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East China’s Shandong province will idle and scrap some 2 million tonnes/year of primary aluminum smelting capacity so that Shandong Weiqiao Pioneering Group, purportedly the world’s largest aluminum smelter, can proceed with plans formalised last month to build a 2 million tonnes/year primary smelter in Southwest China’s Yunnan province. Weiqiao had signed a formal agreement with Yunnan local government on October 15, as Mysteel Global reported.
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China’s three major copper smelters have reached an agreement on November 20 with Freeport-McMoRan (Freeport), a leading copper mining company in the world on the 2020 copper concentrate treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) at $62/t or a new low since 2013, market sources commented.
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Hongkong-listed Zijin Mining Group, one of China’s top gold and copper miners, plans a step-by-step rise in production of gold, copper, zinc and silver over 2020-2022, with compound annual growth of copper production to range from 21.9% to 26% over the next three years, according to the company’s official announcement released on November 13. (metal contained).
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Sales of new-energy vehicles (NEVs) in China continue to show signs of stalling, given a series of negative factors including the prevailing softening economy, the county’s cooling automotive sector generally, and the reduction in subsidies for NEV purchases since late June, market sources said.
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A consortium led by China Aluminum International Engineering Corporation Limited (Chalieco), a listed arm of China’s aluminum giant Aluminum Corporation of China, has won the bid to construct an alumina refinery in Indonesia, according to an announcement released by the company on October 24.
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Norsk Hydro, Norway’s global aluminum producer, saw its underlying earnings before financial items and tax (EBIT) during Q3 plunge 49% a year-on-year to Norwegian Krone 1,366 million ($141.5), though the company’s production of bauxite, alumina and aluminum largely increased, the company said through an official news release on October 23. The Oslo-headquartered firm blamed the EBIT fall mainly on declining market prices of its commodities.
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The severe drought in Central Chile has led Anglo American to tighten its production guidance for copper for full-year 2019 from 630,000-660,000 tonnes previously to 630,000-650,000 tonnes, according to the global miner’s latest quarterly report released on October 22. Water shortages might undermine production in 2020 too, it advised.
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Domestic production and sales of new-energy vehicles (NEVs) across China are showing signs of weakness, largely as a consequence of the central government’s move to reduce generous subsidies on NEVs that over the past few years had helped automakers to enjoy substantial growths in electric car sales.
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BHP has remained its copper production guidance for FY2020 (July 1 2019-June 30 2020) unchanged at 1.71 -1.82 million tonnes, and its first quarter output over July-September increased by 5% on year to 430,000 tonnes, though it was 3% lower on quarter, according to its latest quarterly production report released on October 17.
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Production summary
Unless otherwise noted: percentage variance
relates to performance during the September 2019 quarter compared with the June
2019 quarter (QoQ); production and sales volumes are reported on an
attributable basis.
Source: South32, released on October 17
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[Para 1 and 2 updated based on the latest development.]
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Nickel production at Brazilian mining giant Vale during this year’s July-September quarter saw a 14.2% quarter-on-quarter increase, amid the gradual resumption of operations, according to the company’s latest quarterly report released on October 14. On the other hand, its copper production remained stable over the same period, mainly due to the strong operational performance at its Salobo complex in Brazil during the three months.
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Shandong Weiqiao Pioneering Group, China’s top and the world’s largest aluminum smelter in East China’s Shandong province is considering building a 2 million tonnes/year aluminum smelting shop in Southwest China’s Yunnan province because of the latter’s abundant hydro power supply and its geographical proximity to South and Southeast Asia, Mysteel Global has learned on Tuesday.
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The semi-annual reports released by some major Chinese automobile producers over the past few days showed that most witnessed declines in their H1 net profit from softening sales amid the overall weakness in the country’s auto industry, Mysteel Global has learned. However, some makers of new energy vehicles (NEVs) still earned good profits during the half.
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The most-traded nickel November contract on the Shanghai Future Exchange (SHFE) closed at its 4.5-year high on September 2 with the prevalent market concern on supply shortage with Indonesia’s probably moving forward the complete ban on nickel ore exports from the originally-planned 2022 to 2020, market sources said.
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Jiangxi Copper Co, a major Chinese copper producer in East China’s Jiangxi province, saw its copper cathode production in the first half of this year increase 3.5% on year to 749,300 tonnes, according to the company’s interim report released on August 30. The company’s net profit for H1 also rose by 1.8% on year to Yuan 1.3 billion ($181.7 million).
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Aluminum Corporation of China Limited (Chalco), the Shanghai-listed arm of China Aluminum Group, saw its net profit in the first half of 2019 decline by a large 14.1% on year, mainly due to the persisting rise in supply of primary ingot nationwide, and the suppressed growth in demand as downstream industries buying its metal continued to struggle, according to the company’s interim report released on August 28.
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Shandong province in East China is still dealing with the damage after the Typhoon Lekima slammed the region on August 11-12, and industrial enterprises such as nonferrous smelters and steel mills have their operations affected, Mysteel Global understood from the local companies on Wednesday.
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The Mirador copper mine in Ecuador, an open-cut mine financed and constructed by a Chinese consortium led by China’s major copper producer Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group Holdings Co (Tongling Group), was officially brought on stream on July 18, a Tongling official confirmed on July 26.
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London-headquartered Chilean copper miner Antofagasta PLC posted a sharp increase in copper production in H1, being up 22.2% on year at 387,300 tonnes, mainly thanks to higher throughput and copper grades at most of its operations, according to its Q2 production report released on July 24.
