News

Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba) started the biggest furnace in its history with the First Cold Charge of Furnace 3 in its new Casthouse 4 on 26 December 2018. Alba’s Chairman of the Board of Directors Shaikh Daij bin Salman bin Daij Al Khalifa witnessed the First Cold Charge at Casthouse 4, which was also attended by Alba Deputy CEO Ali Al Baqali, Alba Executive Management Team, Casthouse 4 Start-Up team, Bechtel and other major contractors.   On this occasion, Alba’s Chairman Shaikh Daij said: “We are pleased with this milestone, which is another turning...

European Aluminium announced that Emilio Braghi, Senior Vice President and President at Novelis Europe, will replace Kjetil Ebbesberg (Hydro) as the association’s chairman. Braghi has been appointed for a two-year term starting on 1 January 2019. Furthermore, at the 2018 General Assembly of the association, members elected Roberta Niboli (Raffmetal) as Vice Chair and Peter Basten (Constellium) as Treasurer. Emilio Braghi is Senior Vice President and President at Novelis Europe, overseeing 10 European facilities for recycling aluminium and manufacturing aluminium rolled...

Alcoa Corporation has announced that it will immediately begin to curtail half of the one operating potline at the Aluminerie de Bécancour Inc. (ABI) smelter in Québec, Canada. The Bécancour aluminium smelter, owned by Alcoa (74.95%) and Rio Tinto Alcan Inc. (25.05%), has nameplate capacity of 413,000 metric tons per year, across its three potlines. Two of the facility’s potlines were curtailed on January 11, 2018, after union members rejected a proposed labor agreement for hourly employees. Since the lockout, ABI’s salaried employees have operated...

According to reports, the U.S. Treasury will lift sanctions on the core empire of Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska, including aluminium giant Rusal and its parent En+. In April, the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on Deripaska, Rusal, En+ and other companies in which he owns stakes, citing "malign activities" by Russia, prompting turmoil in global aluminium markets. After lobbying by European governments, Washington postponed enforcement of the sanctions and started talks with Deripaska's team on removing Rusal and En+ from the blacklist if he ceded control of...

The Enforce and Protect Act (EAPA) investigation conducted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has determined that there is substantial evidence that Sun Bright International Corporation and Fair Importing Corporation entered merchandise covered by antidumping duty (“AD”) order A-570-967,1 and countervailing duty (“CVD”) order C-570-968,2 into the customs territory of the United States through evasion. CBP determined that these two companies imported into the United States aluminium extrusions from the People’s Republic of China...

Sanjeev Gupta’s global GFG Alliance has completed its purchase of Aluminium Dunkerque, Europe’s largest aluminium smelter.   The London-headquartered Alliance said the acquisition of the plant – to be renamed Liberty Aluminium Dunkerque – now paves the way for a downstream investment programme at the plant in order to maximise the value of the aluminium currently made there.  GFG aims to make the Liberty Aluminium Dunkerque 570-worker smelter, bought from Rio Tinto for around US$500m, a foundation for a wider integrated manufacturing business...

Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), Mubadala and Dubal Holding are to sign an agreement to develop a state-of-the-art power block and a water desalination plant at EGA’s smelter at Jebel Ali in Dubai. The new facilities will improve the efficiency of power for EGA’s aluminium smelting, reducing environmental emissions and natural gas consumption. Mubadala and Dubal Holding are to establish a joint venture to develop the new facilities. EGA intends to buy the facility’s output for 25 years following commissioning. EGA is the largest industrial company in the UAE...

Rick Hindley welcomes the UK Government’s much anticipated Resources and Waste Strategy, which outlines an ambitious direction of travel. The Devil is in the detail, and we strongly believe that robust research, including full impact assessments, must be carried out into all the options.  We are optimistic that the Government will propose measures to ensure the reformed extended producer responsibility system (EPR) will recognise the high value of materials such as aluminium; we look forward to continuing to work with Government to ensure that future systems...

Emirates Global Aluminium has announced that its bauxite mining project in the Republic of Guinea has reached 75 per cent construction completion. The project has a total budgeted project cost of approximately $1.4 billion and is being developed by EGA’s subsidiary Guinea Alumina Corporation. It is the largest greenfield investment in the West African country in the last four decades. First bauxite exports are expected during the second half of 2019. Almost 3,000 people, of whom more than 80 per cent Guineans, are currently building the GAC project. The project has taken some...

Alufer Mining Limited has announced that the Bel Air mine in Guinea has been officially opened by His Excellency, President Alpha Conde. The inauguration was attended by the Minister of Mines, members of Parliament, Ambassadors from the UK and US and local dignitaries. His Excellency formally opened the export facility by starting the causeway conveyor and commencing loading of the vessel at berth. Over one million tonnes of ore have now been shipped from the project. This is a notable achievement within the first four months of production, a significant part of this being in the...