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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This earnings season could start with a bang. Unfortunately, it's of the unsettling kind. Traditional season-opener Alcoa reports earnings Monday. And the aluminum company may well kick things off by reporting a fourth-quarter loss. As it is, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect Alcoa to report earnings of just one cent a share for the period, down from 21 cents a year earlier. Tumbling aluminum prices, industry oversupply and spotty demand—particularly in Europe—are to blame. Indeed, this is why Alcoa last week announced it will idle about 12% of its global smelting capacity, incurring a roughly 15-cent charge in the fourth quarter. As Barclays Capital analyst David Gagliano said in a note, the move suggests Alcoa sees little chance of a turnaround in aluminum prices and few choices...
Rio Tinto Alcan's Lynemouth aluminium smelter in Northumberland is still running at a reduced rate following a power cut in December which knocked out more than half its capacity, a spokesman said on Thursday. "One production line (potline) is completely down and 25 percent of the other is also down. No decisions have been taken yet on pot restarts" John McCabe, corporate affairs director, Alcan Aluminium UK Limited said in an e-mailed response to questions. Some industry watchers question whether the company will restart the pots, especially since in November, Rio Tinto, one of the world's top producers of aluminium, said it was set to close the Lynemouth smelter as rising energy costs put pressure on margins. A consultation process on its closure is in progress and due to continue to...
Kazakh emergency situations ministry said that fire took place at the aluminum smelter in Pavlodar as a result of short circuit in electric furnace. As a result of the incident, a worker of the plant injured. As per report ten meters of conveyor belt caught fire as a result of short circuit in electric furnace at the JSC Kazakhstan Aluminium Smelter in Pavlodar on January 6. During the incident 35 year old foreman A Vorobyov suffered thermal burns and was hospitalized.
Alcoa's AA +0.33% decision to cut 12% of its aluminum smelting capacity by mid-year could at best support London Metal Exchange prices around current levels and spur some speculative interest from commodities funds but the move won't be enough to have a substantial bullish impact on the over-supplied physical market, analysts and traders said Friday. The U.S. company said Thursday it is permanently closing or suspending 531,000 metric tons of smelting capacity in a bid to improve its cost position and competitiveness. LME aluminium was trading at $2,045/ton around 0800 GMT, up $9 from Thursday's close, but a small move compared with Thursday's 1.4% drop. Three-month aluminum futures are down 17.2% from a year ago, and 27.0% from its latest peak in May 2011. Market participants said the...
Alcoa Inc (AA.N: Quote) shares could rise by as much as 30 percent in 2012 as weak aluminum prices may have bottomed while demand for the metal remains strong, financial weekly Barron's reported on Sunday. The paper said Alcoa's fourth-quarter results, due to be released after-the-bell on Monday, are not going to be pretty, saying it could post a "slight operating loss" due to the 20 percent drop in aluminum prices during the second half of 2011. Alcoa, the word's second-biggest aluminum company, will benefit from being diversified with products from beverage cans and aeroplanes parts to casings for iPad tablets, the paper said. With a tangible book value of $8 a share, the shares could go as high as $13 according to Morgan Stanley analyst Paretosh Misra, Barron's reported. Alcoa shares...
Signals are mixed for LME aluminum as it is rangebound between $2,027.75-$2,087 per tonne. A rise above the range will confirm the continuation of wave (c) within a rising channel towards $2,107, which is pointed by the upper channel line and indicated by a Fibonacci projection analysis. A fall below $2,027.75 will confirm the completion of the rebound from the December 2011 low of $1,955.75, and a bearish target at $1,980.50 will be established. 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.
Shorts successively closed their positions after the New Year’s Day holiday with a supportive SHFE/LME aluminum price ratio. Both LME aluminum stocks and cancelled warrants are declining as a result, helping aluminum prices stabilize amid volatility in other base metals. The meeting between German Prime Minister Merkel and French President Sarkozy overnight again ignited hopes for a European recovery, which helped LME three month aluminum break through the 60-day moving average for the first time in six months and closing USD 35.5/mt or 1.72% at USD 2,099/mt. China will release its CPI data for December today. It is widely agreed China’s CPI growth has dropped and investors will focus on industrial contraction. Negative fundamentals, however, have driving up possibilities of a reserve...
Norwegian aluminum producer Norsk Hydro sees economic uncertainty denting demand and is prepared to lower production if prices for the metal stagnate, its chief executive said on Thursday. "It is too early to say how 2012 will turn out, but we see now that the uncertainty is influencing our end user markets," Chief Executive Svein Richard Brandtzaeg told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference on Thursday. Hydro, one of the world's top aluminum makers, said in December it saw demand for primary aluminum outside China rising by 3-5 percent in 2012, after total demand growth slowed to 7 percent in 2011 from a 19 percent rise a year earlier. "Our customers are concerned, and we see that production volumes and the lead times are going down... we are ready to reduce production even further,...
Wall Street analysts are currently showing no love for three major aluminum miners. Given macro headwinds, cost pressures, and high volatility, the consensus is that the vulnerable fundamentals of Alcoa (AA), Norsk Hydro (NHYDY.PK) and Century Aluminum (CENX) all warrant a "hold" rating. I agree with this sentiment and find that based on earnings potential and multiples expansion, the companies are more skewed towards risk than reward (see here). From a multiples perspective, Hydro is the cheaper of the three, as it trades at only 6.5x past earnings. In addition, the company also hedges against risk due to having ideal exposure to emerging Asia, the highest dividend yield at 2.7%, and the lowest beta at 2. Century Aluminum and Alcoa, meanwhile, trade at a respective 8.6x and 10.1x past...
US aluminium giant Alcoa will slash 240,000 tonnes a year of global production from yet to be revealed locations as markets for the metal continue to struggle amid growing Chinese capacity and fears of a global slowdown. The move shows the pressure aluminium producers are under amid depressed prices that mean many of the world's smelters are now unprofitable. It could foreshadow similar moves by Rio Tinto, which became a big aluminium producer through its $US39 billion acquisition of Alcan in 2007. Last month, BHP Billiton said it would not invest in expanding its aluminium business. The slashed production could affect Alcoa's Australian-listed junior partner, Alumina, which yesterday had no comment. Alumina shares slipped 2c to $1.11, their lowest closing price since March 2009. Its sole...
Most smelters add cold aluminium metal to the charge of molten aluminium in the casthouse furnaces. This metal may be in the form of sows, pure offcuts, or other scrap arisings. Such metal is frequently stored outdoors and can be wet. Charging of damp aluminium to hot furnaces results in the generation of large volumes of steam, and can cause steam explosions, in the worst cases blasting molten aluminium around the casthouse. Traditionally, scrap metal has been heated with a gas flame to remove moisture, but such localised heating can never fully remove water, and steam explosion can still occur. Iceland's VHE has completed the fabrication and installation of a preheating furnace for the Rio Tinto Alcan smelter at Straumsvík in Iceland. The furnace, which is semi-automatic, is able to...
A RUTHLESS review of its global smelting operations will place Alcoa's ageing Point Henry smelter near Geelong in the gun for closure -- threatening the state's biggest export industry. Analysts singled out the almost 50-year-old Point Henry plant as the most vulnerable local asset as the company looks to slash 12 per cent from its worldwide aluminium production. The shock of a steep drop in aluminium prices over the past year has prompted the US manufacturing giant to launch a sweeping review into the profitability of its 20 global smelters. Aluminium is Victoria's biggest export industry worth $1.6 billion a year. The Victorian Government and the union covering Alcoa's 1500 workers in Victoria were told by management yesterday any decision on the plant's future would be made in New...
Low aluminum prices may sharply eat into the fourth-quarter earnings of Alcoa Inc., the largest U.S.-based producer of the light metal. Analysts say it could report net income of 1 cent a share, down from 21 cents a share a year earlier, or even show a small loss, according to a Bloomberg survey. The average price of primary aluminum was on average 11 per cent lower in the latest quarter from a year earlier because of the slowdown in global economic growth, the European debt crisis and China’s moves to control inflation. World inventories have soared and some smelters are losing money at current prices. Alcoa’s share-price sank 44 per cent last year and is now below $10 in New York. The company is expected to report fully for the fourth quarter on Jan. 9.
U.S. aluminum giant Alcoa Inc. won't say if Canada figures in its plans to curtail another five per cent of its global smelting capacity as the company cuts costs in the face of weak prices. The company said late Thursday it will reduce capacity by another 240,000 tonnes a year to 4.5 million tonnes. Details will be announced when the plans are completed, spokesman Mike Belwood said from New York. "We are looking at capacity curtailments, but at this point we are not in a position to be specific on where that curtailment will take place." Alcoa (NYSE:AA) also announced Thursday it would permanently remove 290,000 tonnes by closing the smelter in Alcoa, Tenn and shut down two of six idle metal production lines in Rockdale, Tex. The operations had employed more than 1,100 workers in 2009,...
CARE Research has come out with its report on aluminium industry. As per the research firm the profitability of the domestic aluminium producers is likely to remain under pressure during FY12. Subsequent to a sharp slowdown, global demand for aluminium during CY10 recorded a healthy growth of 12 % over CY09. The pick-up in demand and approvals of various stimulus plans by governments across the globe led to a substantial improvement in average global aluminium prices since June2010. Apart from China and India which continued their consumption story, countries like the USA, Brazil and few of the European countries also witnessed an incisive rise in aluminium consumption. The short term bounce-back in demand and an improvement in global liquidity indicators helped aluminium prices to remain...
Alcoa (NYSE: AA) plans to close 12% of its global aluminium smelting capacity to improve the company’s cost position and competitiveness, with low aluminium prices to blame. Aluminum prices have fallen more than 27% from their peak in 2011. The company will close or “curtail” about 531,000 tonnes of annual capacity by permanently closing its smelter in Alcoa, Tennessee, which was curtailed in 2009, along with two of the six idled potlines at its Rockdale, Texas smelter. Together, these closures will reduce Alcoa’s global smelting capacity of 4.5 million tonnes per year by 291,000 tonnes, or about 7%. The curtailments at other smelters will be announced in the near future and will reduce Alcoa’s global smelting capacity by an additional 240,000 tonnes, or about 5%. The curtailments are...
The unofficial start of corporate earnings season kicks off on Monday when Alcoa, the largest U.S. producer of aluminum, reports after the bell. Its results follow on the heels of dimming analyst expectations across the stock market. On Sept. 30, analysts projected that fourth-quarter earnings at companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 index would grow 14.1 percent, according to Bespoke Investments. By Jan. 3, the growth estimate had fallen to just 6.2 percent. Investors will be looking at earnings growth for Alcoa and other companies in the S&P 500 in light of a stagnant U.S. economy, a likely recession in Europe and signs that emerging market economies are slowing. Alcoa's ability to meet much-lowered estimates may not be enough to spark a rally that carries over the three weeks of...
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. As such, SMM expects three-month LME aluminum to test support at the 30-day moving average and move between USD 2,030-2,070/mt during today’s trading. The most active SHFE three-month aluminum contract is expected to move between RMB 15,900-16,000/mt as resistance mounts at the RMB 16,000/mt mark due to light...
