One of the enduring criticisms of China’s push to build smelters in the far northwest is that the cost of transporting all that metal to the markets 2000+ kms away is too high. This was one of the many arguments Alcoa’s big guns were using a few years ago, and it’s often a question … Continue Reading
Will China give a hand to US downstream manufacturers?
Recently, the US Midwest premium for primary aluminium went through 500USD/t while the LME cash price is climbing towards 2,100USD/t, giving an all-in price approaching US$2600. In contrast, the SHFE price is stuck between 13,600 and 13,800RMB/t. If we use 13,700RMB/t as an average and add the 15% export tariff, the FOB price for China’s … Continue Reading
Zoo news - “my very good friend” retires
This is old news, but well worth reporting. Stephane Bostantzoglou has retired. Apparently this occurred a couple of months ago, but I only heard during the Arabal conference. I first encountered Stephane in my early days at Tomago Aluminium, maybe 15 years ago. At that time, he was considered to be somewhere between a guru … Continue Reading
ARABAL Wrap
ARABAL is over for another year. By most measures, this one can be called successful. The number of attendees was quite good, though it was boosted by a huge number of Alba employees. The papers generally were pretty good (though I admit I did not attend all of them, having meetings booked at the … Continue Reading
ARABAL ramblings - Part 2
The Arabal conference room is huge. Almost as wide as it is deep, and with a stage that must be at least 30 metres wide. As usual, there were TV cameras, photographers and dozens of hangers-on when the Deputy Prime Minister of Bahrain arrived to officially kick-off the conference. We had several speeches, … Continue Reading
Arabal ramblings
The ARABAL Aluminium Conference got under way tonight with a reception that saw almost 600 people get together to renew old acquaintances and make new ones. As is always with these sorts of events, you hear all sorts of interesting tidbits. Sunstone is presently building their new anode plant in Gansu province. The plant will … Continue Reading
World aluminium production continued to increase in October
As expected, China’s production of aluminium in October continued to climb, thanks to new capacities launched in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia regions and some idle capacity resuming. Based on IAI data released a few days ago, total aluminium production was 2.33 million tonnes, (including an estimated 250kt unreported production), increasing by 2% over September and … Continue Reading
What‘s really going on in China’s bauxite market after Indonesia’s ban?
When Indonesia brought in its bauxite export ban early this year, several market participants were negative about the impact on China’s primary aluminium industry. But so far, several months later, markets have gradually became much calmer compared with original uncertainty. Why? As expected, volumes of imports shrunk sharply this year. According to our statistics, imports … Continue Reading
Flies falling
Purely anecdotal, but nevertheless enlightening. For being one of the provinces closer to the coast, and being on the edge of the Yangtze River, Anhui province is also one of China’s poorest. The mighty growth seen in other cities and regions passed Anhui by. It’s also home to my wife’s family. In a conversation … Continue Reading
China cuts interest rates
China has cut interest rates on loans by 40 basis points, and on deposits by 25 basis points, for the first time since 2012. Analysts agree that the move is directly aimed at China’s housing and real estate market, which is sagging under over-supply of apartments, falling construction rates, non-performing loans and prices that continue … Continue Reading
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