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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COLUMBIA FALLS- Right now it seems like the Columbia Falls Aluminum Company (CFAC) may not be opening their doors, at least until the economy gets better. A spokesman for the plant says the market for aluminum is so bad right now, that it wouldn't be possible to open up CFAC. While the aluminum market suffers, so does the power deal between CFAC and Bonneville Power Administration that could restart the plant this year. The low demand for aluminum has put a pause on the contract because the plant can't restart under the current conditions of the economy.
Russia exported 3.126 million metric tons of aluminum in January-November 2011, an increase of 2.5% compared with the corresponding period in 2010, the federal customs service reported Friday. The exported aluminum was worth $6.628 billion, compared with $5.481 billion in January-November 2010. Aluminum export to countries outside the Commonwealth of Independent States in January-November totaled 3.088 million tons, worth $6.539 billion. Aluminum exports to CIS states totaled 37,600 tons, worth $88 million.
China will curb the expansion of smelters producing nonferrous metals including copper and aluminum in the five years through 2015 to reduce overcapacity and energy consumption. The country’s annual aluminum output will be capped at 24 million metric tons by 2015 and copper production at 6.5 million tons, according to government plans posted on the website of China Nonferrous Metals News. Lead output will be capped at 5.5 million tons and zinc at 7.2 million tons. China, the world’s biggest user of aluminum, copper and zinc, has stepped up efforts to slow metal production growth to curb surging raw-material prices, protect the environment and contain inflation. The government is also taking measures to conserve electricity after missing its energy-reduction target in the last five-year...
State-run NALCO is set to finalise a deal with a miner by next month for supply of coal to its $ 3.8 billion aluminium-cum-power project in Indonesia. "We are looking at a coal mine basically to provide coal to our power and smelter project there (Indonesia). We need 5 MTPA for 25 years. We have zeroed in on one of the five proposals and the Board will take a final decision on it by the end of next month," NALCO CMD B L Bagra told PTI. The aluminium major has plans to set up a 5-MTPA aluminium smelter and a 1,250-MW power plant in Indonesia entailing $ 3.8 billion (about Rs 18,000 crore)investment. The coal mines shortlisted has reserves of about 200 million tonnes (MT), Bagra said. Sources said the company has zeroed in on Muara Enim mine in the East Kalimantan district of Indonesia....
Aluminium yesterday traded with the positive node and settled 0.09% up at 110 tracking LME aluminum for three-month delivery dropped to an intraday low of USD 2,116/mt last Friday after Standard & Poor’s downgraded 9 euro zone countries. Better than expected Michigan University Index and leading indicators from the US came later and helped the metal narrowing loss to USD 19.3/mt or 0.89% closing at USD 2,141.3/mt. As the euro zone debt crisis worsens, LME aluminum to give away more gains in last week to test support at the 30-day moving average. The moving band should be USD 2,100-2,150/mt. It was announced on January 13th that Standard & Poor’s would cut credit rating of some European countries, fueling risk aversion sentiment and weighing down non-US dollar currencies. In response, the...
SINGAPORE: LME aluminum will drop further to $2,068 per tonne, as indicated by a rising channel and a Fibonacci retracement analysis. The metal has almost dropped below the rising channel that it has been climbing up since Jan. 5. A duplicated channel points to a target at $2,068, the 76.4 percent Fibonacci retracement on the rise from $2,027.75 to $2,197. The drop towards the target has been temporarily interrupted by a weak support at $2,112, the 50 percent retracement. The support is expected to be broken soon as the metal could have completed a rebound from the December 2011 low of $1,955.75 and is steady on a short-term downtrend. No information in this analysis should be considered as being business, financial or legal advice. Each reader should consult his or her own professional...
Although forecasts say global aluminium prices may go up for the first quarter of 2012, prospects are bleak for the aluminium sector in Australia. The Norsk Hydro aluminium smelter plant at Kurri Kurri closed on of its three potlines which would result in the lay off of 150 workers. The Tomago Aluminium also underwent a major restructuring which would lead to the loss of another 100 jobs. The two developments have not surprised the New South Wale Hunter Valley aluminium industry since both firms have been suffering financial the past few months and workers were aware of the situation. Norsk's Kumi smelter has 500 employees. The firm will declare the 150 redundant over a period of time cutting across all departments. Tomago Aluminium, which has 1,200 employees, will also implement several...
Even though the world’s largest aluminum maker, Alcoa, posted quarterly losses for the first time in two years, global markets welcomed the results and moved higher. Indian markets too followed suit and are trading in the green. For the fourth quarter the company posted a loss of $193 million or $0.18 per share due to poor demand and lower prices, However, after adjusting restructuring charges, the loss works out to only $34 million or $0.03 per share. Sales on the other hand grew 6 percent over the year-ago period, but were down 7 percent over the sequential quarter. Despite this loss, markets are buoyed by the company’s supply and demand projections for the commodity in 2012. The company forecasts a 7 percent growth globally for alumunium as a commodity in 2012, especially in the...
One of the world's top aluminium producers has forecast that prices will rebound later this year as suppliers cut output, mothballing some smelting plants because of the low price of aluminium, which will result in reduced global supply. Laurent Schmitt CEO of Aluminium Bahrain BSC, the second largest producer of the metal in the Middle East, told Bloomberg that, "Less-competitive smelters will have to reduce their production capacity or even shut down," adding that this would rebalance demand and supply and lead to the recovery of London Metal Exchange prices. Another large producer, Alcoa Inc., recently announced that it would shut-down or reduce 12% of its global smelting capacity after prices slumped. On the LME, aluminium prices for 3-month delivery reached $1,956 a metric tonne on...
Aluminum jumped to a five-week high in London after Alcoa Inc., the largest U.S. producer, forecast a global production deficit. Alcoa said yesterday that global demand will exceed supply this year by 600,000 metric tons. The New York-based company reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $191 million, the first in more than two years, which included costs to trim smelting capacity by 12 percent after prices fell last year. Aluminum has rallied 10 percent since reaching a 17-month low in December. “The comments from Alcoa were more encouraging than people anticipated on demand prospects,” William O’Neill, a partner at Logic Advisors in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, said in a telephone interview. “It suggests underlying strength in metals overall.” Aluminum for delivery in three months rose...
Aluminium Bahrain BSC the second largest producer of the metal in the Middle East, forecast that prices will recover this year as some suppliers cut output. Mr Laurent Schmitt CEO in a statement said that “Less competitive smelters will have to reduce their production capacity or even shut down in the first half of 2012 because of low aluminum prices. That would re balance the demand and supply of aluminum and lead to the recovery of LME prices.” Aluminum for delivery in three months on the London Metal Exchange, the benchmark price on the world’s largest metals bourse, averaged USD 2,115 a metric tonne in the fourth quarter. The metal traded at USD 1,956 on December 14, a 17 month low and 30% less than the 2011 high of USD 2,803 on May 3. Alcoa Inc the biggest US producer on January 6...
LME three-month aluminum gained USD 22.8/mt or 1.06% overnight as impact of euro zone downgrades faded and focus is put on today’s Chinese GDP data. American markets were closed on Monday in memory of Martin Luther King. Transactions for LME aluminum therefore were down almost by half. China’s 4Q GDP data is due to come out 10 A.M. Beijing time today and is followed by the New York Fed manufacturing index which may determine market directions. Investors are expected to be restrained before release of above data. SMM expects LME aluminum to struggle at the 5-day moving average and move between USD 2,120-2,180/mt during today’s trading. The most active SHFE three-month aluminum contract is expected to open at RMB 16,200/mt and hover between RMB 16,100-16,250/mt. Spot aluminum is expected to...
Faced with declining aluminum prices and rising costs, the largest producers in Europe and North America are starting to reduce output and hoping their Chinese rivals will make bigger cuts to send prices higher again. Three-month, benchmark aluminum prices have fallen about 28% since May, closing Wednesday at $2,165 a metric ton on the London Metal Exchange. The decline is forcing companies to make tough decisions about whether they can afford to operate plants. So far, a few operations in Canada, the U.S. and Europe, owned variously by Alcoa Inc.; Rio Tinto Alcan, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto PLC; and the private-equity firm Klesch & Co., have cut output, for reasons including labor issues and the cost and availability of power. More reductions could follow. Norway's Norsk Hydro ASA is...
Canadian-British billionaire Victor Dahdaleh has rubbed shoulders with royalty, palled around with senior politicians and run a successful business empire whose interests stretched from Switzerland to Singapore. But on Friday the 68-year-old tycoon is set to appear before a British court charged in connection to a large-scale fraud allegedly perpetrated against Aluminum Bahrain BSC, known as Alba. The state-owned aluminum smelter claims that Dahdaleh and others bribed senior officials into systematically overpaying for millions of tons of raw material in what it described as a “massive, outrageous fraud.” Dahdaleh has yet to enter a plea, but his lawyers have denied any wrongdoing and promised to fight the charges. The specifics of the British charges against Dahdaleh haven’t been...
Aluminum Corp of China Ltd. (2600)’s $300 million loan received a $30 million commitment from Dah Sing Bank Ltd., according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the details are private. Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. has been marketing the loan to banks after funding the majority of the facility via a $50 million three-year loan and a $150 million so-called bridge loan, another person familiar with the matter said on Dec. 15.
Qatalum, the state-of-the-art aluminium smelter constructed in line with Qatar's long-term economic diversification strategy, was present as a representative of Qatar's newest energy-related industry: aluminium. The smelter, which achieved full production earlier this year, was also a Gold Sponsor of the event. The triennial World Petroleum Congress, which ran from 4 to 8 December under the patronage of HH Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, Emir of the State of Qatar, is considered one of the industry's premier events, and attracted more than 5,000 participants from around the world, including more than 900 participants from Qatar, and 35 ministers from countries active in the petroleum industry. The theme for this year's congress was 'Energy Solutions for All - Promoting Cooperation,...
Barclays Capital calculates that announced aluminium-capacity closures around the world now total 1.3 million metric tons per year. This includes capacity of 292,000 tons which has not been producing since 2009, around 342,000 tons of non-price-related closures and 85,000 tons per year of delayed ramp-up. According to Barclays, The most recent announcement is Norsk Hydro planning to cut capacity by a third at an 180,000-tons-per-yer smelter in Australia due to low prices. Most closures have been in the North American and European regions mainly due to high power costs and low prices. “Cost inflation in the metals industry is structural, in our view, and energy cost inflation has hit power-intensive metals like Aluminium and Nickel severely. Indeed, both nickel and aluminum operating costs...
Shares of aluminium majors like Nalco and Hindalco are trading firm in a weak market on reports of pick-up in demand for the metal and approvals of various stimulus plans by governments across the globe. The has resulted in a substantial improvement in average global aluminium prices since June 2010, say analysts. According to analysts, the fall in global demand of about 8% in calender year 2009 over 2008, which caused global aluminium prices to plummet to as low as US$1,260 per tonne (daily average spot prices) during CY09, witnessed a sharp correction on the upper side during CY10 with prices peaking as high as US$ 2,460 per tonne (daily average spot prices). Hindalco was trading at Rs 117, up around 1% and Nalco was trading flat at around Rs 53.75 in a weak market. Sensex is trading in...
