Vedanta Aluminium reported record quarterly production across aluminium, alumina and value-added products in Q2 FY27, supported by capacity expansion and efficiency improvements. Vedanta Aluminium Metal Limited, India’s largest aluminium producer, recorded its highest-ever quarterly aluminium production of 649,000 tonnes in Q2 FY27, up 5 per cent year on year from 617,000 tonnes in Q2 FY26. Aluminium output also increased 3 per cent quarter on quarter from 632,000 tonnes in Q1 FY27. For the first half of FY27, production reached a record 1,281,000 tonnes, up 5 per cent from 1,222,000 tonnes in H1 FY26. The company attributed the increase to new smelter volumes and efficiency improvements across existing production lines. Alumina output jumps 37 per cent Vedanta Aluminium’s alumina...
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...
Grow with
AL Circle
As part of amalgamation, Vedanta Group firm Sesa Goa today said its merger of Sterlite Energy and demerger of aluminium business of Vedanta Aluminium into it have become effective. In a BSE filing, the company also said that its wholly-owned subsidary Bloom Fountain Limited would acquire 38.68 per cent stake in Cairn India together with associated debt, effective from August 26. "Further, the company has also approved the acquisition of 1,215 MW thermal power plants situated at Jharsuguda and 90 MW co-generation facility at Lanjigarh from its wholly-owned subsidiary VAL, on a going concern basis," it said. "The above transaction would complete Vedanta Group's consolidation and simplification as announced on February 25, 2012," Sesa GoaBSE -8.76 % said. Vedanta had announced the merger in...
Bharat Aluminium Company's (BALCO's) stake sale has also been cleared of legal issues, say sources. Similarly, Hindustan Zinc climbed around 12 percent to Rs 117.40 on news that legal hurdles surrounding divestment in the firm had have been cleared, according to CNBC-TV18 sources. Majority stakes in both these companies were sold to Vedanta group during 2001-2003 and now the government has a residual stake of 29.5 percent stake in Hindustan Zinc and 49 percent stake in Bharat Aluminium Company (BALCO). The Law Ministry had been asked to provide its opinion as there were complex issues in selling remaining stakes in both the firms . Meanwhile, the government has budgeted Rs 14,000 crore from residual stake sale in companies like Hind Zinc. However, the government had to wait as the mines...
Tomago Aluminium believes it is well positioned to ride out the industry downturn after carrying out a restructure to cut costs. Last year around 100 jobs were axed at Tomago, around the same time the other Hunter smelter at Kurri Kurri was forced to shut its operations. One of Australia's largest producers, Alcoa, has forecast a seven per cent increase in prices for the metal this year and the industry's also been buoyed by a fall in the Australian dollar. Global over-supply of aluminium is the latest challenge facing producers, but Tomago spokesman Warren Brooks expects the plant can survive without the need to shed more jobs. "We had to face the difficulty of making a reorganisation last year," he said. "This year has been much more a continued focus on cost reduction. "There are no...
Ormet Corp is negotiating with its equity owner for additional liquidity to keep remaining aluminum operations running, after shutting down two potlines late last week, a spokesman at the U.S aluminum producer said on Monday. On August 1, the Hannibal, Ohio-based company began shutting two of the smelters' four operating potlines in order to keep electricity costs under control while it waits for an August 27 hearing on the matter. ""We've asked for additional liquidity, which would assist us to get through this--not just the hearing on the 27th, but the Public Utilities Commission would then have to act,"" he said. He added that the company was negotiating for additional liquidity from its sole equity sponsor Wayzata Investment Partners LLC to avoid having to completely curtail...
The monthly loss of RUSAL ALSCON has reached $1.4million, it was learnt yesterday. Speaking with reporters in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, the firm’s Director of Public Relations, Tatyana Smirnova, said the plant had suffered regular disruptions in gas supply since 2007. He explained that a second gas pipeline would enable ALSCON to develop the plant and reduce its losses, adding that the plant has survived six gas outages, that required $60million to fix. Smirnova noted that during its operations, the plant used only 11 per cent of its production capacity churning out 197,000 tons of aluminium yearly. Her words: “The cost of production of aluminium in 2012 was $2,886 per ton, while average market price for aluminium in 2012, was about $2,000 per ton. The losses of ALSCON during...
"World aluminum consumption will grow 6 percent this year and through 2015, according to United Co. Rusal, the world’s largest producer of the metal. Global aluminum consumption will reach 50 million metric tons in 2013, the Moscow-based company said in its first-half results statement today. Growth will be driven by demand in China, where it’s expected to rise 9.5 percent, Asia excluding China, with a rise of 6 percent, India with an increase of 6 percent, and North America which is seen advancing 5 percent, according to Rusal. China’s consumption will be spurred on by an increase in car production, infrastructure investments and home appliance purchases in rural areas under a stimulus program, Roman Andryushin, chief operating officer of Rusal’s marketing unit, said at a teleconference....
Hertwich Engineering has commissioned a batch homogenizing furnace and a cooling station at Dubal (United Arab Emirates), the homogenizing plant being the third of its kind to be commissioned by Hertwich within the aluminium smelter complex. Such batch homogenizing furnaces are designed for extra-fast heating of logs. A reversing air concept and regulation by flaps accelerates the heating by an estimated 20%, and achieves improved temperature uniformity. Optimized heating is fully automated and is regulated over measured air- and metal temperatures. The same enhancement is included in the cooling station for more efficient cooling. Hertwich Engineering GmbH is a company of the SMS group which, under the roof of the SMS Holding GmbH, consists of a group of global players in machinery and...
LME aluminium is expected to retrace to $1,918 per tonne, as it faces a resistance at $1,943. The resistance is provided by the 161.8 percent Fibonacci projection level of an upward wave C which started at the Aug. 7 low of $1,773.25. The bearish divergence on the hourly RSI indicates the wave C has become very exhausted and may peak around this resistance. The immediate support will be at $1,918, the 138.2 percent projection level. A further gain from the current level may be limited to $1,958, the 176.4 percent projection level. 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, financial or legal advice regarding the products mentioned in the analyses.
Aluminum prices have extended to the downside and in doing so the trend has turned from a sideways rangebound market to a downward one, the Aluminum Analysis and Forecast Q2 2013 report said. Given the market has been in a supply surplus since 2007 and stocks have built up accordingly, the report noted that prices to be under pressure is not a surprise. In recent years, banks, producers and traders have done their utmost to hold the surplus aluminum off market as they tried to out-run the global economic slowdown, but it now looks as though the recovery has not come about as fast as expected. In the first five months of 2013, primary aluminum production recorded by the International Aluminum Institute (IAI) showed global production of 10.313 million tons, which was down 0.1 percent on the...
US service centers shipped 128,600 mt of aluminum products in July, up 5.7% from July 2012, the Metals Service Center Institute said Thursday. Aluminum shipments in the first seven months of the year totaled 867,600 million mt, 5.2% below the same period last year, MSCI said in a statement. Inventories of aluminum products hit 367,400 mt at the end of July, a decrease of 5.2% over July 2012. MSCI said that at the current shipping rate, this represents a 2.9-month supply in aluminum inventory, down from 3.2 months a year ago. It said 12,400 mt of aluminum products were shipped by Canadian service centers in July, 0.3% below the same month last year. Canada's aluminum shipments in the first seven months of 2013 were 92.3 mt, 3.7% below 2012. Canadian service center inventories of aluminum...
Proposed rule changes for industrial metals warehouses and increased scrutiny by regulators are likely to unleash stored aluminium, adding to the global surplus and forcing more smelters to shut. The new rules will slash the profitability of financing deals that have locked up metal in London Metal Exchange (LME)-registered warehouses and kept millions of tonnes of aluminium off the market, which has supported prices. "The conclusion we've drawn from the warehousing financing issues is that it is pretty much coming towards the end game," consultant Marco Georgiou of CRU in London said. Backlogs in deliveries from the LME warehousing network have created long queues and inflated the premiums to obtain physical metal, sparking complaints from consumers. Those complaints have led to a string...
The board of directors at Russian Aluminum, or Rusal, has approved a change to production volume aimed at cutting costs and boosting margin, that has output this year down by 357,000 tonnes, or 9%, rather than the earlier-planned 300,000 tonnes, the company said. "The board of the company has approved an additional program of production reductions to improve costs and margins, beyond those previously announced. The updated program will see production halted at a number of the least efficient smelters in the aluminum division West as well as reduced at certain smelters in Siberia. Production is forecast to be reduced by 357 thousand tonnes (or by 9%) in 2013 vs. 2012. Full effect of the program will be reflected in 2014," the company said. Rusal will announce its long-term strategy for...
IIFL has maintained its buy recommendation on National Aluminium Company post the latter's Q1 FY14 results. It has a target of INR 32, an upside of 24.3% from its current market price of INR 26 per share. Analysing the numbers, the brokerage said, "Q1 FY14 results were below our estimate due to a jump in power costs and higher employee costs. Power costs increased sharply on account of lower supply of linkage coal. The company had to shutdown pots due to lower availability of coal, leading a sharp decline in aluminium production. The company reported a 10.7% year-on-year de-growth in topline to INR 15.6bn due to lower metal realisations and a decline in aluminium production. Operating profit stood at INR 1.5bn, lower by 49.7% YoY and 63.7% QoQ and is also lower than our estimate of INR...
The mainland's overcapacity-afflicted aluminium smelting industry could soon see a widespread shutdown of uncompetitive plants partly because of more cost-competitive imports, according to the chief of the country's third-largest smelter. "The second phase of industry rationalisation is already beginning," said Zhang Bo, the chief executive of China Hongqiao. "The first phase involved capacities that were very outdated, while the second will hit those that are still surviving but will face stiffer rivalry from imports." Zhang made the comments at a press conference three days after the firm posted a 1.1 per cent year-on-year drop in net profit to 2.81 billion yuan (HK$3.53 billion) for the first six months of the year. Its performance, supported by self-owned power plants, is among the...
China’s third largest smelter, Hongqiao, has announced a 1.1% drop in year-on-year net profits to HK$3.53 billion. Chief executive Zhang Bo says that China’s second phase of rationalization has begun and argues that the indigenous aluminium industry is now facing stiff competition from imports, according to a report in the South China Morning Post. While phase one of China’s aluminium rationalisation programme involved the closure of outdated capacity, the second phase, claims Zhang, will hit those facing stiffer rivalry from imports coming in from Malaysia, where a major smelter project is on the drawing board, and from UC Rusal, the Russian smelter, that is pushing hard on exporting its metal to China. Analysts believe that imports won’t account for a major slice of supply as China is...
Leading Chinese aluminium maker Henan Zhongfu Industrial Co. widened loss in this year’s first half on lower prices of the lightweight metal. Henan Zhongfu made a loss of 197.4 million yuan ($32 million) from January to June, comparing to a loss of 43 million yuan a year ago, the company told Shanghai Stock Exchange today. In the first half, ``domestic economic growth notably slowed from past years, aluminium prices continued to hover low, primary metal producers were largely in operating losses…’’Henan Zhongfu said. Still, ``growth potential for downstream demand remains, while the government endeavors to dissolve aluminium’s overcapacity,’’ it added.
Iran produced 119,560 tons of aluminum ingots in the first four months of the current Iranian calendar year, March 21-July 22, marking a 6 percent year-on-year increase, Tehran Times daily reported on Saturday.. In the first four months of current Iranian calendar year, Iran also produced 82,967 tons of aluminum powder, an increase of 13 percent compared to the same period of last year, according to Press TV.. The Iranian Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade has announced that Iran's annual aluminum output would hit 1.5 million tons by the end of the country's 20-Year Vision Plan, which runs until March 2025.. According to the Press TV, Iran plans to become the world's 14th leading aluminum producer by the end of its 5th Economic Development Plan, which begins in 2010 and ends in 2015. .
United Company RUSAL Plc switched to loss-making in the first half as aluminium prices continued to fall on oversupplies, and urged the industry to take further curtailments to tackle overcapacity. The world's largest aluminium producer posted a recurring net loss of $156 million in the first six months, compared with a recurring net profit of $219 million a year earlier, RUSAL told Hong Kong Stock Exchange today. Recurring net profit is defined as adjusted net profit plus the company's net effective share in Norilsk Nickel, of which RUSAL completed the sale in April this year. RUSAL's total net loss in the first half of the year was $439 million, compared with a profit of $1 million a year ago, the company said in the interim report. ``The current situation requires our industry to take...
