Alcoa’s 16kg aluminium wheel could change fleet efficiency equation
A truck’s overall weight comes from dozens of components, including the engine, chassis, tyres, etc. Wheels are one area where fleets can explore lightweighting. Traditional steel wheels, widely used across the transport industry, are known for their robustness. Forged Alcoa aluminium wheels offer...
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...
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Aluminium recycler takes initiative to help fund the fight against cancer
Australia based metal recycling company Sims Metal Management has taken an initiative to collect aluminum cans to benefit this year’s American Cancer Society Relay for Life of Duneland. The company will collect aluminium cans through July 12. Sims will pay the prevailing rate for aluminum scrap and...
Rio Tinto writes off $592 million aluminium smelter
Rio Tinto Ltd. has written $592.1 million off its Tiwai Point aluminium smelter in New Zealand, slashing its value to just $14.8 million. The smelter's future is under cloud as Rio seeks to sell it as part of a clutch of ageing Australasian aluminium production assets, packaged for sale as Pacific...
Growth data hit by Tiwai
The Tiwai Pt aluminium smelter has partly caused the end of a 15-month streak of manufacturing gains in New Zealand. Sales volumes of manufactured goods fell 0.6 per cent in the March quarter, data released yesterday by Statistics New Zealand shows, with the volatile metals category dragging the...
QAL selected as finalist in 2013 Manufacturing Skills Awards
Queensland Alumina Limited, Australia has been named as a finalist in the 2013 Manufacturing Skills Awards, organised by Manufacturing Skills Queensland, a division of QMI Solutions. Thirty finalists were announced on Thursday. Winners of the 10 categories will be announced at an annual awards...
Tiwai Pt Aluminium Smelter workers set new productivity record
Tiwai Pt aluminium smelter workers have broken records for production per person at the plant. New Zealand Aluminium Smelters acting general manager Stewart Hamilton said the January to March quarter productivity reached 416 tonnes per person - the equivalent of 25 million aluminium cans. He said...
Tiwai smelter appeals backpay decision
Union representatives say they are "disappointed" the Tiwai Pt aluminium smelter has appealed a decision to pay its workers millions of dollars in backpay. Last week, 64 union members at the smelter won an Employment Relations Authority case they took against New Zealand Aluminium Smelters that...
Gove refinery pipeline accessing unviable for small communities
Pacific Aluminium, owners of the loss-making Gove refinery, have released details of the proposed 600 km Katherine to Gove pipeline, and has said that access to the pipeline would not be viable for local communities. The pipeline, which was announced in February as part of a plan to save the...
Tiwai Point smelter 'losing millions' every month
The Tiwai Point aluminium smelter is "losing millions of dollars every month" and can ill-afford to give shift workers a 50% increase in leave without increasing hours worked, the company says. The smelter owner, New Zealand Aluminium Smelters, says it will appeal an Employment Relations Authority...
Diesel deal for Nhulunbuy joint venture
A small Aboriginal organisation in eastern Arnhem Land has helped secure a $160 million contract to supply diesel fuel to the Gove aluminium refinery. The tender to transport and distribute 21 million litres of diesel to Nhulunbuy, which was offered by Pacific Aluminium, was won by a joint venture...
Tiwai Point workers owed back-pay
Workers at the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter in Southland are owed millions of dollars of back-pay for annual leave they were entitled to, but never received, the Employment Relations Authority has ruled. Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union members at the Bluff plant took a case to the...
Future of Portland Smelter jobs uncertain
The future of more than 500 workers at Portland’s Alcoa smelter is uncertain after the US-based company last week revealed it was reviewing worldwide production cuts. The company’s owners issued a statement last week announcing global operations could cut 460,000 metric tons, or about 11 per cent,...
Australian ends AD investigation on aluminum coated steel imports from Taiwan
The Australian Customs and Border Protection Service has announced that it has terminated the antidumping investigation regarding aluminum zinc coated steel imports from Taiwan. The ACBPS has found that there has been no dumping by Yieh Phui Enterprise Co. Ltd of aluminum zinc coated steel exported...
Departing Tiwai Pt smelter boss reflects on tough year
Outgoing New Zealand Aluminium Smelters general manager Ryan Cavanagh has released his final review on the Tiwai Pt smelter. Mr Cavanagh, who has been the company's general manager since 2009, is leaving this week to take up the role of general manager at Pacific Aluminium's Gove bauxite mine and...
Meridian and Rio smelter talks continue as Labour- Greens plan muddies water
Meridian Energy and the owners of its largest customer, the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter, are continuing to talk after an intense three days' face to face negotiation last week, with parties in both Wellington and Sydney crunching numbers on possible new deals. Neither side will comment on the...
Yankuang Resources Pty Ltd unable to meet cash calls from BAJV
Perth-based bauxite explorer and developer, Bauxite Resources Ltd advises that its 70% partner in the Bauxite Alumina Joint Venture, Yankuang Resources Pty Ltd, has been unable to meet a number of cash calls from the BAJV Manager, and as a consequence BRL has determined that it is in the interests...
Pacific Aluminium asks council to hold off Tiwai ads
Pacific Aluminium has asked the Invercargill City Council to hold off running an advertising campaign about the Tiwai Point smelter, while talks continue with Meridian Energy for a long term electricity supply deal. The company believes an agreement can be reached. Invercargill mayor Tim Shadbolt...
Tiwai Point Smelter's crunch talks resume today
Crucial face-to-face talks between the owners of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter and its electricity supplier, Meridian Energy, resume in Wellington today, with both sides blocking out the rest of the week, if necessary, to try and nut out a new electricity contract. Representatives of the...
Former Tiwai Point Smelter's general manager's new challenge no picnic
As New Zealand Aluminium Smelters general manager Ryan Cavanagh prepares to leave his post this month, he tells Collette Devlin he is not jumping ship from the Tiwai Pt smelter. The rumour that the New Zealand Aluminium Smelters general manager was jumping a sinking ship have been swirling since...
