Century Aluminum’s proposed USD 4 billion primary aluminum smelter in Inola, Oklahoma, is “moving forward on all fronts” as the company prepares for construction, despite local opposition and legal challenges, CEO Jesse Gary said during the company’s third-quarter earnings call. Developed jointly by Century Aluminum and Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), the project is designed to produce 750,000 tonnes of primary aluminum annually, potentially doubling U.S. primary aluminum production. The facility is expected to create thousands of direct and indirect jobs and add USD 1.5 billion to Oklahoma’s gross domestic product, according to company estimates. The partners had targeted construction to begin by the end of 2026. However, local restrictions and permitting challenges have affected the...
LME aluminium stocks declined by more than half during the first nine months of 2026, falling by 267,875 tonnes from 509,250 tonnes on January 2 to 241,375 tonnes on September 30 (52.6 per cent). The decline continued throughout the period, with average warehouse inventories falling each month. Compared with the same period in 2025, monthly average stocks were lower across all nine months, with the gap widening in the third quarter. Q1 LME aluminium stocks fall 18.2 per cent LME aluminium inventories continued to decline during Q1 2026. Month-end stocks fell from 495,725 tonnes in January to 465,550 tonnes in February, before dropping further to 416,775 tonnes in March. Monthly average inventories stood at 498,670 tonnes in January, 481,801 tonnes in February and 440,710 tonnes in March....
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Alcoa said the aluminium industry had been severely impacted by difficult macro economic conditions, with the higher Australian dollar placing increasing pressure on the market. "A combination of factors, including metal prices, input costs and exchange rates, have resulted in the Point Henry smelter becoming unprofitable," Alan Cransberg, Alcoa of Australia Managing Director said in a statement. Alcoa hopes to complete its review on the smelter's future by the end of June. The Point Henry smelter is located in the state of Victoria and has a capacity of 190,000 tonnes of aluminium per year. Aloca's Point Henry operations, including the smelter and aluminium rolling mill employ around 900 people, however the aluminium rolling mill is not included in the review. Last month, Alcoa Inc...
UC RUSAL's general director, Oleg Deripaska, has announced a reduction in the manufacture of primary aluminum. The company intends to close some of its production plants in Russia. It is likely that electrolytic production at Bogoslov Aluminum Plant (BAP) will be shut down, as the equipment there is quite outdated. Experts believe that economic considerations kept the owners from including that plant in their modernization plans. As this columnist for RusBusinessNews has determined, BAP became the victim of Derpaska's strategy - in the mid-2000s, Mr. Deripaska decided not to expand the manufacture of high-value-added aluminum products. The reason for the cutback was the surplus of aluminum, which led to a sharp price drop at the end of 2011 ($2,170 per ton). A 9% increase in aluminum...
Banks and trading houses have found a way to beat the ravages of economic downturn, storing millions of tonnes of metal with a business model that outsmarts new rules put in place following widespread concern about their practices. As of April 1 this year, new London Metal Exchange regulations mandate that warehouses which hold over 900,000 tonnes of metal must release a minimum 3,000 tonnes a day, up from 1,500 previously. On that date, however, investment bank Goldman Sachs and commodity trader Glencore plan to hike rents for storing aluminium at their respective warehouses in Detroit and Vlissingen, Netherlands by around 10 percent, according to an LME announcement in December. Detroit, and more recently Vlissingen, have long incited anger from clients forced to pay daily rent for...
Now we know how the clash of the titans played out in the aluminium market last December. It's one of the quirks of the London Metal Exchange's (LME) arcane trading system that the monthly "third Wednesday" prime prompt actually takes place on the Monday of the week, December 19th in this case. And over the following two days, December 20 and 21, 500,000 tonnes of metal were cancelled at Vlissingen in the Netherlands. The tonnage corresponds with the size of the short position that sat on the December prime date. Since there was still only one LME warehouse operator in Vlissingen at the time, Pacorini, you don't need to possess extraordinary powers of deduction to work out that it was Glencore, Pacorini's owner, that was the short and chose to deliver. And, as just about everyone now...
Rio Tinto’s plans to build a $US4.5?billion hydro-powered aluminium smelter in Malaysia appear to have stalled, with negotiations on a power contract taking far longer than expected when the project was unveiled in 2007.
The euro rebounded overnight, dragging the US dollar index to 78.488, a two-month low, as investors held high hopes for Greek debt talks. LME aluminum initially struggled at USD 2,200/mt and hit USD 2,264/mt supported by short covering after Fed President Bernanke said manufacturing recovery was inspiring. The metal regained support at the 20-day moving average and closed up USD 37/mt or 1.67% at USD 2,255/mt. LME aluminum has been experiencing the gain-loss cycle for 9 consecutive trading days, though the mainstream traded price dropped a little bit, support below has been strong. SMM expects LME aluminum to move between USD 2,230-2,290/mt and may test USD 2,300/mt during today’s trading supported by optimism towards today’s Greek debt talks. The most active SHFE three-month aluminum...
SINGAPORE: LME aluminium will drop more to $2,186 per tonne, as the retracement from the Jan. 31 high of $2,310 has not completed. The fall has adopted a three-wave mode, with the current wave "c" expected to at least travel to $2,186, the 61.8 percent Fibonacci projection level. A break below $2,186 will open the way towards $2,141, the 100 percent level. Resistance is at $2,259.75, a rise above which will neutralize the signals. No information in this analysis should be considered as being business, financial or legal advice. Each reader should consult his or her own professional or other advisers for business, financial or legal advice regarding the products mentioned in the analyses
National Aluminium Co. (NACL), India’s biggest state-owned producer, posted a more-than-expected 80 percent decline in third-quarter profit as prices of the metal fell and energy costs surged. Net income fell to 512.2 million rupees ($10.4 million), or 0.2 rupee a share, in the three months ended Dec. 31 from 2.56 billion rupees, or 0.99 rupee, a year earlier, the company said today in an exchange filing. The median profit estimate of 16 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was 1.51 billion rupees. Sales were almost unchanged at 14.3 billion rupees. The company said in September it would increase imports of coal, used to produce electricity, after a local shortage of the fuel. Prices of aluminum, which is used to make products ranging from beverage cans to aircraft, averaged 11 percent lower in...
RIO Tinto may have to swallow a cut-price deal if it wants to get the sale of its aluminium division away. That’s the view of Deutsche Bank analysts who have slashed their valuation of Rio’s interests in six Australian and New Zealand aluminium assets to $US4.4 billion ($4.1 billion). The new valuation represents a whopping 32 per cent drop on its previous $US6.5 billion estimate a little over four months ago. Rio insists it isn’t a forced seller of the Pacific Aluminium business, and there’s still plenty of time for the aluminium price to recover. At an investor strategy day on November 29, Rio’s management pointed to their strong balance sheet and a timeline that extends to 2015 to scotch any talk of an imminent fire sale. “We expect that Pacific Aluminium’s new management will be given...
A $2 million expansion project at Aluminum Castings Corp. will add 11,500 square feet to the sand mold aluminum casting foundry on South Street, as well as adding 16 to 26 new jobs over the next two years. The project was announced Monday afternoon by the city of Galesburg. Gary Camarano, the city’s global strategies director, said Aluminum Castings employs 26 workers, meaning the size of the firm may double. Aluminum Castings, which has produced sand mold aluminum castings here since 1964, is an affiliate of the Alcast Company. “Aluminum Castings cast(s) several aluminum alloys in our aluminum casting process and our affiliation with Alcast allows us to offer customers a wider variety of aluminum castings options,” said Aluminum Castings President Bret Markum in a prepared release. “We...
VHE‘s enhanced ohmmeter is able to measure the electrical resistance between points of different voltage potential. Conventional ohmmeters do not have this capability. Much of the equipment installed in aluminium smelter potroom has significant electrical potential to earth (or ground). The series connection of the pot busbar systems means that pots may have a potential to earth of 1500 volts or more. Alumina dust and metallic objects can compromise the installed electrical insulation and it is necessary to monitor insulation performance on a regular basis. Traditional instruments for this purpose have been large and cumbersome. VHE‘s enhanced ohmmeter is portable, lightweight and fitted with comfortable shoulder straps, freeing both hands to use the measuring probes. The instrument has a...
Morgan Stanley recently joined CICC and UBS to arrange the proposed Hong Kong IPO of China Aluminum International Engineering. The company, an infrastructure engineering and technology unit of Aluminum Corporation of China, will raise about US$500m in March or April. Aluminum Corporation of China is the parent of listed aluminium producer Chalco.
Debt of The Aluminium Plant Podgorica (KAP) in Montenegro might trigger an economic collapse in the region, Montenegro Times reported. The failing aluminium complex is jointly managed by the Montenegrin government and the Central European Aluminium Company (CEAC) controlled by Oleg Deripaska, a Russian billionaire, each owns 30% of the shares. Montenegro Minister of Economy Vladimir Kavaric said the government is expected to pay the first tranche of €22mn due to the Deutsche Bank in February. According to him, this would entail financial crunch as the creditors for the remaining debt of €131mn is expected to come from Hungary's OTP Bank in April and the Russian VTB Bank in 2014. The minister said that the government is keen to negotiate with creditors to postpone commitments and discuss...
About 100 jobs at the Tiwai aluminium smelter are expected to go during the next five years. However, the smelter manager says these will be through natural attrition and not redundancies. General manager Ryan Cavanagh confirmed yesterday the positions would go by natural attrition. The Tiwai site usually lost about 50 people a year, with many leaving for higher-paying positions in Australia or retiring, he said. Staff were told in November those positions would not be filled, he said. "We have been talking to employees," Mr Cavanagh said. "People want clarity. We don't do lay-offs." The smelter was always looking at ways of improving the way it worked and the announcement had been a continuation of cost-effective measures taken, he said. The number of people leaving their positions had...
SINGAPORE: LME aluminium will retrace to $2,221.75, as it could have started a downward wave "c". This wave followed the completion of an upward wave "b" which stopped around $2,265, the 61.8 percent Fibonacci retracement on the fall from $2,310 to $2,191. An hourly chart high at $2,221.75 touched on Feb. 3 serves as an immediate target, but the downside could be extended to$2,191, the presumed wave "a" trough. A rise above $2,265 will extend to $2,282, the 76.4 percent retracement level. No information in this analysis should be considered as being business, financial or legal advice. Each reader should consult his or her own professional or other advisers for business, financial or legal advice regarding the products mentioned in the analyses
LME aluminum stocks surged by over 30,000 mt overnight to above 5 million mt, damping market sentiment. Greece failed to agree on an austerity plan, postponing the reform meeting until today as it seeks financial aid. A rebound in worries towards Greek defaults weighed on the euro and induced losses in commodities. LME aluminum positions dropped 4,500 lots during European trading due to profit taking by longs, dragged LME aluminum price to USD 2,209.5/mt. Though the euro recovered losses at the tail of trading, high stocks still led to a USD 37.5/mt or 1.66% drop in LME aluminum price, which closed at USD 2,118/mt. Cautiousness will be seen in today’s markets as Greeks vote over their austerity plan. LME aluminum is expected to move between USD 2,180-2,250/mt during today’s trading as it...
A SUBCONTRACTOR with Hydro aluminium at Kurri Kurri has confirmed it axed 26 jobs in the wake of the smelter owner’s decision to close its oldest potline. Union officials are seeking a meeting with Premier Barry O’Farrell to discuss the smelter’s need for a long-term power contract with the government-owned Macquarie Generation, in an effort to bolster the viability of its operations. Hydro announced last month that it would shed 150 jobs at the site and close Potline 1, amid a strong Australian dollar and low metal prices. A spokesman for industrial maintenance company Thomas and Coffey, which had about 70 staff on the smelter site, confirmed it made 26 full-time staff redundant in the wake of Hydro’s announcement. It had retained about 23 non-trade employees and redeployed about 21...
Aluminium prices gained 0.41 per cent to Rs 109.55 per kg in the futures market today mostly supported by a pick-up in domestic demand at spot markets. At the Multi Commodity Exchange, aluminium for delivery in March rose by 45 paise, or 0.41 per cent, to Rs 109.5 per kg, with an open interest for seven lots. In a similar fashion, the metal for February delivery rose by 50 paise to Rs 108.50 per kg in 328 lots. Market analysts said a pick-up in spot demand mainly influenced aluminium prices in futures trade.
