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...
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Hindalco Industries Ltd’s aluminium business is expectd to witness challenges in the near term on the back of weak prices of the metal in the global market, Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla said in the 2012-13 annual report. Also, the interest burden from its expansion projects will have a bearing on the company’s earnings in the current financial year. However, in the long term, the company remains well-placed with a addition of large assets to the portfolio, said Birla. “As these projects ramp up to their full potential, your company will see an exponential growth in volumes and profitability in the years ahead,” the chairman told shareholders. Recently, the company’s Utkal alumina refinery in Odisha went onstream, while its major equipment at the Hirakud plant have been commissioned. At...
Romania’s Alro, a subsidiary of aluminum producer Vimetco, reported a loss of RON 17 million (EUR 3.8 million) in the first semester against a profit of RON 26 million (EUR 6 million) in the same period of last year, citing high energy costs and disappointing aluminum prices that reached fresh lows. Alro’s turnover lost 9.5 percent to RON 1.06 billion (EUR 241 million) and the producer reported a slight decrease in primary aluminum sales to 71,168 tons. Sales of processed products, meanwhile, climbed to 36,711 tons. Marian Nastase, board chairman at Alro, said the results were impacted by factors outside the aluminum industry. “The overall energy costs, including the eco taxes, continued to put pressure on the Company’s final results. Moreover, the aluminum prices on the international...
Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba) has once again launched the Heat Stress Management Programme for the months of July and August to ensure that employees remain better informed about practical measures needed to be taken for enjoying a comfortable and safe summer. This would be the third consecutive year during which the programme has been introduced across the organisation. It defines the accountabilities of each management level in preventing heat stress, sets guidelines in advising new recruits and provides measures for applying procedures and practices without any deviation. In addition, heat level indicators along with the daily heat stress index present some helpful tips that employees can use to protect themselves during summer. Commenting on the implementation of the Heat Stress...
The Kentucky Public Service Commission has approved an agreement that allows a large western Kentucky aluminum smelter to end its contract with a utility and begin buying electricity on the open market. The Century Aluminum smelter in Hawesville was Big Rivers Electric Corp.'s biggest customer. The smelter, along with another aluminum smelter in Sebree, accounted for about 70 percent of the power generated by the utility. The PSC says Century will purchase power on the open market. Century has said it needs cheaper power to keep operating in Kentucky. The PSC says the agreement achieves "a delicate balance" between keeping the smelter open and not burdening ratepayers. Big Rivers is asking the PSC to approve a 19 percent rate hike for its customers to make up for the loss.
The Century Aluminum Retirees will be holding a picket/gate collection at the north entrance of the Century Aluminum plant today and Friday to protest the company's purchase of a facility in Kentucky while efforts to restart the Ravenswood plant have stalled. The picketers will be at the entrance to the plant from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. both days, said Karen Gorrell, spokesman for the Century Aluminum Retirees. ''Most of you know that Century purchased a facility in Sebree, Kentucky, and paid $60 million plus in cash for the plant,'' Gorrell said. ''To add insult to injury, during the recent Century Aluminum conference call, the Ravenswood facility was not mentioned until after the presentation and an investor called in to ask (Century President and CEO) Mike Bless for an update on Ravenswood....
National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO), a Navratna PSU of Ministry of Mines, Govt. of India, has announced the results for the 1st quarter ended June 2013. According to the reviewed financial results for the 1st quarter of the financial year 2013-14, taken on record in the meeting held in New Delhi today, Nalco has registered a net profit of INR160 crore, which is in line with the target set for the quarter. However, there has been some decline in profit as compared to the corresponding period of last fiscal due to lower international price. On production front, while bauxite production during this quarter increased to 14.63 lakh tonnes against 11.42 lakh tonnes in the corresponding quarter of last year, alumina production has gone up to 4.82 lakh tonnes against 4.76 lakh tonnes...
Alcoa today announced that it will close or curtail 164,000 metric tons (mt) of smelting capacity in the United States and Brazil as part of its smelting capacity review that was announced in May. One potline representing 40,000 metric tons at the Massena East plant in New York will be permanently closed. In addition, the Company has started to temporarily curtail 124,000 metric tons at its smelters in Brazil. The closures and curtailments will be complete by the end of September. “We committed in May to review our global smelting capacity for possible curtailment to maintain the Company’s competitiveness,” said Bob Wilt, president of Alcoa’s Global Primary Products. “Aluminum prices, including premiums, have fallen to four-year lows and we continue to operate in an uncertain, volatile...
JW Aluminum Company announced today that it has posted its 2013 Quarterly Report for the quarter ended June 29, 2013 on JW Aluminum's secure investor website at 4:00 PM Eastern Time on Tuesday, August 13, 2013. The quarterly report is being furnished pursuant to the Indenture governing JW Aluminum's 11.50% Senior Secured Notes due 2017. The quarterly report will be made available to holders and beneficial owners of the Notes, qualified prospective investors in the Notes, and certain security analysts and market makers. JW Aluminum will post all of its annual reports, quarterly reports and current reports that are required to be delivered pursuant to the Indenture governing the Notes on JW Aluminum's secure investor website maintained by Intralinks. JW Aluminum's management will host an...
At the Port of Jacksonville’s Talleyrand terminal, workers from Seaonus unloaded a ship Tuesday filled with 11,000 tons of aluminum ingots. The cargo came from South America and is headed to smelting plants in St. Augustine and the Port Manatee area, near Tampa. It’s a big shipment, said Rick Sharp vice president of business development and customer relations for Seaonus, a terminal and freight services company. “We haven’t had an aluminum vessel in Jacksonville for five or six years,” he said. “And the shipments we received prior to that were in the 3,000- to 5,000-ton range.” The ship’s arrival reflects lower aluminum prices and a recovering economy, Sharp said. It also highlights Jaxport’s competitiveness as a port for break bulk. Break bulk shipment means the product is transported as...
Nirmal Bang has come out with its first quarter (April-June) earnings estimates for the metal sector. The brokerage house expects NALCO to report a 26.7 percent degrowth quarter-on-quarter (fall of 19.1 percent year-on-year) in net profit at Rs 180.4 crore. Revenues are expected to decrease by 17.7 percent Q-o-Q (down 12.1 percent Y-o-Y) to Rs 1,535.9 crore, according to Nirmal Bang. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) are likely to fall by 34.7 percent Q-o-Q (down 9.5 percent Y-o-Y) to Rs 275.4 crore. EBITDA margin or operating profit margin is likely to be at 17.9 percent in June quarter as against 22.6 percent in March quarter and 17.4 percent in a year ago period.
Hindalco Industries Ltd, India’s second largest aluminium producer, wants to consolidate its existing and new operations rather than rush to buy mines overseas, a strategy that stands in contrast to plans of other metal companies that believe that falling commodity prices present a good opportunity for them to secure assets. “We have everything here...we have bauxite, we have coal. And that is why we are going (with our projects) here with our greenfield exercise,” Debu Bhattacharya, managing director of Hindalco and vice-chairman of Novelis Inc., Hindalco’s US unit, said on the sidelines of a conference on Tuesday to announce quarterly earnings. Hindalco wants to first make sure the cash flows from new projects start flowing in as expected, that investments are justified and risks put...
ETFS Aluminium (ALUM), a physically backed aluminium ETP issued by London-based commodity specialist ETF Securities, enjoyed record inflows of $54m over the week. Among the production cuts was the decision by Rio Tinto, the world’s largest aluminium producer, to phase out production at its Shawinigan smelter. The UK-headquartered company said in a statement last week that it would immediately reduce production at the Quebec, Canada, plant by 50,000 tonnes and take the remaining 50,000 tonnes of capacity offline by the end of November. Other aluminium producers, especially in China, are also expected to cut production as continued oversupply is harming prices. ETF Securities believes that sustained robust growth for the Chinese economy remains in place and that this should continue to...
Rio Tinto hit a five-month high amid speculation that the miner was moving closer to selling its Alcan aluminium division. Rio finance director Chris Lynch hosted an analyst roundtable this week following its decision to shelve the sale of its Pacific Aluminium and fold it back into Alcan. He said management was now focused on understanding the business. While closing parts of Pacific Aluminium would have disrupted the sale of that unit, the necessary cost cuts would be easier within Alcan, the broker argued. Rio paid $38.1bn for Alcan in 2007, at the peak of the aluminium cycle. Analysts now value the division at about a third of that. Rio added 2.2 per cent to £32.63, with the stock rallying for a fourth day in tandem with the wider mining sector. Since hitting its lowest level since...
LME aluminium is expected to test a support at $1,874 per tonne, a break below which will lead to a further loss to $1,855. An uptrend that developed from the June 27 low of $1,758 has been reversed, as the wave pattern reveals a completion of this trend. Three waves labelled a, b, c have made up the trend, with the wave c consisting five smaller waves labelled 1,2,3,4 and 5. The five-wave structure strongly indicates the wave c has completely unfolded. A Fibonacci retracement analysis on the rise from the Aug. 7 low of $1,773.25 to the Monday high of $1,904.25 has marked a support at $1,874, the 23.6 percent retracement, which may temporarily hold the fall and trigger a rebound. No information in this analysis should be considered as being business, financial or legal advice. Each reader...
China, if not often blamed for the global aluminum market’s ills, is at least mentioned in the same sentence every time overcapacity and metal surpluses are discussed. The implied point is the growth in Chinese aluminum production is way beyond what is required by the world’s second largest economy and, like steel, is contributing to the low global prices and massive global stocks estimated to be some 10 million tons. In reality – and unlike steel – China’s aluminum market exists in something of a vacuum. That is not to say that the rest of the world is completely insulated by what happens in China, but so far the lack of export rebates has kept Chinese primary metal at home. Indeed, the higher ingot price in China has even limited exports of downstream semi-finished products to some...
AGC announces that it will invest approximately 40 billion yen to significantly increase the production capacity of its Indonesian subsidiary P.T. Asahimas Chemical (ASC) to meet growing demand for chlor-alkali products, such as caustic soda and vinyl chloride, in the Southeast Asia region. In March 2013, ASC expanded its annual production capacity for caustic soda to nearly 500,000 tons. Now, ASC is going to further enhance its production facilities for caustic soda and vinyl chloride, aiming to start operation of the extended facilities by the end of 2015. After the expansion, output of caustic soda at ASC will increase 40% to about 700,000 tons a year and production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) will nearly double to about 550,000 tons a year. Caustic soda is used in the production of...
Goldman Sachs has been subpoenaed by federal regulators investigating complaints that the financial giant’s metals warehouses have intentionally created delays and inflated the price of aluminum. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has issued subpoenas to Goldman and owners of other major warehouses as part of its inquiry into irregularities in the aluminum market that are believed to have cost consumers billions of dollars since 2010. The subpoenas seek all internal documents, e-mails, correspondence, voice recordings and other records concerning the warehouse operations dating back to January 2010, according to two people familiar with the documents. The subpoenas also demand documents and correspondence regarding the London Metals Exchange, a private trade association that...
The only reason the Government offered $30 million to Rio Tinto to keep the Bluff aluminium smelter open was because it is such a large part of the economy, Prime Minister John Key says. Asked at his weekly press conference why the Government hadn't supported other industries threatening to close, such as KiwiRail's Hillside workshops, Mr Key said: "It simply comes down to scale." "We believe Rio Tinto want to remain a long term participant at Tiwai Point," he said. The company wanted to remain engaged with Meridian, the state-owned electricity generator that supplies power to the smelter, equivalent to around one-seventh of all the power produced in New Zealand, he said. "This is different from Hillside." The Government had tried without success to find a buyer for the railway workshops,...
