Coal-heavy Australian aluminium vs renewables-led New Zealand: How Oceania is balancing decarbonisation
Oceania’s primary aluminium industry is facing a fragmented energy transition. While Australia, the leading aluminium producer of the continent, has abundant renewable resources and a well-established aluminium value chain, its smelters remain significantly more dependent on fossil-fuel-based...
Can the US afford to cut Canada off? 75% aluminium and $100b energy tell the story
The US aluminium industry’s dependence on Canada extends far beyond primary aluminium imports. While Canada supplies around 75 per cent of US imported primary aluminium, covering roughly 60 per cent of the country’s annual aluminium usage, it is also a major supplier of crude oil, natural gas and...
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Alcoa Corporation provides update regarding Wenatchee smelter in Washington state
Alcoa, a global leader in bauxite, alumina and aluminum products, announced today that it will make a $62.4 million payment under an electricity supply agreement for its smelter in Wenatchee, Washington, and will permanently close one of four potlines at the fully curtailed facility. In connection...
Tomago Aluminium warns of operations cut due to power deficit
Tomago Aluminium, one of Australia’s biggest smelters near Newcastle, has notified on Friday, June 8, 2018, that it may have to curtail operations for a third time in a week due to power shortage across the national electricity market. The company said it was asked to halt each of three potlines...
Century Aluminum Reports Electrical Failure Affecting One Potline at its Sebree Smelter
Century Aluminum Sebree LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Century Aluminum Company, announced today that it was forced to temporarily stop production on one of its three potlines due to an electrical failure at the Sebree aluminum smelter. No injuries were sustained in connection with these events...
Nalco to trim aluminium cost by 25% after its in-house captive coal block becomes operational
Followed by experiencing windfall gains from booming metal prices at LME, state-owned integrated aluminium complex Nalco now aims at improving its profitability further after Utkal D block becomes operational. Nalco was given two captive coal blocks – Utkal D and E – with a combined deposit of 200...
New Zealand Aluminium Smelters to recommence operation at its mothballed potline
New Zealand Aluminium Smelters, controlled by the mining giant Rio Tinto, has declared to restart its fourth potline in next six months to strengthen production capacity at Tiwai Point smelter by about 9.2 per cent and create 32 new jobs in Scotland. The company takes this decision on securing a...
Nord Pool striving to restore access to Rusal’s Swedish aluminium smelter Kubal
The Kubal smelter, Rusal’s sole producer of primary aluminium in Sweden, with a production capacity of 134,000 tonnes was suspended from trading on the Nord Pool energy trading market a couple of weeks ago, in the wake of US sanctions on Russian companies. Within a week, the latter, Europe’s...
Century Aluminum denied permission to buy electricity from the open market
Century Aluminum made a second attempt to get power rate relief from the S.C. General Assembly for its Mount Holly smelter and failed again. The company has a few months left before it will have to close the plant and its 300 jobs. The public utilities subcommittee of the House Committee on Labor,...
Century Aluminum’s Mt. Holly smelter power issues remain elusive despite talks
The issue of powering Century Aluminum’s Mount Holly aluminium smelter still remains unresolved. At least, that is what one can make out from the ongoing talks between the owner and the state power provider Santee Cooper. The deal signed between the two entities on December 31st last year remains...
Israeli Firm Delek Group Pondering Plan to Build 1 MTPA Aluminium Smelter
Israeli conglomerate Delek Group is weighing the prospect of building an aluminium smelting operation powered by natural gas. According to domestic media, the company is closing a feasibility study on a project that is expected to require a capital investment of roughly US$1.2 billion. Local...
Hydro starts aluminium production at Karmøy technology pilot
Hydro starts aluminium production at its technology pilot in Karmøy that aims at verifying the credibility of the world's most climate-and energy efficient aluminium technology in an industrial scale. Hilde Merete Aasheim, Executive Vice President for Hydro's Primary Metal business area confirms...
Fire threatens power to Tiwai Point aluminium smelter
A large wildfire in Southland is threatening electricity supply to the country's aluminium smelter. The fire at Tiwai Peninsula near Bluff burned through the night after it began just after 7pm yesterday. The fire has now claimed 100ha of native scrub. Nearly a dozen fire crews have been battling...
Volta Aluminium Company stands to benefit from additional 75MW hydro power
An additional hydro power unit is set to bring in more benefits to Ghana’s Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO). The 75 MW unit will help VALCO procure power at a competitive rate of $0.035/kwh in the first quarter of the next financial year. The cost advantage will expectedly allow the primary...
RUSAL invested over USD 30 mln in launching its first new generation RA-550 pots
UC RUSAL, a leading global aluminium producer, is pleased to announce the launch of pilot operation of eight new generation RA-550 pots at Sayanogorsk Aluminium Smelter. The total amount of investment in the project amounted to USD 30 mln. The project to develop the technology and launch the RA-550...
NALCO Bags National Energy Conservation Award in Aluminium Sector
The Smelter Plant of National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO), located at Angul, has bagged the National Energy Conservation Award in Aluminium Sector for the year 2017. On behalf the company, Dr. P K Pradhan, Regional Manager (Northern Region), NALCO, received the award from Shri Abhay Bakre,...
Universal Aluminium rod maker foresees higher demand
The Star reported that leader Universal Aluminium Sdn Bhd is aiming high to develop and position itself as one of the top five aluminium rod producers in the world within the next five years. Mr Alex Lim Weng Soon MD said the ongoing and new power-related infrastructure projects globally would push...
Coal price to come down, freight rates to harden
Chinese coal prices, which have fluctuated between CNY550-750/t (US$83.60-114/t) in the past two years, are set to ease going forward, as it is anticipated that the country's policy makers will allow Chinese miners to increase production again in response to prices reaching the upper range of...
Aluminium capacitors supplier wins award for energy-saving & storage solutions
Hong Kong-based investment holding company Man Yue Technology Holdings Limited won “The Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Innovative Technology Achievement Award - Innovative Technology" by The Hong Kong Federation of Innovative Technologies and Manufacturing Industries (FITMI). The company...
South32 to establish SA Energy Coal as a stand-alone business
Australian miner outh32 announced on Monday that it will operate SA Energy Coal (SAEC) as a stand-alone business. The company will spend R4.3 billion from April 2018 in SAEC’s Klipspruit Life Extension project. Graham Kerr, CEO of South32, said, "Establishing SA Energy Coal as a stand-alone...
