Mar 21, 2012 -- Alumina may average $339 a metric ton this year, 12 percent less than in 2011, as world aluminum production slows, according to Australia’s Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics.

Output in Australia may climb 12 percent 22.9 million tons in the year to June 30, 2013, as Rio Tinto Group’s expansion of the Yarwun refinery is completed, the Canberra- based bureau said in a report today. The expansion will increase capacity of the refinery near Gladstone, Queensland by as much as 3 million tons a year, it said.