LME Aluminum to Rise on Positive News (2016-2-4)

Recently, Yunnan Jiantao New Material Co., Ltd. completed core infrastructure construction, including the melting and casting plant and pretreatment plant, for its 6.6 billion yuan total investment project with an annual output of 600,000 mt of green, low-carbon, high-precision aluminum plate/sheet and strip and 100,000 mt of environmentally friendly recycled aluminum alloy ingots. To generate benefits as soon as possible, the company adopted a coordinated approach of "equipment debugging + production line" to fully advance the project. The project is expected to be fully operational in 2026, with annual output value exceeding 15 billion yuan. In October 2025, equipment installation began for the No. 1 production line of the 100,000 mt per year environmentally friendly recycled aluminum alloy ingot project, which has now entered the trial production stage. Dai Changwei, Director of the Melting and Casting Division of the Manufacturing Center, revealed that the project plans a total of five core production lines. The No. 1 line currently undergoing debugging is the alloy ingot production line, while lines No. 2 to 5 are for slab ingots. The designed capacity for the alloy ingot production line is 100,000 mt per year, and the slab ingot lines have a combined designed annual capacity of 780,000 mt.

Century Aluminum (Century) announced on Monday that it is set to acquire a 40% stake in a smelter planned by Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) to be built in the US. In May 2025, EGA announced plans to construct a smelter in Enola, Oklahoma, with EGA retaining a 60% stake in the joint venture. This smelter will be the first new aluminum smelter built in the US in nearly 50 years. EGA stated last year that it would invest approximately $4 billion in the project’s development. The two companies indicated that, with Century’s involvement, the planned capacity of the smelter has been increased from the previous 600,000 mt of aluminum per year to 750,000 mt, which would more than double US aluminum production. The companies stated that construction of the smelter is expected to begin before the end of the year, with operations slated to commence by the end of this decade. Additionally, the project is projected to create 1,000 permanent jobs at the site and support 4,000 construction jobs. Former US President Donald Trump sought to boost domestic aluminum production by imposing tariffs on aluminum imports. Aluminum is one of the US’s critical minerals. Since June last year, the tariff rate doubled to 50%, driving the US Midwest aluminum premium to a record 99¢ per pound this month, equivalent to approximately $2,183 per mt.

SMS Group Upgrades Hot Rolling Equipment for GARMCO SMS Group has carried out an upgrade for the hot rolling equipment belonging to Gulf Aluminium Rolling Mill Company (GARMCO). The upgrade includes motors and drives in a single-stand reversing hot mill originally built by a third-party mill supplier. The project aims to enhance the plant’s operational efficiency and reliability while enabling it to meet future demands of the aluminum processing industry. The scope of the project involves replacing outdated DC motors with three-phase AC motors and cutting-edge drive technology, including a frequency converter system powered by an active front end and a new transformer. Compared to the mill’s original design capacity, the new-type drive system will increase available torque by 20%, restoring the company’s hot rolling mill to full-load operation and positioning it as a facility capable of advancing R&D in aluminum hot rolling. The twin-motor drive system from SMS Group is at the core of the entire equipment upgrade. Key components include a custom gearbox combining two electric motors rated at 2,150 kW each and two SMS mega-torque spindles. Combined with SMS Group’s highly advanced gear design, this drive system concept delivers unique power capabilities, significantly reduces investment costs and space requirements, and allows for a degree of redundancy.