United States-based Alcoa, the world's eighth-largest aluminium producer, has forecast a surplus of alumina in 2019 while it increases aluminium metal shipments.
There was a 600,000-tonne deficit of alumina at the end of 2018, the company said, rounding off a year of record market tightness.Fastmarkets' alumina index rocketed upward to $707.75 per tonne on April 24, 2018, the highest since the index was first assessed in 2010, because a series of stoppages at major refineries choked supply.But Alcoa is forecasting that the market will swing to a 200,000-1 million tonne surplus this year, even if the current shortfall in supply continues. The shortfall results from the closure of Norsk Hydro's Alunorte facility in Brazil."The projected alumina surplus is being driven by China, where refining expansions are expected to outpace demand growth from smelting," Alcoa said.The...