Rusal’s 50:50 joint venture in the Sverdlovsk region with cabling and wiring products developer ELKA-Cable that launched its first line in mid-2017 — has now completed work allowing it to make aluminum-core cables.

Ramp-up to its nameplate capacity of 4,400 mt/year (aluminum net-weight in end-products) will take three years while certification for its products, which are new to the market, will take a while, said the spokeswoman.

BKZ will make three types of cables designed for power grid, petroleum and oilfield service companies in Russia and the CIS: oil submersible cable, self-supporting insulated conductor, and flexible conductor. They all contain in-house made aluminum wires, strands and conductors.

BKZ is Russia’s first producer of such cables, according to Rusal, which supplies aluminum alloys to Bogoslov.

BKZ is Rusal’s fourth downstream business. The other three are wheel, powder and foil making assets, and all process Rusal’s primary aluminum and alloys.

Last year, they sold a combined 1.66 million mt of products, roughly 45.5% of the company’s 3.67 million mt overall sales.

Increasing in-house aluminum processing and the share of value-added products in its portfolio remains Rusal’s strategic priority, the spokeswoman said.

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Rating agency Icra July 3 said macroeconomic uncertainties led to corrections in global prices of aluminium, copper and zinc in the last one year. It further said that the production growth of these three non-ferrous metals was even lower than the rise in demand.

“Even though international prices of the three non-ferrous metals viz. aluminium, copper and zinc have witnessed corrections of 20 per cent, 13 per cent and 16 per cent, respectively in the last one year, primarily due to macroeconomic uncertainties on the back of ongoing trade wars and other country-specific factors, the fundamental supply-demand balance suggests otherwise,” Icra said in a statement.

While global consumption growth of aluminium and copper during the first quarter of 2019 was muted at 1.4 per cent and 0.8 per cent, respectively, as against 4 per cent and 2.3 per cent, respectively, in 2018, consumption of zinc registered a de-growth of 1.3 per cent as against 0.3 per cent de-growth in the last year.

The Aluminum Association Trade Enforcement Working Group filed a petition requesting relief from imports of Chinese aluminum foil in May 2017. Almost one year later, the U.S. Department of Commerce issued anti-dumping and countervailing duty orders on aluminum foil from China ranging from 55-176%.

Since then, according to an Aluminum Association white paper released Tuesday titled “Targeted Trade Enforcement in Action: Aluminum Foil AD/CVD One Year Later,” imports of Chinese aluminum foil have fallen significantly.

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A hot topic this year in the scrap metal industry, US President Trump is planning to introduce metal tariffs for imports into the USA. With speculations ranging from a better market to a higher price for consumers, a lot of things that can happen. To try to make sense of all this, we break down what we know, what we don’t know, and what you should know.

What Are Metal Tariffs & What Do They Mean?

A conversation started in February 2018, metal tariffs would affect the cost of trade for countries importing metal products into the USA (with the exception of Canada and Mexico). Metal tariffs mean that any countries bringing in either raw aluminum or steel into the US would be charged a percentage to import it for further production of items. For example, a Chinese company processes steel scrap by having it shipped to their location internationally.

During the process of recycling, the steel is melted and reused for newer products or materials. That new material is shipped from China to the USA for further production of items like cars or buildings, the company selling them would be charged a tariff for importing it into the US.

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Another hopeful sign emerged last week for troubled Russian Federation aluminium giant U.C. Rusal when the London Metal Exchange confirmed that it would begin again accepting the firm’s aluminium when United States government sanctions are lifted.

Per Reuters, the Exchange discussed resuming the trading of Rusal aluminium upon the revocation of sanctions, and no objections were raised by any of the organization’s members…

As aluminium prices touch an 18-month low, India is mulling a slew of measures, including imposing import duties and quotas, to benefit local manufacturers beset by higher manufacturing costs and rising imports…

Relevant developments are diligently followed and their impact closely monitored. Reports also draw upon non-confidential data from the internal database, consisting of over half a century’s syndicated research. Deep dive into the Aluminium Ingots markets with a focus on a particular type. Provides granular, robust qualitative data on why and how the market is changing and includes key applications like Automotive, Aerospace & Defense, Ship, Other, , Aluminium Ingots Production as well as quantitative market outlooks…

Since October 22, aluminium prices have been trading below US$ 2000/tonne, and are currently barely keeping above US$ 1900/tonne. Without much good news on horizon, uncertainty over U.S.-China trade war persisting, and further strengthening of the US dollar, it would seem that demand for aluminium has completely stalled. But that’s not at all the case – not only is demand stable, but it will grow between 3.5 and 4% this year, exceeding production growth. At the same time, smelter productions costs rose this year, and inventories fell, both on registered warehouses and in general…