China’s Primary Aluminium Imports in November Increased 64.1% on the Month But Fell 51.7% on the Year

[SMM Aluminum Express News] METLEN Energy & Metals will invest nearly €25 million in its EP.AL.ME. recycled aluminum operation in Greece, installing highly automated sorting, processing and melting equipment. The upgrade will allow EP.AL.ME., Greece’s largest independent recycled aluminum producer, to process more complex scrap streams, particularly post-consumer scrap recovered from end-of-life products that has previously been difficult to incorporate efficiently. The investment will more closely integrate EP.AL.ME. with METLEN’s Aluminium of Greece primary aluminum plant, with combined production expected to exceed 250,000 tonnes once the project is fully developed. EP.AL.ME. will act as the collection, sorting and scrap pre-processing hub, while Aluminium of Greece will incorporate recycled metal into higher-value aluminum products. METLEN said the integration should also improve margins at both operations.

[SMM Aluminum Flash] On September 23, LME aluminum inventory stood at 241,400 mt, down 750 mt from the previous day, a decrease of 0.31%. Over the past week, LME aluminum inventory decreased by 2,225.00 mt, a decline of 0.91%. Over the past month, LME aluminum inventory decreased by 5,550.00 mt, a decline of 2.25%.

[SMM Aluminum Express News] Azerbaijan is exploring a separate new primary aluminum smelter with capacity of around 200,000 tonnes/year, Economy Minister Mikayil Jabbarov said at a September 22 meeting chaired by President Ilham Aliyev. The project has attracted interest from foreign investors and forms part of Azerbaijan’s longer-term ambition to develop into a regional processing hub, supported by competitive energy prices, transport links and access to raw materials from Central Asia and the South Caucasus. The proposed 200,000 t/y smelter is separate from Azeraluminium’s existing expansion in Ganja, where electrolysis capacity is planned to increase from around 50,000 t/y to 100,000 t/y by 2030. Azerbaijan will also assess whether the Zaylik alunite deposit can provide a domestic raw-material base for the aluminum value chain. The 2027-2030 mining and metallurgy programme requires an estimated AZN 5.3 billion (US$3.12 billion) of investment, around 80% of which is expected from non-budget sources.