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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Eight years after the Federal Government refused to sell the Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria to BFI Group Corporation, the Supreme Court has ordered the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) to execute the share purchase agreement with the company to enable the company pay the agreed ten per cent of the accepted bid price of $410 million within 15 working days from the date of the execution of the share purchase agreement. In a judgment delivered last Friday, the five justices of the court unanimously agreed that there was a binding contract between BFI Group and the BPE which should be enforced. The apex court also issued an order of perpetual injunction restraining BPE from inviting any further bidding for the sale and acquisition of ALSCON. It also awarded the sum of N50,000 cost...
Emirates Aluminium Co., an Abu Dhabi- based smelter, is in talks with Export-Import Bank of Korea for a loan of as much as $300 million to help finance its expansion, according to two people familiar with the matter. The lender, known as Kexim, supports projects in which Korean companies are involved and is considering a loan of $200 million to $300 million, the people said, declining to be identified because the discussions are private. The bank conducted the first due diligence on the project last week, said one of the people, an official at the Seoul-based state bank. Emirates Aluminium plans to spend $4.5 billion to boost annual output to 1.3 million metric tons by 2014 from 800,000 tons. The company, also known as Emal, expects to close financing by the end of the year, Chief...
Century Aluminum's president and CEO said Monday that he and his company remain dedicated to reopening the company's Ravenswood smelting plant by the end of the year or early next year. "We are trying to get this plant reopened. We have made good progress over the last nine to 12 months," Michael A. Bless told Charleston Gazette editors during a visit to the city on Monday. Century closed its Ravenswood plant on Feb. 15, 2009, laying off 651 workers, after a sharp drop in aluminum prices between October 2008 and April 2009. If the Jackson County plant reopens, Bless said, it will employ up to 475 workers, who will earn about $80,000 a year in wages and benefits. In May, Century Aluminum and Appalachian Power were unable to agree on a special rate for selling electric power to Century,...
Following two days of increases on the LME, the aluminum 3-month price dropped by 0.9 percent to end at $1,947 per metric ton on July 6, 2012. Weakening prices followed two days of improvement as the primary aluminum cash price dropped 0.8 percent on the LME to $1,914 per metric ton on our daily aluminum price index. On the other side of the globe, Indian aluminum cash price weakened by 0.7 percent. China aluminum closed mostly down last Friday. The cash price of Chinese aluminum fell 0.3 percent, and Chinese aluminum billet prices saw a 0.3 percent decline as well. The price of Chinese aluminum scrap remained essentially flat above $2,050 per metric ton. For the fifth day in a row, the price of Chinese aluminum bar remained essentially flat, holding north of $2,200 per metric ton.
The High Court of Nigeria invalidated a deal last Friday in which Russia's RUSAL, the world's largest aluminum producer, bought a local aluminum enterprise five years ago, Nigeria's The Nation Newspaper reported on Monday. RUSAL bought 77.5 percent of Alscon (Aluminum Smelter Company of Nigeria) in 2007 for $250 million, later increased its stake to 85 percent, and overhauled the plant in 2008 after it had spent eight years inactive. The Alscon enterprise, which includes a 120,000 ton capacity aluminum plant, gas-fired power station and a port, is one of RUSAL’s core assets in Africa. The paper said the court ruled on Friday that rival bidder U.S. Bancorp Financial Investment Group (BFI) had a valid contract with Alscon or Aluminum Smelter Company of Nigeria for a more profitable proposal...
Aluminum Bahrain (Alba) said that its global sales were hit as weaker European economy trimmed demand in the first quarter of 2012, Reuters reported. Alba said output grew by 1.7 percent to 443,533 tons during the first quarter from 436,256 tons a year earlier. The company added that sales were almost flat during the quarter at 446,044 tons, compared to 445,370 tons a year earlier. Bahrain's state-run energy supplier raised Alba's gas supply costs by USD 0.75 per million British thermal units to USD 2.25 per million on January 1, but Alba still enjoys cheaper fuel than its competitors outside the Gulf. The company plans a new production line aimed to boost capacity output to 1.28 million tons by 2015 from current 881,000 tons.
National Aluminium Co., India’s largest state-run producer plans to invest $2 billion to generate and sell electricity after a slide in metal prices shrank profit margins to the smallest in at least 12 years. “All our calculations with aluminum have gone wrong,” Chairman B.L. Bagra said in an interview in New Delhi. “We’re now betting big on power, which gives us the comfort that some of those projects have an assured return on equity.” The company, which has 50 billion rupees ($895 million) of cash, is seeking to revive earnings that fell in four of the past five years as energy costs climbed and aluminum prices slumped. Almost 20 percent of the metal produced in China and about 30 percent in the rest of the world is unprofitable, Goldman Sachs Group said in a July 3 report, as...
LME aluminum lost a heavy USD 44.3/mt or 2.28% to USD 1,900/mt on Friday, though recovering a little from the intraday low of USD 1,894/mt, as less-than-expected increases in non-farm payrolls in the United States in June pushed up risk aversion to induce short selling. Positions for the light metal surged 10,393 lots, mostly short positions, to 717,702 lots. Latest LME aluminum stocks were up 9,200 mt at 4,818,725 mt. China will deliver its June economic data today, so trading should be cautious, but also slightly bearish today. LME aluminum should meet heavier pressure at USD 1,900/mt and move between USD 1,845-1,905/mt. The most active SHFE aluminum contract for October delivery should open lower near RMB 15,540/mt and test support at RMB 15,500/mt as it moves between RMB...
On July 5, 2012, the LME aluminum cash price experienced the biggest change, rising one percent to $1,929 per metric ton. On the LME, the aluminum 3-month price increased 0.9 percent to $1,965 per metric ton. The Indian aluminum cash price saw little movement on Thursday, closing out below $2 per kilogram. Chinese aluminum prices were flat for the day. The cash price of Chinese aluminum held steady on Thursday, remaining below $2,500 per metric ton. After a couple of days of improving prices, the price of Chinese aluminum billet held steady as well. For the fifth consecutive day, the price of Chinese aluminum bar held flat above $2,200 per metric ton. The primary aluminum cash price rose 6.6 percent on the LME to $1,929 per metric ton (after falling 3.7 percent during the previous week),...
Aircraft and automobile makers may be using more aluminum, but as long as the metal's price remains near two-year lows, Alcoa Inc will struggle, analysts said on Friday. The average earnings estimate has been cut over the past week from 15 cents per share and Wall Street now expects Alcoa to post only a 5-cent per share second-quarter profit on Monday, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. That compares with 32 cents per share in the same quarter last year. With an overhang of high inventories and a 20-percent drop in prices since March, many aluminum producers are losing money. Benchmark three-month London Metal Exchange aluminum stood at $1,903 a tonne on Friday - hovering above the $1,880 low of June 2010. After a surprise profit in the first quarter, Alcoa's Chief Executive Officer...
A battle over a $1 billion stake in RUSAL, the world's top aluminium producer, comes to London next week, as two billionaire magnates go head-to-head in one of the largest ever commercial disputes to be fought in a British court. The trial begins in the High Court on Monday, offering a window into the chaotic, sometimes lawless and frequently violent privatisation and consolidation of Russia's aluminium sector after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a period known as the "aluminium wars". The case has been brought by businessman Michael Cherney, who first filed the claim in 2006, against Oleg Deripaska, RUSAL's chief executive and its largest shareholder. Cherney alleges he and Deripaska were business partners, after he met a young Deripaska in the early 1990s, spotted his acumen and...
Rio Tinto's aluminium smelter at Bluff turned in an operating loss before revaluations of financial instruments of $19.56 million for the year to December 31, close to the previous year's losses despite a 7.2 per cent lift in total revenues to $704.33 million. That increase wasn't enough to offset $712.34 million of expenses at the Tiwai Point smelter, which is New Zealand's largest single user of electricity and is up for sale by its Canada-based majority owners, Rio Tinto, who are looking to sell a suite of 13 older refineries in Australasia, the US, and Europe. The company also confirmed it stopped production at its fourth pot-line in April, reflecting the strong New Zealand dollar, volatile wholesale electricity prices, and the downturn in global metal prices. The fourth pot-line...
Chinese primary aluminium production in May totalled 1,678.4Kt, up 9.7% from the previous month and equating to an annual rate of 19.76Mt. The increase reflects a rise in production in the Guangxi region. Local smelters have re-started pot lines that have idled since the end of 2011 because of power supply difficulties. The Guangxi government has since granted smelters preferential power tariffs to boost economic growth. As a result, it is estimated that nearly 300Kt/yr has been re-started in the region. Yinhai Aluminium accounts for 240Kt of Guangxi’s increased production from two smelters in the area. Chalco Guangxi Co is responsible for an additional 30Kt/yr. Aluminium production in Yunnan and Guizhou provinces have also risen following an easing of power tariffs. Output at Yunnan rose...
Modernisation of Rio Tinto Alcan’s Kitimat aluminium smelter in British Columbia, Canada, is scheduled for completion in the third quarter of 2014. The slow-moving US$3Bn project, which was started in 2011, received a capital injection of US$2.7Bn last Christmas. Work so far has included the demolition of pot lines seven and eight, the relocation of some of the plant’s facillities – to enable the existing smelter to operate during the modernisation programme – and the construction of a 3Km underground utilities corridor. An anode pellets storage facility and a phase-one, 440-bed residential village for construction workers have also been completed.
Aluminum production is tilting toward the Persian Gulf and industry giants Rio Tinto (RIO), Alcoa Inc. (AA) and Norsk Hydro ASA (NHY.OS) are betting heavily that the region can produce aluminum more cheaply and can grab global market share. The rush to lower production costs is intense. The aluminum market currently is so oversupplied that market participants say half of the world's production is unprofitable at current prices. Producers and state-owned companies hope Persian Gulf production can take advantage of low energy costs locally and lower shipping rates globally. Such a shift comes at the cost of more costly aluminum smelters in Europe and America. Mideast output is expected to grow from 3.6 million metric tons in 2011 to 5 million metric tons by 2015 once new projects in Abu...
Aluminium Bahrain's output edged up 1.7 percent in the first half of 2012 but sales were almost flat as weak economic growth in Europe dampened demand in the first quarter, Alba said on Sunday. Production at one of the world's largest aluminium smelters was 443,533 tonnes in the first half of the year, against 436,256 tonnes in the same period of 2011, a company statement said. Sales edged up to 446,044 tonnes versus 445,370 tonnes in the first half of 2011. "Our sales and production figures reflect the company's operational focus on delivering progress while facing challenges," Chief Executive Laurent Schmitt said, pointing to a fall in aluminium prices and weak economic growth in Europe. Bahrain's state-run energy supplier raised Alba's gas supply costs by $0.75 per million British...
Hindalco Industries, part of the Aditya Birla Group, is in the process of seeking funding for its biggest greenfield aluminium project in the east coast state of Odisha in India. The company had planned to build a 0.36Mt aluminium smelter alongside a 1Mt alumina refinery, but is now planning a 0.72Mt smelter in direct competition with rival Vedanta Aluminium. Vedanta operates a 0.5Mt smelter and a 1Mt alumina refinery in the region. Hindalco’s strategy is to dominate the primary aluminium industry through its Indian operations.
China's provincial governments are propping a quarter of domestic aluminium production through power subsidies despite soft global demand, consultancy AZ China said on Friday. "These subsidies play a huge part in turning loss-making operations into profitable centres...The number of plants under water shrinks to just a handful," Paul Adkins, managing director of the Beijing-based aluminium consultancy said in a report. AZ China said five Chinese provinces are now subsidizing power costs for aluminium smelters with more than five million tonnes of China's operating capacity receiving up to RMB0.1/KWH in assistance. Another two million tonnes of capacity receives seasonal power price cuts, as the wet season provides more water for hydro schemes, especially in China's southwest, it said....
