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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Rio Tinto plans to seal its first Pacific Aluminium deal
By now Rio Tinto is well aware of what it’s like to own assets its register really wished it didn’t. Thankfully, a finish line appears in site for at least some of the Pacific Aluminium assets. Mining giant Rio Tinto hopes to seal its first Pacific Aluminium deal almost a year after quarantining...
Australia contemplates action against cheap aluminium import from China
Action must be taken against Chinese dumping of cheap aluminium in Australia, said an industry CEO. The outgoing CEO of the Australian Industry Group said cheap Chinese aluminium had contributed to production cuts and job losses at the Kurri Kurri smelter. Heather Ridout, who leaves the...
Rio Tinto May Split Off Pacific Aluminium Unit
Rio Tinto Group (RIO) may spin off its Pacific Aluminium unit and use debt secured with the assets to pay shareholders a special dividend, the Independent on Sunday said, citing a person close to the company it didn’t identify. The payment may be for as much as A$1 billion ($1.04 billion), with the...
Rio Tinto to Earn GBP 650 million Euro from Demerger Plan
Rio Tinto looks set to earn itself EUR 650 million payday by loading debt onto its Antipodean aluminium smelters business. The FTSE 100 miner has been reviewing the spin off of the assets which are run under the Pacific Aluminium banner since October. Rio's aluminium operations have hurt the...
Alcoa’s Western Australia smelters achieve record production
Alcoa says two of its alumina refineries in Western Australia have achieved record production and remain among its lowest-cost plants globally. Alcoa, which is closing and curtailing smelter capacity across its global operations in response to weak market conditions, has singled out Wagerup and...
Alcoa will reduce annual Alumina production capacity in atlantic region
Alumina Ltd : * Going forward, Alcoa world Alumina & chemicals will reduce annual Alumina production capacity in atlantic region by around 4% * Awac's production of Alumina for the first quarter was 4 million tonnes * Awac's results for Q1 continued to be impacted by lower aluminium and Alumina...
Ms Ridout regret over failure to stop cheap imports
ABC cited Ms Heather Ridout the outgoing CEO of the Australian Industry Group as saying that tougher action must be taken over dumping cheap aluminium and steel in the country which is hurting manufacturers across the Hunter Valley. Ms Heather Ridout said that the dumping of subsidized aluminium...
Bauxite shipment on hold
A TOTAL of 40,000 tonnes of bauxite has been mined so far this year. However, XINFA Aurum Exploration Fiji has stockpiled the bauxite as engineers work at completing the Navakasiga Jetty. This was made known to a group of journalists, who visited Nawailevu Bauxite mine yesterday. The group was on a...
Bell Bay smelter's future
The general manager of Bell Bay Aluminium in northern Tasmania has told a mining forum in Launceston the struggling smelter has a future. Ray Mostogl has outlined the challenges facing Bell Bay Aluminium. He says the business is trying to survive in the same conditions it faced during the global...
Change of Management at the Top for Schueco UK Limited
Leading building envelope and solar products specialist Schueco UK Limited has announced that Mike Lane, currently Sales Director Metal Construction, will lead the company when Managing Director Marc von Briel leaves towards the second half of the year to set up a new Schueco subsidiary in...
Tiwai Point smelter faces losses
The Tiwai Point smelter has lost at least half a million dollars in aluminium production because of continuing high spot power prices. New Zealand Aluminium Smelters general manager Ryan Cavanagh yesterday said the capacity of the smelter's production remained reduced by about five per cent, which...
Pacific Alumina business sale may be on hold
The global mining giant Rio Tinto which had its performance in 2010 overshadowed by the profit line achieved by its only major rival, BHP Billiton, may put its sale of Pacific Aluminium on hold. The company’s chief financial officer told reporters in Melbourne yesterday that at present conditions...
Alcoa WA operations not at risk: Analyst
A resource analyst says it is unlikely there will be any flow-on effect on Western Australian alumina refineries from Alcoa's struggling Point Henry smelter in Geelong. About 600 Victorian manufacturing jobs are in jeopardy as Alcoa considers shutting the unprofitable smelter. Peter Chilton of...
Geelong aluminium smelter under cloud
ALCOA'S 600 workers a Geelong aluminium smelter face an uncertain future with a new review of the plant. Alcoa said today it would review the viability of its Point Henry aluminium smelter because higher metal prices, input costs and exchange rates had made it unprofitable. "Our goal is for Point...
Tiwai smelter value cut by 30%
The Tiwai Point aluminium smelter is among a group of Rio Tinto assets which has had its valuation cut by more than 30 per cent. The Wall Street Journal reported that Deutsche Bank analysts had valued Pacific Aluminium, the business unit made up of five Australian smelters and Tiwai, at US$4.4...
Rio may have to accept a cut-price deal to sell Pacific Aluminium
RIO Tinto may have to swallow a cut-price deal if it wants to get the sale of its aluminium division away. That’s the view of Deutsche Bank analysts who have slashed their valuation of Rio’s interests in six Australian and New Zealand aluminium assets to $US4.4 billion ($4.1 billion). The new...
Tiwai expects to shed 100 jobs in 5 years
About 100 jobs at the Tiwai aluminium smelter are expected to go during the next five years. However, the smelter manager says these will be through natural attrition and not redundancies. General manager Ryan Cavanagh confirmed yesterday the positions would go by natural attrition. The Tiwai site...
Dairy, aluminium lead commodity price rise
New Zealand commodity prices rose for the first time in eight months in January, led by aluminium and dairy products. But the high kiwi dollar wiped out the benefits in local currency terms. The ANZ Commodity Price Index rose 1.2 per cent in January, having fallen 9.8 per cent in the previous seven...
