News

Plans to make Fort William a future hub of Britain’s automotive industry reached another milestone this week as ground engineers moved onto the site earmarked for Liberty’s flagship alloy wheels factory. The technical team moved in with their rigs and excavators for six weeks of in-depth ground investigations which will provide vital information for the design of foundations for the planned plant that is intended to manufacture wheels for at least a fifth of all UK-made cars from 2022 onwards. The innovative £120m plant, which will take its liquid metal directly...

Aluminium manufacturer Matalco has announced plans to build a new $80 million plant in central Wisconsin for the production of aluminium billet. The company, which currently operates plants in Indiana, Ohio, and Ontario, Canada, said the proposed site in Wisconsin Rapids offered convenient access to its customers as well as a strong local labor force and quality of life, the Wisconsin Rapids Tribune reports. Matalco executives also credited a package of state and local incentives for helping to bring the project to the region; the local incentives, the paper noted, must still be...

The company has worked with the customer for the four months to achieve the optimum product specifications. Australian Bauxite has awarded the contract for mining, processing and blending to Hazell Bros contractors. It has also commenced contract negotiations for transporting the product to the Bell Bay port. “ABx has long-standing relationships with experienced contractors that are well known for meeting the strict tonnage-specification targets and complying with community and landholder requirements.” “ABx has contracted with QUBE Logistics at Bell Bay for the...

Emirates Global Aluminium has announced the successful completion of a $6.5 billion term loan facility with a group of leading global and regional banks. The refinancing of EGA’s corporate debt optimises the aluminium giant’s capital structure by reducing the cost of debt, creating more flexibility for repayment, and aggregating debt at the EGA level. The term loan facility amends, extends and upsizes EGA’s existing $4.9 billion term loan facility agreed in December 2015. The proceeds from the increase in facility size have been used to fully repay a $1.8 billion...

In 2018, Kazakhstan Aluminium Smelter, an enterprise of Eurasian Resources Group (ERG), boosted aluminium production by 1.4% year on year to 258.4kt (254.9kt in 2017), reaching an all-time high. The increase in output was due to higher productivity of existing equipment, mainly as a result of an increase in current at high amperage electrolytic cells. Kazakhstan Aluminium Smelter is the country's only producer of high-grade primary aluminium, which is traded on the London Metal Exchange. Over 90% of its output is exported, including to Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Southern...

According to reports, Aluminum Corp of China , known as Chalco, said late on Wednesday it had stopped production at an aluminium smelting plant in eastern China’s Shandong province, citing high electricity costs. In a statement to the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges, Chalco said it was implementing “flexible production” on all 200,000 tonnes per year of capacity at its Shandong Huayu facility due to “high electricity prices, regional environmental protection policies, market environment and other factors.”

Göksal Güngör has been re-elected as President of the Global Aluminium Foil Roller Initiative (GLAFRI) for a second term. Mr Güngor also serves as General Manager of Assan Alüminyum in Turkey and, before his election in 2018, had served on the board of the organisation as a Vice-President. At the same time Olaf Müller of Hydro (Europe), Patrick Lawlor of Gränges (USA) and Simon Chan of Xiashun (China) were all confirmed in their positions as vice presidents by the General Assembly and will continue to serve on the GLAFRI Board. “I am...

Sanjeev Gupta’s global GFG Alliance today formally inaugurated Liberty Aluminium Dunkerque, as part of its global network of businesses and declared its intention to expand strongly into France’s industrial supply chain. In the presence of the French Minister of Action and Public Accounts, Gérald Darmanin, Mr Gupta joined staff and up to 350 guests in Dunkerque to formally welcome Europe’s largest smelter, bought from Rio Tinto for around US$500m in December last year, into the GFG fold.    GFG aims to make the 570-worker plant the hub of an...

Emirates Global Aluminium has announced a milestone at its under-construction Guinea bauxite mining project as the first loaded train travelled from its subsidiary Guinea Alumina Corporation’s mine to the coast.  The 80-wagon train carried some 6,800 tonnes of bauxite ore from GAC’s mine to the company’s facilities at Kamsar. The ore will be used to begin building a base-layer of bauxite at GAC’s new stockyard. First bauxite exports are expected during the second half of 2019. GAC has a total budgeted project cost of approximately $1.4 billion and is...

Combilift has been nominated as a finalist in one of the most prestigious and hotly contested international awards in the materials handling industry.  From a large pool of applicants, just 15 products have been selected for the IFOY Award (International Intralogistics and Forklift Truck of the Year) which honours the best products and solutions of the year. The Combi-PPT powered pallet truck with 8,000kg capacity is one of three products shortlisted by the jury in the Warehouse Truck category.   The Combi-PPT is a high performance pedestrian operated powered pallet...