widely in transport, packaging and construction. It can also be used to make tubes for uranium enrichment gas centrifuges. Iran's economy has been hobbled by western sanctions aimed at pressuring Tehran to stop efforts to enrich uranium to levels that could be used in weapons. Iran produced 338,000 tonnes of...
Arab International Aluminium Conference (ARABAL) Chairman and Founder, Mohammed Al-Naki announced today details of the upcoming ARABAL conference that will be held in November 5-7th at the St. Regis Hotel on Saadiyat Island. The event, which will be hosted by Emirates Aluminium this year, will boast local, regional and international speakers addressing both the economic and development impacts of aluminium smelting in the region. "The success of each event in the ARABAL series has paralleled the region's increasing importance on the world stage. In 2012, the Arab world produced 7.8% of the total global production. This figure is expected to rise to 10% by 2020 as expansion and greenfield projects come on-stream," said Al-Naki. In recent years, the growth of the aluminium sector in the...
