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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The board of directors of producer of aluminum, miner of bauxite and refiner of alumina, Alcoa AA approved a quarterly common dividend of USD0.03 per share, the company revealed on Friday. This dividend will be paid on 25 August 2012 to all shareholders of record at the close of business on 3 August 2012. Additionally, the board authorised a quarterly USD3.75 cumulative preferred dividend of USDo.9375 per share that will be paid on 1 October 2012 to all shareholders of record at the close of business on 14 September 2012.
The aluminum cash price saw the biggest upwards shift for the day, rising 2.2 percent on the LME to close at $1,908 per metric ton on July 20, 2012. At $1,934, the aluminum 3-month price finished the market day on the LME up 2.1 percent per metric ton. Indian aluminum cash price fell 1.2 percent. Chinese aluminum closed mixed last Friday. The price of Chinese aluminum billet declined 0.3 percent. The Chinese aluminum cash price remained essentially flat in the mid-$2,000 per metric ton range. The price of Chinese aluminum scrap held steady below $2,100 per metric ton. The price of Chinese aluminum bar saw essentially no change for the fifth day in a row, remaining above $2,200 per metric ton.
Saying it would "substantially reduce the risk" to regular ratepayers, Century Aluminum officials have changed some key aspects of a power rate proposal pending with the state Public Service Commission. In testimony filed with the PSC last Friday, the company removed a controversial "guaranteed profit" provision, established a minimum power rate and extended the time in which the company hopes to recoup the costs of restarting its shuttered Ravenswood aluminum smelter. While the new proposal wouldn't eliminate the possibility of other Appalachian Power customers subsidizing the plant's power costs when aluminum prices were low, the changes are designed to reduce the costs customers might have to absorb. One company official said the new plan makes it possible for customers to avoid...
From the soda can you hold in your hand, to the building in which you stand in, materials made from aluminum are all around us. The aluminum industry, and the metal industry in general, play an important role in determining the strength of the manufacturing and construction sectors in an economy. Typically, when demand rises, price follows. In recent months, however, we’ve seen a peculiar trend in the aluminum trade for the United States. Overall, the price per kilogram for aluminum imports is low compared to last year. In fact, the average price for 2012 is nearly 9 percent lower than the previous year (for ocean imports of aluminum). In addition, the volume of aluminum imports, in terms of weight, has taken a noteworthy upward turn, increasing over 30 percent in the year to date. That’s...
Aluminium producer Norsk Hydro trimmed its market forecast for this year due to weak European demand and said it was working on a cost cutting plan as it reported a smaller-than-expected drop in second-quarter core earnings. "We are now finalising programs across Hydro which in total will yield improvements in the range of 2-3 billion crowns over the next two-three years," Chief Executive Svein Richard Brandtzaeg said on Tuesday. The company would not announce any new plant closures on Tuesday, spokesman Halvor Molland said. Hydro said demand had been strong in North America and Japan so far in 2012 and that this trend was expected to continue, while demand in Europe had declined, and the continued economic uncertainty had led the firm to cut its market outlook somewhat. The Norwegian...
Recent distortions in the international aluminum markets, some of them caused by subsidies granted by the Chinese and Australian governments to domestic aluminum smelters, have indirectly had a negative impact on Indian aluminum producers. Industry majors may not have said this openly, but a protectionist environment offered to its aluminum producers by China’s government had not only led to international market prices going off the predicted path, i.e., downward, but also forced the demand-supply ratio to go askew, thus impacting the growth plans of some companies in India, said some analysts here. Many Indian producers had predicted the aluminum price per metric ton to waver between US $2,100 & $2,300 on the London Metal Exchange (LME) in 2012, but that does not seem to be happening....
Aluminium Bahrain BSC , which owns the world's fourth-largest aluminium smelter, said on Monday it hired BNP Paribas to advise on financing options for a proposed $2.5 billion expansion plan to add a sixth production line. Alba has said the new line - which will add 400,000 tonnes annual capacity to its current production of 881,000 tonnes a year - could be completed by early 2015. A project feasibility study is expected to start at the end of the year, the Bahraini firm said in a statement, adding it choose BNP for its "strong presence in Bahrain along with extensive experience with the aluminium sector." Alba's last major expansion took place in 2005 when it added a fifth potline at a cost of $1.7 billion. Bahrain's state-run energy supplier raised Alba's gas supply costs by $0.75 per...
Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation (GMDC) Monday said it has received the state government nod in investing in equity of the proposed alumina plant and aluminium smelter project in collaboration with Nalco. "Gujarat government has given its consent to GMDC for investing in equity of the joint venture project proposed with Nalco. The land has still not been finalised for the project and search is on for an appropriate site," a top GMDC official told PTI. "Once the land is finalised for the project, it shall be taken for approval of the state cabinet," he said. National Aluminium Company Limited has qualified as the sole bidder for the over Rs 10,000 crore alumina and smelter plant project proposed in Kutch district and has deposited upfront fees of Rs 150 crore for the project. The...
Qatalum has stated that the Arab International Aluminium Conference (ARABAL 2012), which will be held in Doha from 20th to 22nd of November 2012, will include topics that discuss environmental issues and their correlation with the aluminium industry, in a time of increasing movement to reduce the impacts of industry and environmental emissions. Aluminium Qatar added that the aluminium smelting industry focuses on environment friendly concepts and values, as well as on environment, health, and safety standards, from construction to operation. Aluminium plants in the region are striving to develop emission controls that allow auto-control of emissions and their intensity. These plants pay special attention to smoke filtration systems from the main production centers to reduce emissions to...
Front-end aluminum spreads are continuing to tighten on the London Metal Exchange, which is bucking the trend seen in other base metals, according to Barclays Capital in a commodity research note. The most recent close for front-end aluminum spreads was a contango of just over $26 a metric ton, some $16 tighter than in mid-May. The British bank continued that, “While there has been little in the way of clear-cut fundamental tightening to justify this move in spreads, given that LME data showed there were three significant-sized shorts in the July contract versus a 30-39% dominant cash warrant holder, a short-term constraint on delivering material against those positions may have been the force behind this temporary tightening in spreads.” “On the SHFE (Shanghai Futures Exchange), the...
A total of 10 participants from the Ektashif program, an outreach initiative of Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, an independent, research-driven graduate-level university focused on advanced energy and sustainable technologies, visited Emirates Aluminium's (EMAL) state-of-the-art smelter complex at Al Taweelah, Abu Dhabi, as part of their study tour. Yousuf Bastaki, Vice-President - Projects of EMAL, and other senior EMAL officials received the team of students led by Dr. Kenneth Volk, Head of Outreach, Masdar Institute, and Zainab Al Ali, Senior Outreach Officer and YFEL Program Coordinator, as well as Sara Al Junaibi and Ruth Limon, Outreach Officers. Following the welcome note, a presentation on EMAL's latest project initiatives was provided by Ahmed Al Marzouqi,...
With 2012 designated the UN's International Year of Sustainable Energy for All, Dubai Aluminium (Dubal) has signed up as a lead sponsor of the World Energy Forum 2012, which this year will be held at the Dubai World Trade Centre (22-24 October). The World Energy Forum will focus its attention on energy-related issues ranging from perspectives of policy, technology and business. Issues such as security of supply, predicting and managing growth and demand and sustainable governance will all be addressed. Forum delegates will hear expert opinion on emerging regional and global energy issues, technologies and investment opportunities. There will be discussions on environmental and sustainability issues affecting different regions of the world and it is hoped that alternative energy sources...
Daily average primary aluminium output in June dropped to 67,700 tonnes compared with 67,900 in May and 70,000 in June 2011, figures from the International Aluminium Institute (IAI) showed on Friday. Total production in June was 2.030 million tonnes, compared with a revised 2.106 million tonnes in May and 2.099 million tonnes in June 2011. Including China, June's average output was 123.8 million tonnes, up from a revised figure of 122.1 million tonnes in May. In China, total primary aluminium production in June rose to 1.684 million tonnes from 1.678 in the previous month.
Almost three quarters of the workforce who lost their jobs when Rio Tinto Alcan’s doomed Lynemouth plant closed have found new employment. The aluminium plant shed 360 jobs when the power supply to the smelter was switched off in March, and more will follow when it ceases operation at the end of the year. But work to keep those who were employed at the site in jobs is still ongoing. At a meeting for stakeholders last week, Site Director David Ian Jones said: “Three hundred and sixty people have left to date and we have managed to resettle and find alternatives for 70 per cent of those people. The other 30 per cent are signing on as unemployed. “That is a particularly good outcome as we are only a couple of months after people have left. We are quite pleased with that level, although...
Emirates Aluminium (Emal), a joint venture between Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala and Dubai Aluminium (Dubal), yesterday announced the production of 1.5 million tonnes of hot metal. In a statement, Emal said: “This is the fastest production achievement ever witnessed in the history of the global aluminium industry, with the last seven months alone producing 500,000 tonnes of aluminium.” Saeed Fadhel Al Mazroui, Emal’s president and CEO, said: “Not a single pot has been lost since inception in 2009 as well by the exceptional metal purity levels of 99.88 per cent and above. Such achievements will encourage and drive us forward as we continue to safely and responsibly accomplish the ambitious goals we have set for ourselves.” “More importantly, the record production was achieved with over 10 million...
On July 19, 2012, the day’s biggest daily mover was the Indian aluminum cash price, which saw a 2.2 percent increase. On the LME, the aluminum 3-month price declined 1.1 percent to $1,895 per metric ton. The primary aluminum cash price weakened by 1.1 percent on the LME, settling at $1,868 per metric ton. The Chinese aluminum cash price rose 0.2 percent, while the Chinese aluminum scrap, aluminum billet and aluminum bar prices kept steady. The week’s biggest mover on the weekly Aluminum MMI was Indian aluminum cash price, which saw a 3.4 percent increase. This comes on the heels of a three percent decline the week prior. Since last week, the price of the 3-month price of LME aluminum fell to $1,895 per metric ton after moving 0.6 percent. The primary aluminum cash price closed last week...
Trade Arabia reported that Aluminium Bahrain focus on achieving sustainable annual savings of USD 250 million by year end has gained momentum with the recent launch of Lean Six Sigma Wave 7 initiative. The news initaitive introduced as part of Alba SmartWay is aimed at bringing about quality improvement and enhanced operational efficiency. Mr Laurent Schmitt CEO of Alba, Mr Tim Murray chief finance & supply officer and COO Mr Isa Al Ansari met the new batch of Six Sigma Green Belt trained candidates who will be responsible for implementing eight approved projects that will pave the way into accomplishing Lean-Six Sigma Wave 7’s overall goals. The eight selected projects are expected to bring about an estimated savings of more than USD 10 million and their implementation target will be end...
Arnaud Montebourg, the French Minister for Industrial Renewal, is looking forward to a 'firm' discussion with Rio Tinto Alcan over its proposed September 2012 closure of the Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne aluminium smelter. According to Monteberg, the site is profitable and Rio Tinto's closure plan is not acceptable. Rio Tinto announced plans to close the plant in June and is reported to be looking for a buyer. The smelter employs 600 people. Monteberg is hoping that Rio Tinto Alcan's closure decision can be reversed.
