Alumina Market To Be More Balanced In 2011 -Rio Tinto Alcan

BAHRAIN, Sept. 25 -- The global alumina market will move closer to balance in 2011, a senior Rio Tinto Alcan executive said Tuesday.

Rhodri Harries, the senior vice president of the aluminum producer's commercial, energy and carbon products division, said he expects the market to be between 0.5 million metric tons and 1.5 million tons long next year.

"This is much closer to balance than we've seen for some time," he said. "But even though there's a small surplus, this isn't very large in the context of a global market of around 80 million tons--it's just a week's supply," he added.

Alumina is the key ingredient used to make aluminum, the metal used in the automotive and construction industries.

Rio Tinto Alcan is the aluminum unit of U.K.-listed miner Rio Tinto PLC (RTP).

Harries was speaking at the Metal Bulletin aluminum conference in Bahrain.