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23.02.2013 Aufrufe

company news worldwide Venezuela creates state- owned aluminium corporation Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez has created the Corporación Nacional del Aluminio, a state­owned aluminium corporation comprising all the country’s companies in the aluminium industry. The corporation will be formed by the country’s two primary aluminium producers, CVG Alcasa and CVG Venalum, as well as CVG Cabelum, Alunasa, Alucasa and Empresa de Producción Social de Servicios de Laminación del Aluminio. Corporación Nacional del Aluminio will be part of Venezuela’s mining and basic industries ministry. rio Tinto scraps south africa smelter plan on power woes Global miner Rio Tinto scrapped its plan to build an aluminium smelter on the southern coast of South Africa due to chronic power shortages in the country. Rio has been delaying the project due to an electricity crisis that brought the country to a halt in 2008. Eskom had been rationing electricity since early last year when the national grid nearly collapsed, forcing mines and smelters to shut down and costing the biggest economy in Africa billions of dollars. Rio Tinto Alcan has so far invested around USD130m in the project, originally scheduled to start construction in September 2008. columbia Falls to halt production Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. LLC plans to curtail all production at the end of this month because it has not been able to successfully negotiate a new long­term power contract with the Bonneville Power Administration. The company had already announced in December 2008 its intentions to close its primary aluminium smelter in Montana, but it has been running at dramatically reduced levels for most of this year. The plant, owned by Switzerland­based Glencore International, has a total capacity of 180,000 tpy, but currently operates at about 17,500 tpy. The Columbia Falls/Mon­ tana­based company will continue to look for a long­term power solution and could then reopen. alba appoints Glencore as its sales agent in the asian region Alba’s appointment of Glencore as its exclusive sales agent in the Asian region underlines the company’s global ambitions. The company produces more than 870,000 tpy of high grade aluminium products that include extrusion billet, liquid metal, standard ingot, rolling slab, sows and others. Glencore has a well­established glob­ al network to enable Alba to expand and develop its business. Glencore seeks 360,000 t Venezuela primary aluminium Glencore International, the world’s biggest commodity trader, is negotiating to buy 360,000 tonnes of primary aluminium over six years from Venezuela’s state­run Venalum. The talks anticipated a USD100m down­payment from the Swiss company. There is a pre­agreement, but so far the minister has not signed anything. ■ Bauxite and alumina activities Bauxilum to receive Usd85.5m for recovery Venezuelan bauxite and alumina producer Bauxilum signed an agreement with state­owned development bank Bandes and the Chinese­Venezuelan joint fund to access 100m bolívares (USD46.5m) and USD39m for the company’s recovery. This money will be invested under worker supervision so that the plant can start urgently needed work for its recovery. The fact that workers will now be given a say in where the funds will be spent is the most important part of the agreement. The lack of investments in technology upgrades in Bauxilum has drastically lowered the company’s production. In September 2009, Bauxilum suspended part of its sales to international clients so as to favour local buyers. Bauxilum previously presented a rescue plan to the Ministry for basic industries and mining (Mibam) calling for an investment of nearly USD91m. The company has already reduced its production goal for this year from 1.7m to 1.4m tonnes of alumina due to technical and economic difficulties. Bauxilum operates a 2m tpy alumina plant in Guayana region’s Puerto Ordaz city. Its local clients are aluminium producers Alcasa and Venalum. rio Tinto to sell Ghana bauxite mine Rio Tinto is selling its 80% stake in Ghana’s only bauxite mine to Chinese 48 ALUMINIUM · 12/2009 UC Rusal

minerals group Bosai. Rio has shelved an earlier plan to develop an integrated alumina refinery which would have been fed by the Awaso mine, as a result of poor local infrastructure and lower global demand for minerals. The mine in the West African country produced 637,000 tpy of bauxite. The sale to Bosai, which produces alumina and aluminium in China, will be complete by the end of the year and is subject to approval by Ghana’s parliament. By contrast to Awaso, Rio in 2008 received 45% of output from the Sangaredi bauxite mine in nearby Guinea, amounting to almost 6m tonnes. Vimetco is restarting alum Vimetco has announced the restarting of Alum, its alumina producer in Tulcea in Romania. The refinery undertook an upgrading programme that began in February 2007. The reopening of the plant has involved hiring 470 people, meaning that the plant now employs 600 people in total. The company has replaced part of the existing equipment in order to make the production process more efficient and also to be in compliance with the European norms on environment protection. After implementing the upgrading programme, Vimetco has optimised the technological flow, achieving competitive production costs. chinalco eyes rusal’s australian plant stake Chinese metals conglomerate Chinalco wants to buy UC Rusal’s stake in an alumina refinery in Australia, but is less interested in buying into the indebted Russian company’s Hong Kong share issue. However, political pressure may force state­owned Chinalco to subscribe to the share issue and take a stake in Rusal. While Rusal is deep in debt, Chinalco is not lacking money at all. The two sides could seek other ways of cooperating besides the share subscription, as Chinalco has shown interest in Rusal’s global production ALUMINIUM · 12/2009 assets. The asset that Chinalco most wants to invest in is Queensland Alumina Ltd (QAL), which would improve its supply chain in Australia. The plant is one of the world’s largest alumina refineries with a nominal capacity of 3.95m tpy. Rusal owns 20% and Chinalco is the biggest shareholder, holding the remaining 80% stake in QAL. Chinalco subsidiary Chalco already has an AD3bn project to develop the vast Aurukun bauxite deposit in Queensland. If a deal succeeds, the plant could process Aurukun’s bauxite. However, Rusal has no plans to sell its 20% stake in QAL. Bosnia alumina plant raises output to pre-crisis level Bosnia’s sole alumina plant, Birac, has raised its output to pre­crisis levels of 50% of the total capacity because of increased demand. The global economic downturn, connected with lower alumina prices and shrinking demand earlier in 2009, forced the company, in the eastern town of Zvornik, to cut output to 21% of the capacity of 600,000 tpy. Birac, majority owned by Lithuania’s Ukio Bank Investment Group, is the only alumina plant in the region that has retained production since the crisis started. The company launched a restructuring in 2008 which helped to generate a profit of 206,000 Bosnian marka (USD156,000) in 2008, after reporting losses of 9.5m marka in 2007. Ukio Bank intends to invest in zeolite production, which will boost output to 100,000 tonnes in 2010. Since 2006, the plant has operated at only a half of its capacity because of low prices and the high cost of electricity and gas needed for its operations. rusal restarts idled alumina production at aughinish UC Rusal has restarted some of its idled alumina capacity at the Aughinish refinery in Ireland, which has been running at 50% capacity since April 2009. Production at the facility, which has the capacity to produce 1.8m tpy, dropped by half in April after initial company news wordlwide cuts were made in January as a result of poor global demand. Alumina was trading at USD170 per tonne at the time of the production cuts, but alumina price has steadily increased since, with the current trading range for both Pacific and Atlantic material at USD295­315 per tonne. While a higher alumina price has encouraged production restarts, the market cannot support all refineries running at full capacity. Recent increased demand has supported increased alumina production from Aughinish and from other refineries around the word, but there is so far no sign of production restarting at Alumina Partners of Jamaica (Alpart), in which Rusal is a 65% shareholder. Jamaica’s st. ann Bauxite changes name to noranda The St. Ann Bauxite Company in northeast Jamaica has been renamed Noranda Bauxite Ltd. All other details of the company remain the same. Privately­held Noranda Aluminum Holding Corp. acquired the St. Ann shares previously held by Century Aluminum in September, which gave the company a 49% stake and management responsibility. The Jamaica government owns the remaining 51%. Noranda Bauxite produces only bauxite for export. Like most other mining companies in Jamaica, it cut production following the global economic slowdown last year. But lately it has increased production, following an upturn in the market. Noranda plans to export 4.2m tonnes of bauxite during the next 12 months, up from an earlier projection of 3.1m tonnes. Its annual production capacity is 4.5m tpy. rusal wants to continue indonesia joint venture Russian aluminium firm UC Rusal is still committed to a planned Indonesian alumina joint venture project with state miner PT Aneka Tambang Tbk. Indonesia wants to speed up the project which started in late 2007, and the country’s investment board ➝ 49

company news worldwide<br />

Venezuela creates state-<br />

owned aluminium corporation<br />

Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez<br />

has created the Corporación Nacional<br />

del Aluminio, a state­owned aluminium<br />

corporation comprising all the<br />

country’s companies in the aluminium<br />

industry. The corporation will be<br />

formed by the country’s two primary<br />

aluminium producers, CVG Alcasa<br />

and CVG Venalum, as well as CVG<br />

Cabelum, Alunasa, Alucasa and Empresa<br />

de Producción Social de Servicios<br />

de Laminación del Aluminio.<br />

Corporación Nacional del Aluminio<br />

will be part of Venezuela’s mining and<br />

basic industries ministry.<br />

rio Tinto scraps south africa<br />

smelter plan on power woes<br />

Global miner Rio Tinto scrapped its<br />

plan to build an aluminium smelter<br />

on the southern coast of South Africa<br />

due to chronic power shortages in the<br />

country. Rio has been delaying the<br />

project due to an electricity crisis that<br />

brought the country to a halt in 2008.<br />

Eskom had been rationing electricity<br />

since early last year when the national<br />

grid nearly collapsed, forcing mines<br />

and smelters to shut down and costing<br />

the biggest economy in Africa billions<br />

of dollars. Rio Tinto Alcan has so<br />

far invested around USD130m in the<br />

project, originally scheduled to start<br />

construction in September 2008.<br />

columbia Falls to halt production<br />

Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. LLC<br />

plans to curtail all production at the<br />

end of this month because it has not<br />

been able to successfully negotiate a<br />

new long­term power contract with<br />

the Bonneville Power Administration.<br />

The company had already announced<br />

in December 2008 its intentions to<br />

close its primary aluminium smelter<br />

in Montana, but it has been running<br />

at dramatically reduced levels for<br />

most of this year. The plant, owned by<br />

Switzerland­based Glencore International,<br />

has a total capacity of 180,000<br />

tpy, but currently operates at about<br />

17,500 tpy. The Columbia Falls/Mon­<br />

tana­based company will continue to<br />

look for a long­term power solution<br />

and could then reopen.<br />

alba appoints Glencore as its<br />

sales agent in the asian region<br />

Alba’s appointment of Glencore as its<br />

exclusive sales agent in the Asian region<br />

underlines the company’s global<br />

ambitions. The company produces<br />

more than 870,000 tpy of high grade<br />

aluminium products that include extrusion<br />

billet, liquid metal, standard<br />

ingot, rolling slab, sows and others.<br />

Glencore has a well­established glob­<br />

al network to enable Alba to expand<br />

and develop its business.<br />

Glencore seeks 360,000 t<br />

Venezuela primary aluminium<br />

Glencore International, the world’s<br />

biggest commodity trader, is negotiating<br />

to buy 360,000 tonnes of primary<br />

aluminium over six years from Venezuela’s<br />

state­run Venalum. The talks<br />

anticipated a USD100m down­payment<br />

from the Swiss company. There<br />

is a pre­agreement, but so far the minister<br />

has not signed anything.<br />

■<br />

Bauxite and alumina activities<br />

Bauxilum to receive<br />

Usd85.5m for recovery<br />

Venezuelan bauxite and alumina producer<br />

Bauxilum signed an agreement<br />

with state­owned development bank<br />

Bandes and the Chinese­Venezuelan<br />

joint fund to access 100m bolívares<br />

(USD46.5m) and USD39m for the<br />

company’s recovery. This money will<br />

be invested under worker supervision<br />

so that the plant can start urgently<br />

needed work for its recovery. The<br />

fact that workers will now be given a<br />

say in where the funds will be spent is<br />

the most important part of the agreement.<br />

The lack of investments in technology<br />

upgrades in Bauxilum has drastically<br />

lowered the company’s production.<br />

In September 2009, Bauxilum<br />

suspended part of its sales to international<br />

clients so as to favour local buyers.<br />

Bauxilum previously presented a<br />

rescue plan to the Ministry for basic<br />

industries and mining (Mibam) calling<br />

for an investment of nearly USD91m.<br />

The company has already reduced<br />

its production goal for this year from<br />

1.7m to 1.4m tonnes of alumina due<br />

to technical and economic difficulties.<br />

Bauxilum operates a 2m tpy alumina<br />

plant in Guayana region’s Puerto Ordaz<br />

city. Its local clients are aluminium<br />

producers Alcasa and Venalum.<br />

rio Tinto to sell<br />

Ghana bauxite mine<br />

Rio Tinto is selling its 80% stake in<br />

Ghana’s only bauxite mine to Chinese<br />

48 <strong>ALU</strong>MINIUM · 12/2009<br />

UC Rusal

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