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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AUSTRALIAN shares opened higher as a positive start to a month of US earnings buoyed Wall Street overnight and boosted hopes for local equities. Alcoa, the unofficial kick-off to the US reporting season and a key bellwether stock, reported a net loss in the fourth quarter of last year in line with forecasts but included a forecast for a deficit in world aluminium markets in 2012. The news drowned out more dismal headlines from Europe, where stocks finished lower after the French and German leaders racheted up pressure on Greece to meet the requirements of its bailout package. CMC Markets' chief market analyst Ric Spooner said equity markets would be watching to see if US economic data translated into positive earnings over the next month before the local reporting season kicks off in...
Alcoa Inc (AA.N) said on Monday it plans to close its Portovesme, Italy, smelter and slash output at two Spanish smelters as the U.S. aluminum producer takes aim at its high-cost European operations. The measures will throw doubt on the long-term future of the U.S. producer's embattled European operations as they struggle with high energy costs and low aluminum prices. Ending Alcoa's primary smelting operations in Italy also should provoke stiff opposition from the country's troubled government and fiery trade unions. The plan, part of the target announced last week to reduce output by 12 percent by the end of June, is particularly galling for the troubled Euro zone as Alcoa plows ahead with its $10 billion project in the Middle East. Shuttering Portovesme, with a view to permanent...
Aluminium yesterday traded with the negative node and settled -0.05% down at 108.25 as the US dollar index stood steady at 81 last Friday as worries towards European debts outweighed support from strong non-farm payroll data of the US. LME aluminum, however, gained supported by profit-taking at the tail of trading, closing USD 24.5/mt or 1.2% higher at USD 2,063.5/mt. Though the metal showed more stability than other base metals, contracting transactions indicate inadequate upward momentum. Asian investors are pulling out of markets as the Chinese New Year nears. LME aluminum look to test support at the 30-day moving average and move between USD 2,030-2,070/mt during today’s trading. Since most aluminum processors end production early ahead of the Chinese New Year, sufficient supply will...
LME aluminum will fall to $2,050 per tonne, as a rebound from the December 2011 low of $1,955.75 has completed. The rebound has adopted an "a-b-c" corrective wave mode, with the wave "c" having roughly travelled 161.8 percent the length of the wave "a", as indicated by a Fibonacci projection analysis. The metal bounced off the upper channel line of a rising channel and will find a support at the lower channel line which is about $2,050. 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.
From Occupy Wall Street to occupy Century Aluminum. These protesters aren't fighting for jobs though, they're retired. they're fighting to get their benefits back. "We're trying to get our insurance back they took away from us. They just wrote us a letter and said we got none, and they promised us for life," retiree, Charles King says. Insurance that's crucial to the health of these retired workers, especially King. "I had a stroke and had cancer and a couple mini-strokes. I ain't too good of health, but I'm still here kickin." These retirees have only being occupying this area for a few weeks, but they say their fight began years ago. "We just go to Charleston legislatures and talked to the governor and Rockefeller and Manchin and they all said they wouldn't sign legislation to give them...
Alcoa Inc (AA.N) Chairman and Chief Executive Klaus Kleinfeld expects the global aluminum market to turn into a deficit this year, as biggest consumer China closes inefficient capacity even though demand remains robust. At a conservative estimate, the global deficit will be some 600,000 tons, he told analysts on a conference call following the release of the aluminum giant's fourth-quarter results. "Our assumption for the 600,000 ton deficit in the primary market, (is based on) our assumption that 1.1 million of China's 5.7 million tons of unprofitable capacity will be taken offline," the executive told analysts. Alcoa estimates China's 2012 aluminum deficit will total 850,000 tons, whereas the rest of the world's supply/demand balance will result in a 250,000 ton net surplus, for a...
LME aluminum stocks may continue to drop as China’s cast aluminum and aluminum semis imports surged, Alcoa said to cut 12% output pressured by losses and rumors were heard more aluminum producers will cut output. Such expectation had contributed to a third successive gaining day of LME aluminum, which jumped USD 59/mt or 2.81% to USD 2,158/mt during overnight trading as shorts closed their positions. SMM expects LME aluminum to test support at USD 2,150/mt and move between USD 2,140-2,190/mt during today’s trading as shorts continue to close their positions. The most active SHFE four-month aluminum contract is expected to hover between RMB 16,100-16,250/mt as it challenges the 60-day moving average. Spot aluminum trading is turning weak day by day as the Chinese New Year nears. Only some...
Sunirmal Talukdar has retired from his position of the group executive president and chief financial officer of Hindalco Industries Ltd on December 31, 2011. He was 60. Praveen Maheshwari, who was the executive director (finance) at Bharat Forge, part of the Kalyani Group, has taken over from Talukdar. Maheshwari is a chartered accountant with an MBA from IIM-Ahmedabad. He was with the Kalyani Group for nearly three decades. Sunirmal Talukdar, ACA, joined Hindalco on October 1, 1986 and worked with the company for 26 years before retiring on December 31, 2011. Talukdar has been instrumental in the success of Hindalco Industries with his financial prudence. Hindalco, which acquired Novelis Inc for $6 billion, did not go for a leverage buyout of Novelis and decided to pay off the Novelis...
Alcoa Inc, the largest US aluminium producer, posted a fourth-quarter loss on Monday but gave a positive outlook for metal demand in the aerospace, construction and other industries, lifting its stock price in after-hours trading. It forecast 7 per cent growth in global aluminium demand this year and said production cutbacks will help put the industry into deficit of around 600,000 tonnes this year. This would help push up pricing of the metal, which fell 18 per cent last year, contributing to the company's first loss in nine quarters. Alcoa expects global growth for aluminium in the aerospace industry of 10 per cent to 11 per cent, with automotive growing 3 per cent to 8 per cent, commercial transportation 2 per cent to 5 per cent, packaging 2 per cent to 3 per cent and building and...
HUNDREDS of jobs at Alcoa's aluminium operation in Geelong could be at risk after the multinational announced cuts to its worldwide smelting capacity by slowing production or shutting down plants. The State Government contacted Alcoa's local management after its New York headquarters said it would cut aluminium smelting capacity by 12 per cent due to depressed prices for the product. But the company's Australian managers were unable to give any guarantees about operations of the state's largest exporter, including the future of the 49-year-old Point Henry smelter and rolled products plant, which employs 1000 people. The security of the smelter, among about 20 Alcoa smelters worldwide, will be looked at over coming weeks as Alcoa decides which facilities it will shut "in the near future"....
Aluminum stock Alcoa announced this week that it will be taking a significant one-time charge from moves to cut smelting capacity. In the short term, this might seem like trouble — but buy-and-hold investors might want to buy in on this dip if they have a long-term horizon for their investments. Alcoa AA +0.33% stock has seen better days, to be sure. Shares are off about 70% from early 2008 and down about 40% in the past year. But the fact is Alcoa fundamentals are improving, in large part because of restructuring moves like this one that provide short-term pain but make the aluminum giant much more competitive in the long run. Alcoa remains my pick for one of the 10 best investments to buy and hold for all of 2012 . Here are the specifics of the recent charges: Alcoa will write off 15 to...
The cost of storing aluminum in London Metal Exchange- approved warehouses in Detroit has soared by nearly 10% following the exchange's decision to force a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) subsidiary to double the rate at which it delivers metal out of its facilities there. The new rent of 45 cents a ton of aluminum will be effective from April 1, the same date as rules stating that warehousing firms must lift the minimum daily delivery rate to 3,000 tons for any warehouse holding more than 900,000 tons of metal come into effect. LME members were notified of the increase in a notice earlier Friday. The LME's warehousing system has been in the spotlight through 2011 after concerns were raised over delays in accessing aluminum in the U.S., prompting the exchange this summer to raise the...
Sterlite Industries will offer to buy the government's 49% stake in group company Balco at a mutually agreed price outside of an earlier call option plan, as both parties are keen to resolve stake-sale talks deadlocked for a year. If Sterlite's proposal is accepted, it will complete the Anil Agarwalpromoted company's 100% ownership of Balco besides helping the government meet its disinvestments target for the current fiscal. The government, which plans to raise Rs 40,000 crore this fiscal by selling stake in public sector enterprises, has managed to raise only a fraction of it so far, hemmed in by an adverse equities market. "The government is now willing to consider a fresh proposal from the company. The company will also examine alternatives that will be outside the call option route,"...
Despite an expected average increase in the global aluminium prices, the profitability of the domestic aluminium producers is likely to remain under pressure in the December quarter, Care Ratings has said in a report. Apart from a rise in raw material prices, increasing cost of power, following the rise in coal prices continue to remain a major concern for domestic aluminium players, bringing down their margins, it said. After having peaked in FY07, margins of aluminium producers has been declining until FY10. The pick-up in global prices helped producers better their margins in FY11, though. Domestic prices tend to follow global prices as the domestic prices are based on the landed cost. Commenting on domestic demand drivers, Care says the primary aluminium consumption grew robustly...
Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), one of the world's largest aluminium smelters, said it has achieved the highest metal production in its 40-year history in 2011 with 881,310 metric tonnes, a substantial leap from 850,700 mtpa achieved the previous year. Announcing the historic feat, Alba chief executive, Laurent Schmitt said the company's commitment to operational efficiency and the active involvement of its talented workforce enabled the company to achieve the highest metal production in its 40-year history. He was speaking at a ceremony held to mark this accomplishment at the Princess Sabeeka Oasis on Thursday in the presence of Alba chief supply chain officer and acting chief operation officer, Isa Al Ansari, chief financial officer, Tim Murray and chief marketing officer, Jean Baptiste Lucas...
Japan Aluminium Association's chairman Mr Masateru Yoshihara said that domestic aluminium demand in 2012 would be same level or slightly lower than around 3.8 million tonnes in 2011. He warned that the market increases uncertainty since late 2011 at New Year party of the association, Japan Aluminium Products Association, Japan Aluminium Alloy Refiners Association and national aluminium dealers' association. Mr Yoshihara said the domestic demand in 2012 is basically same level or lower than 2011 level. However, he emphasized the industry targets 6.5 million tones of domestic gross demand in 2035 through various efforts. Mr Yoshihara further said that the domestic demand in 2011 is higher than around 3.25 million tonnes in 2009 but lower than around 3.9 million tonnes in 2010. The demand...
In mid-2009, the future looked promising for two of the biggest industries in northwestern Kentucky — the Rio Tinto Alcan and Century Aluminum smelters. They had secured a new long-term contract for the enormous amounts of electricity they need at prices the companies thought could keep them competitive; that power is vital, accounting for one-third of their cost to produce aluminum. Further, power producer Big Rivers Electric Corp. didn't anticipate a need to raise rates until 2016. But after sales of surplus electricity to other power companies came in lower than expected, Big Rivers requested an increase in rates last year. In November, the Kentucky Public Service Commission granted a rate increase that will hike the Alcan and Century power bills by a combined $14.2 million per year —...
To find a precedent for the deep, lasting output cuts that aluminum producers must make to put a floor under prices, traders are looking a lot further back than the last recession. Three years ago, with the global economy convulsing in the throes of a serious recession, smelters worldwide started cutting back production -- temporarily. As prices quickly rebounded, nearly doubling within a year, those companies were just as quick to fire up their furnaces again. With the overhang of high inventories and a 28-percent drop in prices since May last year, they're responding again, with Pittsburgh-based Alcoa announcing on Thursday plans to shut down 12 percent of its capacity, some of it permanently. But traders may not be so readily appeased as three years ago. Many say that much deeper,...
