Alcoa has announced it is selling its share of the Mt Holly aluminium smelter to Century Aluminum. Mt. Holly, in South Carolina and with output of about 229,000t, was 50.3% owned by Alcoa. It marks another small step in Alcoa’s trajectory away from primary metal. Alcoa has closed high-cost smelters but introduced only the Ma’aden … Continue Reading
Harvest Season
AZ China recently published its latest analysis of China’s cost of producing aluminium. Quarter 3 2014 was a time for harvesting profits after many years of extremely difficult times. Around 60% of China’s aluminium smelters returned to the black during the quarter. However we seriously doubt if the salad days will last much longer. It’s … Continue Reading
Who runs Chinalco?
Don’t be under any misunderstanding about who controls China’s largest (for now) aluminium company. The Central Organisation Department of China’s Communist Party this week announced that a politician from the Southwestern city of Chengdu has been appointed to head up the company. The Central Organisation Department is the Party’s equivalent to an HR department, and … Continue Reading
Marius makes way
Marius Esterhuizen is departing Aluminium Bahrain. Marius, presently Manager Strategic Supply, has been with Alba over 5 years. He will be replaced immediately by Waleed Tamimi. Marius will stay on for a while working on special projects. Marius was previously with Sohar in Oman, which is where I first met him. Always a straight shooter, Marius … Continue Reading
The zoo - who’s who and who’s not.
Following on from my previous post, it seems to me that there is precious little space given in our industry for keeping up with who is who and who is not. New hires, retirements, transfers, promotions - sometimes it’s easy to miss the news that so-and-so has just left to join the opposition or … Continue Reading
It’s the little things
One thing about the aluminium/alumina/bauxite industry and the petcoke/anode business, they are both small worlds. This post isn’t about the metal or the carbon, but about the people. Each year, we all have occasion to meet at various venues. Be it TMS in February/March, the AZ China conference every 2 years, the MB conference … Continue Reading
Fly ash - everything old is new again
In the previous post, I reported on the incremental progress in the development of fly ash as a source of alumina in several Chinese refineries. Reader and former work colleague Gordon sent me an email on the weekend to let me know that in fact Alcan had been experimenting with fly ash as far back … Continue Reading
Fly ash takes a step forward
In the quest for feed for its burgeoning aluminium industry, China has been exploring the world looking for bauxite and/or alumina supplies, while at the same time growing its domestic bauxite mining industry quite rapidly. But there’s another source of alumina that often gets overlooked. Fly ash, otherwise known as coal ash, can contain up … Continue Reading
Promises, promises
One of the hot discussions in the aluminium world at present is the question of how quickly China can replace Indonesian bauxite with material from other sources. Indonesia stopped exports in January of this year, seeking to keep the value-add inside their own country. The Indonesians insisted that anyone who wanted their bauxite had to … Continue Reading
Weekly Aluminium Alert - Special Offer
AZ China has revamped the Weekly Aluminium Alert recently. We are now providing a market call as part of the service. We are pleased to report that in the 20 weeks since we started making the call, our accuracy level exceeds 95%. We think this new report is an excellent service to those of you who … Continue Reading
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