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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The global aluminium market will swing into a deficit of 357,000 tonnes in 2013 with the Chinese market dipping into a wider deficit of 500,000 tonnes during the year, as supply growth from China, Middle East and other emerging economies will slow, Marubeni Corp, said on Tuesday. Marubeni, Japan's fifth-biggest trading company, expects the three-month LME aluminium price to start rising in the middle of 2012 in anticipation of the easing of a supply glut, with the median price rising to $2,800 a tonne in 2013, up from an estimated $2,400 in 2011. The benchmark aluminium price now hovers at around $2,030 on the London Metal Exchange. Marubeni expects the European debt woes to ease off early next year. "A rapid expansion of smelter capacity in China, the Middle East and India will cause a...
Japan's aluminium buyers have won a 5 percent cut in premiums charged by producers for the January-March quarter, down for the second consecutive quarter, as a global economic slowdown hurts demand, sources directly involved in the deals said. Japan consumes about 2 million tonnes a year of aluminium, or 5 percent of global consumption, but high energy costs and a lack of smelters have made it Asia's biggest importer of the light metal used in car parts, tins and construction materials. The premiums for primary aluminium shipments to Japan have mostly been set at $112 per tonne over the London Metal Exchange cash price in talks with big suppliers like BHP , Rio Tinto and Alcore, trading houses and fabricators said. That is down from $118 in the previous quarter. Buyers pay a premium in...
More large shipments of aluminium are expected to enter warehouses registered by the London Metal Exchange before the year is out, driving stockpiles to a new record above 5 million tonnes and helping to depress premiums, traders said on Tuesday. In November, traders said large inflows were expected this month as a souring economic outlook curbed demand and a European dollar crunch intensified the need for cash ahead of the year end. Industry sources said they expect more than 200,000 tonnes more metal to enter LME warehouses in the next week, with most of it expected in the Dutch port of Vlissingen and also Detroit, although much of this is not expected to be available to market. "We've had 265,000 (tonnes of aluminium) since last Friday (and are) looking for 500,000 at least...But not...
French group ECL has secured a contract with Rio Tnto Alcan’s Kitimat smelter, British Columbia, Canada. ECL will supply eight pot tending machines, two furnace tending assembly’s, a rodding shop, an anode handling system, two anode beam raising frames, a transfer gantry, simulator and two anode stacking cranes. The Kitimat modernisation will increase the smelter's production capacity by more than 48% to approximately 420kt/y. First metal is expected to come on stream in H1 2014, with an expected ramp up of nine months. The modernised smelter will be powered exclusively by hydropower and use Rio Tinto Alcan's AP40 smelting technology. This is expected to reduce the smelter's carbon dioxide emissions intensity by approximately 50%.
News overnight were almost all negative. For instance, the LME aluminum stock surged again by almost 100,000 mt overnight to a new record, Germany prime minister rejected expansion of the 500 billion euro EMS loan agreement and the Fed maintained its interest rates and provided no stimulus plan. The US dollar index climbed and broke through the 78 mark as a result. In contrast, LME aluminum lost USD 15.5/mt or 0.77% when closing the trading day at USD 2,008/mt. Aluminum is expected to stay on the downward track as bearishness was seen in both the macro economy and fundamentals. As such, SMM expects LME aluminum to fluctuate between USD 1,975-2,025/mt and the most active SHFE four-month aluminum contract between RMB 15,850-16,000/mt during today’s trading. As the delivery date approaches...
Bank of America reinstates coverage of Noranda Aluminum Holdings (NYSE: NOR [FREE Stock Trend Analysis]) with a Neutral rating and an $11 target price as it thinks it sees the company as best-value play in aluminum. BofA says, “Of our coverage universe, Noranda's aluminum production ranks lowest on the cost curve in the U.S. and second lowest globally. It is vertically integrated into bauxite and alumina production, which can afford it working capital efficiencies. …The 64% stake still held by private equity sponsor Apollo is an overhang, in our view, but we think it is more than discounted in its low multiple relative to peers. Investors may also worry about single smelter risk, with more potential disruption to operations, but in our view disruption likelihood is low and priced in...
Noranda Aluminum (NYSE:NOR), a company whose shares are moving quickly, is trading 4.9% lower to $8.35. The S&P is trading lower by 2.0% to 1,230 and the Dow is trading 1.8% lower to 11,966. Noranda Aluminum Holding Corp is an integrated producer of aluminum products, as well as rolled aluminum coils. The Company produces aluminum products in the form of billets, rods and sows, used mainly for building construction, architectural and transportation applications. Noranda also produces foil and light gauge sheet products from its rolling mills. In the past 52 weeks, Noranda Aluminum share prices have been bracketed by a low of $6.67 and a high of $17.82 and are now at $8.35, 25% above that low price. Over the last five market days, the 200-day moving average (MA) has gone down 1.5% while...
Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX), a company whose shares are moving quickly, is trading 6.3% lower to $9.53. The S&P is currently trading 2.0% lower to 1,230 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is trading 1.8% lower to 11,966. Potential upside of 23.8% exists for Century Aluminum, based on a current level of $9.53 and analysts' average consensus price target of $11.80. Century Aluminum shares should first meet resistance at the 50-day moving average (MA) of $9.92 and find additional resistance at the 200-day MA of $13.57. In the past 52 weeks, shares of Century Aluminum have traded between a low of $7.25 and a high of $20.76 and are now at $9.53, which is 31% above that low price. Over the past week, the 200-day moving average (MA) has gone down 1.1% while the 50-day MA has advanced 0.7%....
Aluminium stocks at key ports in Japan totalled 221,500 tonnes at the end of November, down 6 percent from the month before, trading house Marubeni Corp said on Tuesday. End-October inventories totaled 235,800 tonnes. Marubeni collects data for the key ports of Yokohama, Nagoya and Osaka.
According to broker Investec, diversified FTSE100 miner Rio Tinto is not receiving recognition for its copper and aluminum divisions. Mr Mark Heyhoe analyst said that "With the market focused on short term earnings, we do not believe Rio is receiving recognition for its copper and aluminum divisions and is trading at a substantial discount to underlying value." The broker retains a buy rating for the stock but has reduced its target price to 4045 pence where previously, it was 4170 pence. The analyst said that following last week’s investor seminar in Sydney, Australia, the broker had downgraded its 2011 and 2012 full year earnings estimate by 4.4% and 6% respectively. This largely reflects lower earnings in the aluminum division which we now expect to break even in 2H11E. As well as the...
Last week the GMB accused Rio Tinto bosses of not doing enough to keep the smelter open, claiming they had rejected one offer because they felt it was not financially viable, while interest from other parties had failed to progress even to talks. The union wants the company to provide the names of possible interested parties, to see if the Government could help keep open the site. Yesterday Keir Howe, northern regional organiser with the GMB, said the SOS campaign and petition would aim to show the strength of public feeling about the need to keep the smelter open. She said: “The Government must step in and help save this site in order to safeguard the jobs of 512 direct workers, 320 contractors and up to 3,000 jobs in the supply chain. If the smelter closes the whole of Northumberland...
The Aditya Birla group is in negotiations with as many as six thermal coal mine companies in Australia, in its search for raw material assets to feed its $5-billion growth programme in aluminum, said people familiar with the group's plans. The Mumbai based conglomerate has never been so active in overseas markets, since it acquired Canada's Novelis in 2007. The move to adopt an aggressive stance to acquire coal mines in Australia may have been triggered after the conglomerate faced delays in coal linkages for its forthcoming aluminum greenfield projects in Orissa and Madhya Pradesh which inflated project costs, said the people who are connected with the negotiations. Thermal coal is crucial, as after bauxite, the mineral is the most vital cost item for making aluminum. The group also...
Rio Tinto's RIO proposed streamlining of aluminum assets is positive, though we make no allowance for it yet in our forecasts. We'll wait for any confirmation on asset pricing before making adjustments. The earmarked assets, largely Australian, might eventually be sold outright, floated on the market, or distributed in specie to shareholders. They might fetch in the vicinity of $5 billion-$6 billion. Our current fair value estimate for Rio's aluminum assets is $25 billion. Assets for disposal are 25% of the total by capacity but are some of the highest cost. The $5 billion-$6 billion estimate would seem about right. Our valuation has declined marginally, but this is due to softer-than-expected third-quarter copper and aluminum performances unrelated to streamlining. Similarly, our fiscal...
Much to the relief of aluminium producers, the white metal has not stayed for long below the psychologically unsettling level of $2,000 a tonne when 30 per cent of smelting capacity is found in the red zone. At no point in current weeks, however, did the scene come anywhere close to the scare that visited the industry at the height of the ruinous 2008-09 recession, when, for weeks, aluminium sold at below $1,500 a tonne, with demand plunging and inventories piling up. This, however, is of little comfort for the industry across the globe, braced for much lower earnings in the three months to end in December than in the first three quarters of 2011. Since the third week of last month, aluminium may have recovered $150 to $2,150 a tonne, but this is way below the peak of $2,800 a tonne seen...
Iranian Aluminium Co. is trying to establish why the London Metal Exchange said it won’t accept the company’s brand of aluminum for delivery to warehouses approved by the bourse. The company’s product won’t be taken from Jan. 6, the LME said in a notice to members on Dec. 9. If warrants are canceled on or after that date, it won’t be possible to place the metal back on warrant, either with the same warehouse company or another warehouse company, according to the notice. Warrants are documents entitling holders to take possession of metal at an LME-approved warehouse. The LME “hasn’t told us why it happened,” Hassan Mousavi, Iranian Aluminium Co.’s director of commercial affairs, said today by phone from Tehran. “We are in talks to see what the reason is.” Iran is under four sets of United...
Emirates Aluminium (Emal), a joint venture between Abu Dhabi's Mubadala and Dubai Aluminium (Dubal), plans to invest $3.8 billion for its phase two development as it ramps up production to become the single largest greenfield smelter in the world, its chief executive said. "Phase two, which we have just started rolling will have an investment of $3.8 billion," Saeed Fadhel Mazrouei told a forum of United Arab Emirates and German businesses in Abu Dhabi on Monday. The first phase investment totalled $5.7 billion he said. German companies are actively involved in building Emal's facilities with 23 German firms securing contracts worth $243 million in the first phase. In the second phase, German companies have already bagged contracts worth $184 million, he said. Emal has received loan...
Erosion of anode stubs is an expense which may be eliminated by the use of carbon collars. Smelters which source their anodes from specialist producers have a good economic reason to extend anode life, minimising the quantity of butt to be returned or otherwise disposed. This is achieved by lowering the depleted anode as far into the pot as possible. A consequence of this can be ring erosion of the anode stubs. The VHE Collar Forming Machine for Nordic Aluminium - Iceland. The placement of carbon collars around anode stubs is a proven method of preventing ring erosion. VHE of Iceland has considerable expertise in the manufacture of automatic collar forming systems. VHE's collar forming machine is fully automatic; it has a fast cycle time and may be easily installed in existing rodding...
Sterlite has fallen 15% over the last month on concerns around Vedanta Aluminium, which is Sterlite’s subsidiary. Vedanta Aluminium is currently making losses. Mining major Sterlite Industries was the biggest loser on the Sensex and Nifty Friday. At 1250 hours, Sterlite traded with over 4 per cent losses on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Sterlite has fallen 15 per cent in the last one month on concerns around Vedanta Aluminium, which is Sterlite’s subsidiary. Vedanta Aluminium, whose funding came from Sterlite Industries, is currently making losses. Analysts said that the inter-corporate deposits from Sterlite remained high at Rs 8,940 crore. The Street fears that Sterlite may be forced to convert part of debt into equity and the residual debt might be viewed as quasi-equity. However, the...
