Week in Review: The top newsmakers in downstream aluminium sector

Downstream aluminium sector is where the real buzz is right now. The once mighty primary aluminium industries in many regions are currently shifting their focus to downstream manufacturing, and the last week stood a witness of many such changes.

Norsk Hydro entered into an agreement with Orkla to purchase Orkla's 50% interest in Sapa for a value of NOK 27 billion. The agreement will give Hydro the full ownership in the global leader in extruded aluminium solutions making Hydro a leading global integrated aluminium company. The acquisition will increase earnings and cash generation from Sapa from the very first day and it would generate synergies of NOK 200 million per year, mainly related to remelt and recycling, reports said.

In India, Angul Aluminium Park, a joint venture between Navratna firm National Aluminium Company (Nalco) and state-owned Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) finalised procurement of molten aluminium directly from the Nalco’s Angul smelter. The first of its kind aluminium park would create opportunity for downstream sector where molten aluminium would be directly fed into the downstream plants located out there.

China, one of the foremost producers of aluminium semis, announced a drop in unwrought aluminium and aluminium semis export in June 2017. The export volume stood at 460,000 tonnes in June, down 79.73 per cent year-on-year.

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In another report it came out that the U.S. automakers and suppliers are deeply concerned about a possible decision of the White House to impose steep tariffs on imported steel and aluminium predicated on national security reasons. The tariff imposition could lead to higher costs and sale loss to foreign competitors, they said.

Russia's Minister for Industry and Trade Denis Manturov said in an interview, that they are interested in the production of aluminium wheels in Russia. The Ministry of Industry plans an initiative of compulsory certification of imported aluminium wheels in order to restrict supplies of counterfeit wheels to the Russian market.