Twitter
Boston-Bay-Mines-Announcement

Aluminium/Bauxite

Global aluminum production is falling, but for how long – by Andy Home (Reuters U.S. – August 25, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON – Global aluminum production fell by 1.2 percent to 33.12 million tonnes in the first seven months of this year, according to the International Aluminium Institute (IAI).

It doesn’t sound like much and in volume terms the decline amounts to just 390,000 tonnes, no more than a drop in the global aluminum ocean.

But this is the first year that output has consistently fallen since 2009, a year when financial crisis was rapidly morphing into manufacturing crisis with devastating consequences for aluminum producers.Equally noteworthy are the divergent trends between dominant producer China and the rest of the world.

Read more

Bad air from Rio Tinto aluminum smelter forcing her to move, Kitimat resident says – by Andrew Kurjata and Robin Batchelor (CBC News British Columbia – August 23, 2016)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/

Move highlights continued battle between company and community over air quality in Kitimat

A Kitimat woman says she is being forced to leave the community due to sulphur dioxide emissions coming from Rio Tinto Alcan’s aluminum smelter. Sheena Cooper blames an increase in SO2 [sulphur dioxide] in the air for a spate of asthma attacks that have put her in hospital and on increased medication.

“At this point, it’s we need to get out of this town so I can get healthy again,” Cooper said of the decision to move her, her husband and their two children to the nearby community of Terrace.

Cooper said she’s suffered from asthma since she was five years old, but until this year its effects have been mild. That changed in March, when she suffered a series of attacks and had to check into hospital seven times. She is now using prednisone, antibiotics and a higher dose of inhaler.

Read more

Aluminum price-fixing claims rejected by U.S. appeals court – by Jonathan Stempel (Reuters U.S. – August 9, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

NEW YORK – A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday upheld the dismissal of nationwide antitrust litigation accusing banks and commodity companies of conspiring to drive up aluminum prices by reducing supply, forcing them to overpay.

By a 3-0 vote, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said so-called commercial end users and consumer end users lacked standing to sue because their alleged antitrust injuries were too far removed from the alleged misconduct.

The plaintiffs had accused Goldman Sachs Group Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co, the mining company Glencore Plc, and various commodity trading, metals mining and metals warehousing companies of having colluded from 2009 to 2012 to rig prices by hoarding inventory.

Read more

Century-Old Bond for Aluminum Smelters and Utilities Falls Apart – by Harry Weber and Sonja Elmquist (Bloomberg News – July 14, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

The business of making aluminum in the U.S. is collapsing — and no other industry has watched the demise as closely as the one that supplies the power used to create molten metal in giant pots.

For more than a century, America’s aluminum processors and the electricity generators grew together. Utilities sought out smelters that, in some cases, became their largest consumers. And the metal makers counted on utilities to supply an energy source that accounts for as much as a third of their costs.

Their fates were so linked that, “if the smelters were not built, then the power plants wouldn’t have gotten built,” said Lloyd O’Carroll, a Richmond, Virginia-based commodities analyst with CRU Group.

Read more

Alcoa Investors Looking for More Answers to $13 Billion Question – by Sonja Elmquist (Bloomberg News – June 28, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Alcoa Inc. investors are hoping for more detail Wednesday on how the biggest U.S. aluminum producer will divide about $13 billion of liabilities as it prepares to split itself into two.

The question of how Alcoa’s more than $8 billion in debt and $5 billion in pension liabilities will be split among the companies is key to determining the value of the spin-offs. That will show whether Chief Executive Officer Klaus Kleinfeld can achieve his target of an investment-grade manufacturing company, renamed Arconic, and a viable aluminum-producing company retaining the Alcoa name.

Alcoa is scheduled to release before the start of regular trading Wednesday the divided companies’ legal, capital and governance structure and plans for allocating assets and liabilities. On Sept. 29, the day after the split was announced, Alcoa said it intended for the combined company’s debt to be retained by Arconic.

Read more

In aluminum market it’s still China versus rest of world – by Andy Home (Reuters U.S – June 20, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON – “China has committed to ensure that its central government policies and support do not target the net expansion of steel capacity; and to actively and appropriately wind down ‘zombie enterprises’ through a range of efforts, including restructuring and bankruptcy.”

This statement was made by U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew earlier this month after high-level talks with Chinese officials in Beijing. There is plenty of devil in the missing detail, not least the scale of steel production overcapacity in China, but at least there seems to have been some meeting of minds.

Not so when it comes to China’s equally giant aluminum sector, however. The two sides failed to reach any sort of agreement other than to hold more talks, according to Lew. Producers in the rest of the world will remain beholden to China’s own aluminum dynamics, it seems.

Read more

Should Chevy Have Held Its Fire With Silverado “Bed Wars” Ad – by Mark Williams (Pickup Trucks.com – June 18, 2016)

http://news.pickuptrucks.com/

Why would anyone want to drop more than 800 pounds of expensive landscape blocks into a pickup bed from five feet in the air? Nobody in his or her right mind would allow a guy at the local building supply store to dump a load into a bed like that. We understand that’s not the point; like many nonsensical commercials nowadays — the point is that you could if you wanted to.

As it relates to the tiresome game of one-upmanship in pickup truck advertising, that kind of self-promotion (or attack promotion) seen in the latest Chevy Silverado commercial is likely to be around for a long time to come. And don’t get us wrong; we like healthy competition and testing and we want to see the results.

In fact, on a related note, it wasn’t that long ago that we had our first chance to drive the redesigned Honda Ridgeline.

Read more

NEWS RELEASE: The National Research Council is spearheading research efforts with provinces and industry to develop innovative aluminium products

http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/index.html

Tuesday, June 14, 2016 – Ottawa, Ontario ─ A newly formed alliance called ALTec Industrial research R&D Group is consolidating research efforts in the Canadian aluminium sector to develop innovative aluminium products for ground transportation vehicles. As a cost-effective and sustainable material, aluminum is increasingly being used to manufacture components for lightweight vehicles which reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and meet increasingly stringent fuel consumption requirements.

“By 2020, the world aluminum market in the transportation sector alone is forecasted to represent more than 65 billion US dollars,” says Michel Dumoulin, General Manager of Automotive and Surface Transportation at the National Research Council of Canada. “Canadian businesses include aluminum in the design of their vehicles, but we saw a gap in knowledge transfer and this is where ALTec comes in.”

ALTec has already 23 members and partners which will have access to state-of-the-art facilities and Canada’s most advanced expertise in aluminium forming, assembling, corrosion control, and performance validation.

Read more

New GM ads hit Ford hard over aluminum pickup trucks – by Brent Snavely (U.S.A. Today – June 8, 2016)

http://www.usatoday.com/

Detroit Free Press – Chevrolet launched a new, national ad campaign Wednesday for its Silverado pickups that revives the often testy battle with crosstown rival Ford over who makes the biggest, best or toughest truck.

The ad campaign touts the results of lab tests that it says show how the Silverado’s roll-formed, high-strength steel bed suffers far less damage than the Ford F-150’s aluminum truck bed when a load of concrete blocks are dumped into the back of the trucks.

The ads debuted today with four-page wrap-around print advertisements in several major newspapers, including USA TODAY. General Motors also posted a 3-minute video that shows the cinder block demonstration with the F-150 truck bed getting gashed by the concrete blocks and the Silverado truck bed only being dented.

Read more

Saudi mining hub plays key role in kingdom’s industrial dream – by Katie Paul (Reuters U.S. – June 3, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

RAS AL-KHAIR, Saudi Arabia, June 2 At a sprawling desert complex on Saudi Arabia’s northeastern Gulf coast, refineries, smelters and casting machines transform dull pink rocks into silver aluminium bars, a symbol of the kingdom’s attempt to diversify its economy.

After only two years in operation, the $10.8 billion aluminium project at Ras al-Khair, an industrial city 200 kilometres (125 miles) north of the oil hub of Dammam, is already the world’s largest integrated aluminium facility.

And in coming years, the success of Saudi Arabia’s efforts to build an economy that does not rely on oil and state subsidies will depend partly on what state-controlled Saudi Arabian Mining Co (Ma’aden), which runs the complex, can achieve with it.

Read more

Alcoa’s Plans to Split Concern Partner Alumina – by Lisa Beilfuss (Wall Street Journal – May 31, 2016)

http://www.wsj.com/

Alcoa Inc. has yet to detail how its debt will be split over its two new companies, but joint venture partner Alumina Ltd. is trying to make sure it doesn’t get burdened by the aluminum maker’s bills.

Alumina’s concerns have led to an exchange of words and a series of meetings between the two companies, and to a lawsuit brought by Alcoa against its Australian partner. While the dispute isn’t expected to derail Alcoa’s plans to separate itself, Alumina’s message is clear: Don’t pass off your liabilities to us.

“They’re worried about the debt,” said CRT Sterne Agee analyst Joshua Sullivan, adding that Alumina is likely concerned about potential credit rating changes on its interest in the companies’ partnership.

Read more

WAR OF IDEAS: GM’S MIXED-MATERIAL STRATEGY VS. FORD’S BET ON ALUMINUM – by Alisa Priddle (Motor Trend.com – May 24, 2016)

http://www.motortrend.com/

Ford made headlines when it gutted body shops at two pickup truck plants to build the new 2015 F-150 with an aluminum body instead of heavier steel, convinced the cost and risk were worth it for a lighter and better truck. General Motors is equally committed to reducing the weight of future vehicles but has taken a different approach. It quietly pursued ways to use existing body shops, tools, and equipment to spot weld future vehicles with a mix of materials, including aluminum — a strategy deemed less costly and disruptive.

After years of development and testing, engineers at GM are on the verge of putting a couple parts for the Cadillac CT6 sedan into production that are notable because they require welding steel to aluminum. GM is only months away from assembling seat backs and hood reinforcements using spot welding to join the two metals.

It is potentially a game-changer for an industry seeking the fastest and cheapest way to make lighter, more fuel-efficient vehicles. Others have expressed interest in GM’s technology. Ford’s strategy, so far, is not being emulated by others.

Read more

Auto Makers’ Aluminum Orders Fall Short of Expectations, Says Novelis CEO – by John w. Miller (Wall Street Journal – May 19, 2016)

http://www.wsj.com/

Most customers ‘want a range of materials’ to make vehicles lighter

Auto makers are still ordering aluminum for their cars, but not as much as hoped, the chief executive of one of the world’s top aluminum companies said in an interview.

“The market got a little bit ahead of itself,” said Steve Fisher, who last year took over as CEO of Novelis, maker of over half the world’s automotive sheet aluminum.

The announcement by Ford Motor Co. a couple of years ago that it would make its best-selling F-150 out of the metal had aluminum executives salivating and predicting an avalanche of new orders.

Read more

Iran Seeks Partners for $10 Billion Expansion in Aluminum – by Ladane Nasseri and Hashem Kalantari(Bloomberg News – May 11, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Iranian miners are seeking $10 billion to develop a domestic aluminum industry that could serve to export 60 percent of production to meet growing demand for the metal used in cars to jets and beverage cans. The raw material bauxite needed to achieve that goal is proving hard to find.

Iran’s aluminum production of 350,000 metric tons a year is below capacity of 470,000 tons because of a shortage of bauxite and insufficient electricity generation, Mehdi Karbasian, managing director of state-owned Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization, said at a conference in Tehran Wednesday. With additional investment, Iran could boost output to 1.5 million tons by 2025, he said.

Unlike Iran’s oil industry which was crippled because of international sanctions, the domestic aluminum business was held back because a 25-year effort to develop a bauxite mine in the West African nation of Guinea still hasn’t produced.

Read more

Rio pushes button on $2.6b bauxite project – Kim Christian (Sydney Morning Herald – November 27, 2015)

http://www.smh.com.au/

Mining giant Rio Tinto has given the nod to its massive $US1.9 billion ($A2.63 billion) South of Embley bauxite expansion project in northern Queensland. Rio said the long-awaited approval would boost the company’s annual bauxite exports from Cape York by around 10 million tonnes per year as conditions in aluminium markets improve.

The global miner plans to initially produce 22.8 million tonnes of bauxite per year from 2019, replacing production from the depleting East Weipa mine 40 kilometres away. The project gives Rio the option of expanding production to 50 million tonnes a year in the future.

Rio has also changed the name of the mine to the Aboriginal word Amrun, a traditional indigenous name for the area. The expansion project involves construction of a bauxite mine as well as processing and port facilities on Queensland’s Cape York Peninsula.

Read more