Weekly Recap: Top news updates from Aluminium and Alumina

LME aluminium started the week showing restraint with the fall of US dollar; SHFE aluminium stayed rangebound.  The US dollar index fell below 96 to the lowest in almost one week at 95.76 on Monday after Federal Reserve took decision to raise interest rates. With the falling dollar, LME aluminium managed to stay up throughout the week starting with US$ 2033 on Monday to US$ 2021.5 per tonne on Thursday. SME aluminium started the week with US$ 2087 and stood at US$ 2121 per tonne on Friday.

In a positive update from United Steelworkers officials on Monday, one of two potlines at Century Aluminum's 218,000 mt/year Sebree smelter in western Kentucky idled by a power outage on May 29 mostly restarted and should be fully operational soon.

Century Aluminium marked the ceremonial restart of its Hawesville smelter on August 22. The smelter is reopening three potlines that were dormant since 2015. By the end of the year, the smelter is expecting to return to its full capacity with this recommencement and create nearly 300 new American jobs.

According to a report from China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association, China's aluminium demand is likely to settle at 46 million-50 million tonnes by 2023. CNIA forecast China's per capita aluminium consumption would experience the peak in around six to seven years. Around 2023, the country will see a slowdown of aluminium demand growth as the Chinese economy would move from high-speed growth to medium-to-high-speed growth.

According to the latest report from a trade group on Monday, August 20, Turkey has urged the World Trade organisation (WTO) for dispute consultations with the United States regarding the doubling of duties on certain imported aluminium and steel products.

South32 and Alumina Ltd. have announced strong financial performances on August 23, predominantly due to their alumina operations. Alumina Limited reported doubling of profits in H1 2018. Alumina Limited reported a net profit after tax of US$286.4 million for the half-year 2018, a 110% increase on the same period of 2017. Margins jumped on the back of higher global alumina prices during H1 2018. AWAC is Alcoa World Alumina & Chemicals, a joint venture which is 40% owned by Alumina Limited and 60% owned by Alcoa Corp.

South32 posted a 16 per cent rise in its annual underlying earnings on Thursday, as healthy demand for alumina and manganese helped offset lesser output from its Illawarra coal project. The Australian miner, a spinoff from BHP Billiton, reported its underlying earnings jumped to US$1.33 billion from US$1.15 billion in the previous year, better than analysts’ expectations of around US$1.32 billion, mostly driven by higher alumina prices.