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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Noranda Aluminum’s New Madrid Plant announced this week they are currently in negotiations with the local union for a new collective bargaining agreement. The company and United Steelworkers local 76-86 entered into a five-year contract in August 2007. That deal provided annual wage increases and improvements to pension and other benefit plans. But that will expire August 31st. Noranda spokesman Mark Christian says they do not comment on ongoing negotiations. But he released a statement saying they deeply value their New Madrid associates and the company is working in good faith with the union to secure a new agreement. The 2007 contract was the third consecutive five-year deal struck between Noranda and the union. USW Local 76-86 is located in Marston and represents 780 Noranda workers.
Canadian aluminum shipments were the bright spot in an otherwise quiet July. Steel shipments and shipments of aluminum in the US were nearly flat in both countries. US Service Center Activity; 121,700 tonnes of aluminum products were shipped by U.S. Service Centers in July an increase of 3.6% from the same month in 2011. For 2012 year to date, aluminum shipments were 914,700 tonnes an increase of 3.8% from the same period in 2011. Inventories of Aluminum products were 387,600 tonnes at the end of July, 2012 an increase of 9.4% over July a year ago and an increase of 2.8% from last month. At the current shipping rate, this represents 3.2 months supply in inventory an increase of 5.7% from a year ago. Canadian Service Center Activity; 12,500 tonnes of aluminum products were shipped by...
The Government will delay the partial sale of Mighty River Power until early next year while it deals with headaches including Rio Tinto's threat to close the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter and Maori claims over water, sharemarket sources say. The timetable for the Government's partial asset sales or "mixed ownership model", originally scheduled to begin with the sale of Mighty River Power in the third quarter of this year, has been increasingly under pressure. That has given the Opposition fresh fodder for its attacks on the programme. A well-placed market source said the uncertainty caused by Rio Tinto and Maori water claims meant the Mighty River float would now likely take place in February or March. "There are gloomy faces on all of those involved at the moment." The source said the...
Shares of Alcoa, Inc. are trading very close to calculated resistance at $8.98. The stock ended the trading session at just $8.82, which is near levels that make it difficult to buy or start a position. Alcoa Inc. (NYSE:AA) produces primary aluminum, fabricated aluminum, and alumina, and participates in mining, refining, smelting, fabricating, and recycling. Its products are used in aircraft, automobiles, commercial transportation, building and construction, oil and gas, defense, and other industrial applications. Alcoa was founded in 1888 and serves customers worldwide. Alcoa's stock range is defined by its calculated support defined at $8.10 and by the resistance level at $8.98; the stock is clearly over-extended from support, making it harder for participants to establish fresh longs....
With a 0.9 percent increase over the past day, the Indian aluminum cash price was the biggest mover on Aug. 21, 2012. On the LME, the 3-month price of aluminum fell 0.9 percent to $1,835 per metric ton. Also on the LME, the cash price of primary aluminum declined 0.7 percent to $1,798 per metric ton. Chinese aluminum closed mixed on Tuesday. The Chinese aluminum cash price is back up, rising by 0.3 percent on Tuesday. The price of Chinese aluminum scrap continues hovering above $2,000 per metric ton for the fifth day in a row. Chinese aluminum billet saw little change in its price on Tuesday and the price of Chinese aluminum bar held steady.
U.K.-based diversified miner Vedanta Resources PLC has raised its offers to buy the Indian government’s entire stakes in two of its subsidiaries, Hindustan Zinc Ltd. and unlisted Bharat Aluminium Co. Ltd., or Balco. Vedanta, in a note to shareholders, said it has increased its offer for the Balco stake to $550 million, and its offer for the Hindustan Zinc stake by 15%. It didn’t give an absolute figure for its revised offer for Hindustan Zinc. In January, Vedanta had offered $2.94 billion for the government’s 29.5% stake in Hindustan Zinc and $338 million for a 49% stake in Balco. The federal government hadn’t responded to the January offer, and it hasn’t said anything about the current offer.
Alcoa has applied for the environmental permits required to modernize its Massena operations. The three permits will regulate air and water pollution from Massena’s two aluminum plants should Alcoa decide to modernize them. The project is still proposed; Alcoa is lining up the necessary permits in case it decides to modernize in the future, according to state Department of Environmental Conservation spokesman Stephen W. Litwhiler. Alcoa’s board of directors ultimately will decide whether to commit to the modernization by March 31. The permits incorporate the changes Alcoa would make if it decided to modernize, company spokeswoman Sonya Elam Harden said. “The modernization would upgrade facilities for more efficient, safer and environmentally-friendly operation,” she said in an email. “The...
Diversified miner BHP Billiton has shut its South African Metalloys silicomanganese plant “permanently” and confirmed that its South African aluminium assets have been subjected to impairment testing. With energy coal prices also lower, the latest results presentation of BHP Billiton for the financial year to June 30 deliver a sombre message to South Africa, which also no longer features in the company’s capital expenditure programme, involving an investment of totalling $22-billion. “Assets must continue to earn their right to be in the portfolio,” South African-born BHP Billiton CEO Marius Kloppers said on Wednesday adding that the company’s willingness to act decisively had been demonstrated in its decision to close the silicomanganese plant. BHP Billiton is also in the process of...
According to minutes of latest interest rate meeting released by the Federal Reserve (Fed) overnight, most Fed members expressed the view that they would support the Fed to ease policies if economy fails to grow at a faster pace, which boosted market confidence. In response, the US dollar index dipped to a low of 81.434, the lowest since July, greatly pushing commodities to rebound. LME aluminum edged up to challenge the 30-day moving average and touched a near two-week high of USD 1,885.8/mt during European session. However, as investors remained wary, trading volumes shrank slightly and LME aluminum slid below the 20-day moving average at the tail of trading. Finally, LME aluminum ended the day up USD 1.3/mt or 0.07% at USD 1,870/mt. Latest LME aluminum inventories were up 2,400 mt to...
Reuters reported that Tajikistan's state owned aluminium smelter, the largest in former Soviet Central Asia, expects to restore production growth this month after an extensive plant revamp. Tajikistan Aluminium Company produced 2.2% less aluminium in the first 7 months of the year than in the same period of 2011 as it ramped up output following a modernization program completed at the end of last year.
National Aluminium Company (NALCO) has declared its first quarter results. The company’s net profit stands at Rs 223 crore versus Rs 377 crore on year-on-year (YoY) basis. In an interview to CNBC-TV18, BL Bagra, chairman and director-finance at NALCO says, the aluminium segment has been lagging. “It has not been contributing in an expected manner. The only reason is that LME prices have stabilised at a very low level, between the band of USD 1,800 and 1,900 per tonne over the last six months,” he elaborates. He clarifies that the coal availability has not been a problem for the last two quarters. "Since January, the supply of coal has been on expected lines from Coal India’s subsidiary Mahanadi Coalfields. In the Q1, we were very fortunate that we did not have to depend too much on...
The aluminum price briefly touched a three-year low of $ 1,827.25 per ton on the London Metal Exchange (LME) last week. It managed to avoid falling off a technical cliff, just, but the pressure is still on, three-month metal already trading as low as $1,830 in early trading yesterday. Analysts are near unanimous in their collective view that a significant price recovery will need more producer cutbacks to rebalance supply with demand. Superficially at least, they will be heartened by the latest set of global production figures released on Monday by the International Aluminium Institute (IAI). These showed global run-rates falling by an annualized 940,000 tons in July relative to June. However, there is still little evidence that producers either in China or the rest of the world are yet...
Hertwich Engineering of Austria has commissioned two integrated homogenizing and sawing lines at Emirates Aluminium in Al Taweelah, Abu Dhabi where the world’s largest aluminum smelter is currently being built. Installed in total were two ultrasonic testing stations, two continuous homogenizing plants, two cooling stations and four billet saws with downline packaging stations. The scope of supply also included the complete automation and process integration. The capacity of the plant is 2 x 165,000 tonne per year. Hertwich Engineering GmbH is a company of the SMS group which under the roof of the SMS Holding GmbH, consists of a group of companies internationally active in plant construction and mechanical engineering for the steel and nonferrous metals industry. With some 11,000...
Aluminum producers outside of China, the world's largest producer of the metal, have been cutting production to counter a drop in Aluminum prices, but traders said this may do little to bolster LME Aluminum if other countries such as India seek to make up for the production shortfall this year. India's Aluminum exports could rise 5 percent in the current fiscal year to 325,000 tonnes despite a slowdown in global demand, a senior industry official said. "A production increase by India will cancel out the cuts by other Aluminum producers and put further pressure on LME Aluminum prices," said a Shanghai-based trader. "India is one of the main sources of Aluminum ingots nowadays whenever the arbitrage window in China is open. The premiums for Indian Aluminum ingots are about $230-$240,...
China's domestic offers for aluminum alloy ADC12 slipped on the week on the back of the persistent weakness in aluminum ingot prices, industry sources said Tuesday. This is in addition to the weak buying interest in view of the summer lull when plants carry out their scheduled maintenance. Leading producer Sigma Metals reduced its offers to 17,000/mt ($2,763/mt) ex-works Tuesday, down from Yuan 17,100/mt last Tuesday, while most non-Sigma offers fell about Yuan 100/mt from Yuan 16,300-16,700/mt seen the previous week. Platts lowered its weekly China domestic ADC12 assessment to Yuan 16,300-16,600/mt ex-works Tuesday, from Yuan 16,400-16,600/mt last Tuesday. Sources added that the aluminum scrap price appeared to have softened in view of the persisting weakness in aluminum ingot prices....
According to data released recently by the IAI, daily aluminium production run-rates decreased 2.1% in July, compared to the record 125.5 ktpd output registered in June. It is mainly due to cutbacks in China but, as Leon Westgate from Standard Bank points out, “with seasonal factors in China likely responsible for a large proportion of the drop, the key will be how production fares over the next couple of months.” The analyst also mentions the closing of a 244 ktpy capacity Hawesville smelter in Kentucky by Century Aluminium, due to the excessively elevated cost of energy. Mr. Westgate believes that “given the oversupplied nature of the aluminium market, further smelter shutdowns may well emerge as we head towards the year-end, though higher premiums and lower input costs look set to...
Angel Broking is bearish on National Aluminium Company and has recommended reduce rating on the stock with a target of Rs 48 in its August 17, 2012 research report. "National Aluminium Co Ltd (Nalco)’s profitability in For 1QFY2013, was above our expectations. However, we recommend a Reduce rating on the stock due to its expensive valuation. Nalco’s net sales grew marginally by 0.9% yoy to `1,718cr (slightly above our estimate of `1,666cr). Alumina sales volumes grew by 38.3% yoy to 253kt while aluminium sales volumes decreased by 5.5% to 103kt." “Raw material costs as a percentage of net sales stood at 14.3%, compared to 10.3% in 1QFY2012 due to higher prices of key inputs (caustic soda, CP coke, and CP pitch and aluminium fluoride). Further, power costs as a percentage of net sales...
Century Aluminum will not restart its Ravenswood plant if the state Public Service Commission adopts rate plans drawn up by the Consumer Advocate Division or Appalachian Power attorneys, the company said Tuesday. The first round of final briefs in Century's power rate case before the PSC was filed late Tuesday. In its filing, Century said neither of the alternative power rate proposals drawn up by the Consumer Advocate Division or Appalachian Power provide enough discounts to allow it to restart its Ravenswood aluminum smelter. "Both APCo's and CAD's modifications increase costs to a point where the special rate will not allow a restart of the smelter," the company filing said. Century is trying to get the PSC to approve a new, 10-year rate structure that would help it reopen the plant....
