The London Metal Exchange (LME) aluminium price chart recovered on the November 9 trading session, wish cash reporting nearly 1 per cent gain compared to the November 6 close. Longer-dated contracts and inventories, however, edged lower. The LME aluminium cash bid as well as offer prices gained 0.96 per cent day-on-day on November 9. The bid recovered from USD 3,115 per tonne to USD 3,145 per tonne. The offer price surged from USD 3,117 per tonne to USD 3,147 per tonne . 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 price reported a 0.33 per cent rise from USD 3,049 per tonne on November 6 to USD 3,059 per tonne on November 9. The offer...
Iran is expanding its domestic aluminium manufacturing capabilities through nanostructured anodising technology, developing specialised aluminium sheets and profiles for applications across aerospace, medical equipment, electronics and automotive industries. The initiative reflects a move towards higher-value aluminium products by improving the metal's surface properties and expanding its potential industrial applications. According to Pars Today, citing Mehr News Agency, an Iranian aluminium complex is using the technology to produce aluminium components with nanostructured ceramic coatings designed to improve resistance to corrosion and wear. The complex is also working on developing specialised aluminium standards and has so far established eight standards in this field. The...
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Demand for aluminum alloy in Europe increased this week as buyers re-entered the market for fresh supplies after the winter break having kept stocks to a minimum at the end of the year. Spot prices, however, remained under pressure losing a further Eur10/mt ($13/mt) the week ended January 18. "It's definitely busier than the week before but prices are weaker," said a trader, who cited low sales prices from sellers in Spain and Italy, countries where car sales and production have suffered more acutely from the economic downturn, as one of the main cause of lower ingot prices. An Italian alloy producer said that he had sold some 226 at Eur1,710/mt for delivery into East Europe but that for new sales into Germany he was continuing to offer at Eur1,750/mt. A number of small-medium sized...
An analyst says resources giant Rio Tinto is unlikely to change plans to sell the aluminium smelter near Bluff but it could be more attractive to potential buyers after a massive asset writedown by its parent company. Rio Tinto announced last week it was writing down the value of its coal business in Mozambique and its aluminium businesses to the tune of $US14 billion. The company also appointed Sam Walsh, the head of its Iron Ore and Australia divisions, as the company's new chief executive. Despite the writedowns, investors approved of the appointment of a new boss, believing he will have a more disciplined approach after two failed acquisitions. The Bluff smelter is part of the aluminium business for sale after Rio Tinto acquired Alcan at the top of the market in 2007 for $US38...
Hengtong Group announced Hengtong Power Cable Co., Ltd which is the holding subsidiary of the company plans to build annual production of 50 thoudand tons aluminum and aluminum alloy round rod line project. This project will produce 20 thousoud tons of aluminum and aluminum alloy rod and 30 thousand tons of aluminum alloy wire every year, expected to invest 0.16 billion yuan. The after-tax financial internal rate of return was estimated to reach 23.25%, period for recovery of investment was 5.41 year.
The government has flagged off the search for a fulltime chairman and managing director (CMD) for Nalco. The country's largest state-owned aluminium company has been without a regular chief for nearly two years following the suspension of former CMD, A K Srivastava on graft charges in February 2011. With the mines ministry terminating his services on December 11, 2012, the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) has invited applications for the post of Nalco CMD. "The termination of Mr Srivastava's service paved the way for PESB, which recommends candidates for top PSU jobs, to bring out ads for the appointment of a CMD. The last date for filing applications is February 14, 2013," said a top government source. Two internal candidates are believed to be among the contenders for the top...
WBMS has said that the calculated market surplus for primary aluminium for January to November 2012 was 365100 tonnes which follows a surplus of 1.88 million tonnes recorded for the whole of 2011. Global Aluminium production in January to November 2012 rose by 901000 tonnes from the same period in 2011 and following on from a 3.10 million tonne increase over the whole of 2011. Overall, global production rose in January to November 2012 by 2.2% compared with the same months of 2011. In November 2012, primary aluminium production was 3.81 million tonnes. Production in the EU27 fell by 20% and NAFTA output fell by 2.3%. EU27 demand was 10.6% below the comparable period for 2011 total. Total reported stocks of Aluminum rose by 103000 tonnes during November and at the end of the month were...
Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C (Alba) announced that despite challenging market conditions it was able to deliver higher Value-Added sales volume. For the full-year of 2012, sales figures remained almost stable at 890, 291 mt compared to 893,020 mt in 2011. Sales figures for the fourth quarter of 2012 stood at 225,739 mt versus 227,042 metric tonnes for the same period of 2011. Alba closed 2012 Value-Added sales with an average of 65% versus 62% in 2011 while (VA) sales for Q4 2012 represented 64% of the total shipments as compared to 52% in Q4 2011. The company achieved a record production in 2012 reaching 890,217 mt which was a jump of 8,907 metric tonnes as compared to 881,310 mt in 2011. Commenting on Alba's sales and production for 2012, Alba's Chief Executive, Tim Murray said: "Despite the...
Sam Walsh is the new chief executive of mining giant Rio Tinto after the shock exit of Tom Albanese last night. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that under pressure from Rio's board, Albanese stood down from the role on the back of US$14billion worth of new impairments that will be lodged against the mining giant's books when it reports its full-year results on February 14. New Zealand Aluminium Smelters community relations officer Andrea Carson said she could not say how Albanese's exit would affect the Tiwai Point smelter. ''We are unable to comment on Rio Tinto matters,'' Carson said. The impairments come on top of US$8.9billion of impairments one year ago, and the combination of those write-downs was enough to end Albanese's stint of almost six years in the job. The new impairments...
Roeland Baan, executive vice president and CEO of global rolled and extruded products at Aleris has been appointed chairman of the European Aluminium Association (EAA). Mr Baan said he was delighted to take on the role, especially in these challenging times, and claimed he was confident that the EAA will continue to be committed to safeguarding the future of the European industry. According to Mr Baan, aluminium 'is part of the solution to achieving EU sustainability goals'. Baan has been executive vice president and CEO of Aleris International since April 2008 and is responsible for global rolled and extruded products. Aleris is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, USA and is a privately-owned global rolled and extruded aluminium products business with a strong recycling interest.
Rio Tinto's latest write-down of its aluminium assets supports our view that weak pricing and net market surpluses are likely to continue for at least the next two years, pressuring producer profitability, Fitch Ratings says. The charge of between $10bn and $11bn is not a surprise given the state of the aluminium market. We estimate that between 30% and 50% of producers are failing to break even as high stock levels keep official prices in check and cheap electricity becomes scarcer. Over 5m tonnes of aluminium is held in official LME warehouses and probably the same volume again in unofficial storage. The low prices caused by this oversupply are partly offset by high premiums in some markets for the physical supply of metal, because as much as 60% to 70% of the stocks are tied up in...
Shandong Xinfa Group plans to build an integrated aluminium production plant in Guizhou Province in Southwest China. The new facility will be located in Daozhen County and will include power generation, bauxite mining and aluminium smelting. Daozhen is said to have over 300Mt of bauxite reserves but currently has only 60Mt of proved reserves. Increasing power costs are forcing Chinese aluminium producers to relocate their production facilities in Siberia. The Xinfa Group has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the world's largest aluminium company, UC Rusal, to set up a joint venture integrated aluminium plant in the region. Siberia, says UC Rusal chief Oleg Deripaska, is top of the list for Chinese aluminium companies.
The income of diversified miner BHP Billiton’s two aluminium smelters could fall by about $500-million in the half-year ending June, credit solutions provider Coface South Africa risk analyst George Marais tells Mining Weekly. South Africa’s only two primary smelters, controlled by BHP Billiton and situated in Hillside and Bayside, in Richards Bay, have shown successive losses, despite the preferred rates at which BHP Billiton is buying electricity from State-owned power utility Eskom. “The losses were sustained at an average price of $2 391/t; however, the price fell to a low of $1 945/t in December 2011 and, since then, the metal has been maintaining price levels of around $2 100/t. At BHP Billiton’s production rate of 1.2-million tons a year, this would mean a drop of about...
Billionaire Anil Agarwal’s plan to buy India’s stakes in units of his Vedanta Group may falter as the government insists on parliament’s approval for the deal, according to three people familiar with the decision. The law ministry ruled that lawmakers have to agree to the sale, a process that could stretch indefinitely, said the people, who asked not to be identified, citing confidentiality terms. Vedanta, which raised its offer for the government’s 29.5 percent stake in Hindustan Zinc (HZ) Ltd. and 49 percent in Bharat Aluminium Co. by 20 percent to $3.93 billion in August, was betting on a cabinet decision, a swifter method, they said. The stakes would give Vedanta complete access to almost $3.5 billion of cash, besides lead, zinc and bauxite mines. Agarwal, who expected to conclude the...
The US housing starts surged 12.1% in December, the highest since June 2006. Meanwhile, the US weekly jobless claims ending January 12 tumbled to 335,000, the lowest since January 2008. The boom in property sector and job market pushed US stock market and commodity prices up. However, Philadelphia Fed PMI slid unexpectedly to -5.8 in January, curbing gains somewhat. Despite positive economic data and rebound in base metals, LME aluminum prices were weak, still struggling at USD 2,050/mt, with strong resistance at USD 2,060/mt. Finally, LME aluminum finished at USD 2,050, flat with the previous day. Latest LME aluminum inventories decreased 10,625 mt to 5,173,950 mt. Market is optimistic towards China’s4Q GDP to be announced today, and this will send aluminum prices up mildly. LME aluminum...
Vedanta is spearheading a global campaign towards ‘care for the underprivileged children in India’. The campaign launched with a thought that Government, companies or NGOs cannot do it alone and individuals need to come forward and participate towards this national problem. Vedanta started their first social media campaign “Khushi” through blog www.khushi-creatinghappiness.blogspot.in and through Facebook www.facebook.com/groups/vedantakhushi. The campaign “Khushi” is a non-funding campaign that encourages people to come forward and understand the problem and take individual steps for the probable solutions. As the campaign began members from all walks of society joined instantly the “Khushi” group and spreading further message. In no time the group has grown to about 22,000 members – who...
Alcoa Inc., the $9.5 billion market cap producer of aluminum, reported its earnings for the fourth quarter of 2012 earlier this month and the market's reaction was neutral. The stock price showed little change after the company announced that lower costs had helped it turn a profit, something it had not achieved a year earlier or in the third quarter of 2012. Revenue had declined 2% from the fourth quarter of 2011 but crawled up 1% on a q/q basis. Two of Alcoa's Board members, Martin Sorrell and Ratan Tata, thought that Alcoa's report was good news. Each of them bought close to 2,100 shares (a slightly higher number for Sorrell than for Tata) of the stock at prices of about $8.92 per share on January 11th. Sorrell now owns about 8,100 shares while Tata's direct holdings amount to close to...
The company is setting up its second wind power plant at Ludarva in Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan with a capacity of 47.6 MW. The Rs 283-crore project will be executed through Gamesa Wind Turbines Private Ltd., which involves erection of 56 wind turbines, each of 850 KW rating. The project is scheduled to be completed in about eight months. The move is part of the diversification plans of National Aluminium Company Limited (Nalco), a navratna PSU, which has been foraying into other metals and energy sectors. This is the company's second green initiative towards promoting sustainable development by harnessing the unconventional and renewable energy sources. The move is also likely to credit the company with incentives from the government. N R Mohanty, director (P&T), Nalco, laid the...
Global miner Rio Tinto has announced the surprise resignation of its chief executive Tom Albanese after taking a $14bn (£8.75bn) charge in connection with the company's Mozambique coal and aluminium acquisitions. A mining veteran, who joined Rio two decades ago, Albanese will be replaced by iron ore boss Sam Walsh. Albanese, who became chief executive in 2007, had until now largely survived the consequences of his damaging $38bn acquisition of aluminium group Alcan that same year, a top-of-the-market deal when Rio was under pressure from rivals to bulk up or be acquired. The group has since seen years of losses in aluminium and took a $8.9bn charge a year ago. It had planned to shrink the division by hiving off most of its Australian and New Zealand assets for sale, but buyers have not...
After declining for two straight days, LME Aluminium forwards are trading up $ 2051 per tonne from $ 2040 per tonne at Tuesday's settlement. The markets have come off their highs but still managing to stay in green on the back of bargain buying. LME Aluminium declined from $ 2116 per tonne levels on 11 January 2013. London Metal Exchange Aluminium gained by 2% in 2012 to $ 2071 per tonne though rise was lower compared to other peers. Mining giant ALCOA has estimated a growth of 7% for Aluminium in the year 2013. The company in its guidance report has mentioned that China will be leading the growth of Aluminium consumption in the world. Overall, BRICS countries that are acronym of (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) is expected to do well as well as North America. RUSAL expects...
