
South32, on Thursday, January 15, announced a quarter-on-quarter rise of 1 per cent in its alumina production for the second quarter ended on December 31, 2019. From 1.30 million tonnes in the first quarter, the company’s alumina output rose to 1.32 million tonnes in the second quarter. But during the same period last year, South32 had produced 1.38 million tonnes of the ore, meaning a year-on-year drop of 4 per cent in Q2 FY20.

However, the total production in the first half of FY20 stood higher by 3.65 per cent amounting to 2.63 million tonnes, compared with 2.54 million tonnes in H1FY19. This growth, according to South32, is attributed to record year-to-date production at Brazil Alumina and also higher rates of calciner availability at Worsley Alumina.
Graham Kerr, South32 CEO said, “We continued our strong start to the year, delivering record year to date production at Brazil Alumina and maintaining production guidance across the majority of our operations.”
The Australian company’s aluminium production in Q2 FY20, on the other hand, remained flat at 248,000 tonnes quarter-on-quarter, but over the year rose marginally by 0.40 per cent from 247,000 tonnes.
Also, the production amount of the metal in the entire first half of FY20 rose negligibly by 0.20 per cent over the year. In H1FY19, the company’s aluminium production was 495,000 tonnes, while that in H1FY20 496,000 tonnes.
This indicates that despite the impact of load-shedding at Hillside Aluminium and Mozal Aluminium, the Perth-headquartered company maintained saleable aluminium production.
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