LONDON – Global miner Rio Tinto (RIO.L) plans to boost aluminium production next year by about 10 percent due to productivity improvements, it said on Tuesday, despite a global surplus weighing on prices.
Hard-hit prices will remain under pressure until loss-making producers slash output, Rio said.
Rio (RIO.AX), one of the world’s biggest producers of the metal used in transport and packaging, told a presentation in London that it targeted output of 3.6 million tonnes in 2016.
“Just what the world needs, more aluminium,” said analyst David Gagliano of BMO Capital Markets in a note.
Benchmark aluminium prices CMAL3 on the London Metal Exchange has shed about a fifth this year, sinking to the lowest levels in over six years, mainly hit by over-production in top producing country China.
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