A rolling-mill drive can trip even when its encoder passes a bench test. A refinery instrument can report erratic readings with no obvious process upset. Engineers may suspect the devices first, but the installed cables, mating interfaces and routing deserve the same scrutiny. Intermittent faults sometimes disappear the moment an assembly is touched. That uncertainty has an economic cost: investigation consumes maintenance time, and a missed control signal may delay equipment availability. This article concerns sensor, instrumentation, encoder, fieldbus and appropriately rated low-power auxiliary interfaces, typically carrying signals or modest loads—not power feeders. Main motor circuits, plant distribution, rectifier outputs and potline busbars are outside its scope. No connector type...
The most-traded SHFE aluminium contract opened at RMB 23,255per tonne in the night session on Oct 8, hit a high of RMB 23,365 per tonne and a low of RMB 23,195 per tonne, and closed at RMB 23,220 per tonne, down RMB 165 per tonne or 0.71 from the previous close. Futures quickly dipped and weakened, with prices falling below all cyclical moving averages of 5/10/20/40/60. All moving averages turned downward to form resistance, highlighting a bearish pattern. Trading volume during the session was 74,115 lots, with open interest at 269,000 lots, down 819 lots, mainly driven by bulls cutting positions and exiting. On the technical front, the 4-hour MACD death cross continued, with DIFF well below DEA. Green bars expanded significantly, and bearish momentum continued to be released. The LME...
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Aluminium prices that peaked in 2011 have since retreated by over a third. This year, the three-month aluminium rates on London Metal Exchange have fallen over 10 percent to $1,857 a ton. The price fall of close to five per cent on the Shanghai Futures Exchange is comparatively modest. Because of Chinese predominance, both as a producer and a consumer of aluminium and its set of controls, the market there has its own dynamics. At the current SHFE of around 14,690 renminbi ($2,399.70), consulting firm CRU estimates that nearly a third of Chinese aluminium producers are losing money. In response to bad times China has already rested one million tons aluminium capacity. But this is not enough of production discipline to shore up the market. China watchers expect further capacity...
Rusal has warned that state support will be needed to boost domestic aluminum output, as foreign producers are on course to increase their share of Russia’s market from 39 to 47 percent by 2017. Sergei Belsky, Rusal’s Sales Director for Russia and the CIS, said in a conference report that Russian production was being held back by high borrowing costs and the impossibility of hedging deals. The company, the world’s largest aluminum producer, wants to see changes in the law to regulate aluminum use and to “stimulate foreign producers to open factories inside Russia." However, the company stressed that it is not asking for tariffs or preferential treatment. Andrei Shenk, of InvestCafe, blamed inadequate technology for Russia's failure to satisfy its aluminum needs. A total of 412,000 tons of...
The Alcoa Technical Center (ATC) has developed technology that uses 50% less water and 30% less energy and will reduce emissions at a fraction of the cost of current technology in the field. ATC will complete commissioning and on-site testing of its In-Duct Scrubber in August 2014 and plans to commercialise the technology, says Ray Kilmer, Alcoa’s Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. The new In-Duct scrubber is currently under construction as part of a commercial-scale demonstration project at Alcoa’s Lake Charles, Louisiana-based baked anode and calcined coke facility in the USA. Compared to traditional wet scrubbers originally developed to reduce emissions at power plants and large industrial facilities, Alcoa’s patented technology has the ability to dramatically...
HSBC’s final China May manufacturing PMI hit an 8-month low of 49.2. US ISM manufacturing PMI fell unexpectedly to 49, the lowest level since June 2009. Manufacturing in the euro zone slipped into contraction for 22 months in a row. Faltering global economy undermined market sentiment, but also eased concerns that the US Federal Reserve will end QE3 soon. The US dollar index dived below 82.5, helping commodity prices resist declines. LME aluminum advanced to USD 1,938/mt, but then surrendered some of earlier gains, and finally closed 1% higher at USD 1,922/mt. LME aluminum inventories decreased 3,625 mt to 5,198,375 mt. Downbeat economic data against a softer US dollar will keep the light metal hovering at high levels. LME aluminum should stagnate at USD 1,920/mt and move within USD...
Aluminium prices edged up by 0.47% to INR 107.20 per kg in futures trade yesterday as participants enlarged their positions, supported by a firming overseas trend. Further, strong demand in the spot markets also influenced metal prices. At the Multi Commodity Exchange, aluminium for delivery in June inched up by INR 0.50, or 0.47%, to INR 107.20 per kg in business turnover of 475 lots. Likewise, lead for delivery in July traded higher marginally by INR 0.35, or 0.32%, to INR 108.45 per kg in 31 lots. Market men said apart from increased domestic demand, a firming global trend helped aluminium futures to trade higher.
Midwest aluminum premiums rose slightly over the past week amid concerns about metal supplies as material continues to be tied up in financing deals at the warehouses. AMM's Midwest aluminum premium narrowed to 11.5 to 12 cents per pound from 11 to 12 cents previously. There were some reports of spot buys as high as 12.5 cents and as low as 11 cents, although most sources agreed that the bulk of business is taking place within the new range. One market observer reported a deal in the Owensboro, Ky., area for approximately 1 million pounds at 11 cents. But a consumer in the same region said that such regional discounts were disappearing as supply concerns mount, in part because of worries about the delayed sale of bankrupt producer Ormet Corp. "It just seems like the market is getting a...
India’s aluminium production was lower by 16.5 per cent at 1.72 million tonne in 2012-13 fiscal as against the target of 2.06 million tonne, a senior official of the Department of Mines said. However, it was 3 per cent up compared to 1.67 million tonne produced in 2011-12, he said. “There are various reasons for not achieving target. Non-availability of bauxite on time for some of the units has crippled production and falling global prices also contributed to non-achieving targets,” the official said. “Aluminium prices at London Metal Exchange have fallen by 15 to 20 per cent. We expect the prices to go up by the latter half of the year. It is common for the countries. The more they produce now, the higher the losses they incur,” he said.
LME aluminium is expected to drop to $1,881 per ton, as it may have completed a rebound from the May 15 low of $1,821. This rebound has been driven by the third wave of a three-wave cycle that developed from the May 2 low of $1,809. A Fibonacci projection analysis reveals this wave C has a big difficulty in breaking resistance at $1,909, its 76.4 percent projection level, based on the length of the preceding wave A. Chances are, the wave C could have peaked, and may not extend toward its 100 percent projection level at $1,937. A Fibonacci retracement analysis on the rise from $1,821 to $1,917.75 points a target at $1,881, the 38.2 percent retracement. A rise above $1,917.75 will be extended to $1,937.
Bharat Aluminium Company, a Vedanta Group company, announced on 2 June it has appointed Ramesh Nair as its Chief Executive Officer replacing Gunjan Gupta. Ramesh Nair has over 20 years' experience in the metals industry and has worked in the group for 11 years in multiple functions before assuming overall leadership role at Sterlite Copper as its Chief Operating Officer, the company said here in a statement. BALCO, which has major operations in the Korba area of Chhattisgarh currently operates a modern 2.45 lakh tonnes per annum integrated aluminium smelter with 810 MW thermal power plant. It is also in the final stages of commissioning a new state-of-the-art 3.25 lakh tonnes per annum aluminium smelter with 1,200 MW thermal power plant at an investment of about INR10,000 crore. "I am...
NALCO may operate its sole smelter at 75 percent capacity until global prices of the metal recover or availability of cheap domestic coal increases, a company director said on Friday. The 460,000 tonne per annum capacity plant at Angul in eastern part of Odisha has been operating at reduced capacity since May 12 after its coal supplier Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd shut a mine following an accident on April 21. The smelter has been receiving 12,000 tonnes of coal daily on an average since April 24, about three-fourths of its requirement, said S.S. Mohapatra, production director at NALCO. NALCO does not want to operate the plant on expensive imported coal at a time when global aluminium prices at the London Metal Exchange are at their lowest level in three years, at about USD 1,800 a tonne, he...
The United Arab Emirates is merging its two flagship state aluminum firms to create the world's fifth largest aluminum company with an enterprise value of $15 billion. The merger will improve efficiency and help the emirate's aluminum industry better compete with rivals in the region. UAE has been planning the move for three years. The new entity, Emirates Global Aluminium, will be jointly held by Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD) and Abu Dhabi state sovereign fund Mubadala. "Emirates Global Aluminium will build on strong foundations of leadership, to become a major industrial champion and engine of economic development for our people," Khaldoon Khalifa al-Mubarak, chief executive of Mubadala, and the chairman of the new entity said in the statement. In 2011, the chairman of Dubai...
Most of the US economic data released last Friday were positive. Chicago PMI rose to 58.7 in May, the highest level since last March. The University of Michigan final index of US consumer sentiment in May climbed to 84.5, a record high since July 2007. The US registered a 0.1% increase in retail sales in April. However, upbeat figures fueled fear that the US Federal Reserve will scale back QE3. Meanwhile, investors were worried that China’s official May PMI may decline. The struggle between longs and shorts kept LME aluminum in check last Friday. LME aluminum only touched a high of USD 1,914/mt, and finally closed 0.30% higher at USD 1,903/mt. LME aluminum inventories decreased 7,975 mt to 5,202,000 mt. The light metal will rise on China’s growing manufacturing PMI for May. LME aluminum...
The cash price of primary Indian aluminum saw the biggest increase at 1.7 percent for Thursday, May 30. On the LME, the 3-month price of aluminum rose 0.7 percent to $1,857 per metric ton. On the LME, the primary aluminum cash price gained 0.7 percent to finish at $1,821 per metric ton. Chinese aluminum prices were mixed for the day. The cash price of Chinese aluminum inched up 0.1 percent. The price of Chinese aluminum scrap saw little movement. Chinese aluminum billet stayed flat. For the fifth consecutive day, the price of Chinese aluminum bar held flat.
National Aluminium Co Ltd has raised aluminium prices by INR 4,500 ($80.01) per tonne in the domestic market, company sources said. Now prices of standard aluminium ingots stand at INR 134,700 per tonne, the officials, who did not wish to be identified, said late on Saturday. NALCO revises prices of its products to reflect global prices. It had last increased domestic prices of aluminium by INR 3,500 on May 9.
Aluminum ingot output stood at 641,356 tons in Iran in the first two months of the current Iranian calendar year, which began on March 21, the IRNA News Agency reported. The amount shows nine percent increase in comparison to the previous year's figure. It was previously announced that Iran plans to increase its annual aluminum ingot production capacity up to 910,000 tons by the end of the Fifth Five-Year Economic Development Plan (March 2016). According to Iranian Deputy Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Vajihollah Ja'fari, Iran's current per capita consumption of aluminum stands at 4.5 kilogram, while per capita aluminum consumption worldwide now stands at 6.5 kilograms. The official highlighted that Iran's ranking in production of aluminum has risen by four steps since 2005 to stand...
As Alcoa inches toward renewal of its embattled Yadkin River hydro license, the aluminum giant acknowledges the 38-mile project could be sold. Control of the Yadkin’s economic value has pitted Stanly County, site of a now-closed smelting operation, against Alcoa for more than six years. Alcoa now sells electricity that once powered the smelter. The two finally settled their dispute early this month. The county agreed to support the hydro license in exchange for access to 30 million gallons of water a day and $3 million. But Alcoa’s chief sustainability officer, Kevin Anton, wouldn’t rule out Wednesday that the hydro project could be sold once the license is in hand. “I don’t think you could ever get a global company to say that an asset will stay in its portfolio forever,” Anton said...
Economic Sentiment Indicator in the euro zone gained 0.8 points to 89.4 in May, capping forecasts and helping the euro rebound. The US Q1 GDP was revised to a 2.4% annual growth rate. Initial jobless claims in the US rose to 354,000 in the week ended May 25. Weak economic data suggest that the US economic recovery still meets hurdles. This eased worries that the US Federal Reserve will curtail QE3 for the immediate term, sending the US dollar index below 83. In response, LME aluminum leaped to USD 1,910/mt, outperforming other base metals. However, LME aluminum pared some gains at the tail of trading before finally closing 1.70% higher at USD 1,897.3/mt. Latest LME aluminum inventories increased 6,825 mt to 5,209,975 mt. A weaker US dollar will help the light metal rebound. LME aluminum...
Nalco stock on Thursday came closer to its 52-week low of INR 32.70 as it touched day’s low at INR 34.35, but finished at INR 34.55, down 1.29 per cent on the BSE. According to analysts, market took a dim view of the integrated metal maker. Its net profit margin on sale has been gradually declining in the past years. In FY13, it has come down to below 10 per cent. According to a metal analyst net-to-sales margin has dropped to around 9 per cent. “It had already come down from 33 per cent in 2007-08 to 13 per cent in 2011-12,” said another stock analyst of an institutional brokerage. Had it not been for non-operational income, Nalco would have made a net loss before tax, industry observers pointed out. Total capex for FY14 has been planned at USD 307.6 million including USD159.1 million...
