China’s General Administration of Customs, the national trade monitor, said imports of unwrought aluminium and products reached 300,000 t in June, up 24.1 % from a year earlier, while bauxite arrivals soared 36.2 % to 18.12 Mt, underscoring the pull from smelters ramping output to multi-year highs. Smelter Restarts and Arbitrage Fuel Metal Flows Restarts...
READ MOREInalum, the state-owned aluminium producer, has asked the Indonesian government to tighten raw-material import rules and stimulate domestic demand after Washington doubled its tariff on imported aluminium to 50 per cent. Company president Melati Sarnita told Parliament the new US levy could slash exports of processed Indonesian products by about 30,000 tonnes next year, squeezing...
READ MOREChina’s Ministry of Commerce, the country’s trade regulator, and the Ministry of Science and Technology, its policy adviser, have revised the national list of technologies subject to export controls for the fourth time since 2001. The move inserts lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) battery-cathode preparation technology into the “restricted” column—requiring exporters to obtain a licence—while deleting three construction-related...
READ MOREA 50% proposed tariff on copper imports into the United States will have little impact on India’s copper sector. Its position as a net importer of the metal, along with record domestic demand from the renewable energy and electric vehicle sectors, offers a significant buffer against the prospective trade disruption. An Import-Dependent Market India’s role...
READ MOREThe Indonesian government, in an effort to control an acute oversupply of nickel ore, will reduce the validity period of its mining work plan permits (RKAB) from three years to one. The policy revision, which will commence in 2026, has attracted immediate objection from the nation’s miners, who caution it will hamper investment and cause...
READ MOREChina has made a huge lithium ore deposit discovery with 490 million tons of lithium and companion minerals in Hunan Province, another advance in the nation’s drive to lock in domestic battery metal supplies. The find in the Jijiaoshan mine area of Linwu County is one of China’s largest mineral discoveries in recent years and...
READ MORESwiss-British mining and commodities trading firm Glencore sold its Philippine Associated Smelting and Refining Corp (Pasar) assets to business holdings of Villar family led by Manny Villar Jr. This takes place in the context of historically unprecedented challenges facing the world’s copper smelter market in low-processing fees and surplus-capacity scenarios which have made most plants...
READ MOREIndonesian authorities withdrew four of five nickel concessions in Raja Ampat, Western Papua province, after mass environmental activism that drew international scrutiny for one of Earth’s most richest marine habitats. It followed after international interest that had turned toward Papua mining operations upon the island chain that’s chock full of coral, which harbors 75 percent...
READ MOREHindustan Copper, India’s only integrated copper mining company, has launched an expansion program to increase its ore production capacity from 3.75 million tonnes per annum to 12.2 MTPA by fiscal year 2030. The state-owned enterprise plans to invest Rs 2,000 crore ($238 million) over the next five years through internal funding to scale operations across...
READ MOREA two-member expert committee has submitted recommendations to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin for reopening Vedanta’s shuttered Sterlite Copper smelter in Thoothukudi through a “green restart” approach, seven years after the facility’s closure following deadly protests that killed 13 civilians. The proposal comes amid global copper supply constraints and mounting pressure on Western smelting...
READ MORESaudi Arabian Mining Company, the Kingdom’s largest diversified mining enterprise and a subsidiary of the Public Investment Fund, has completed the acquisition of minority stakes in two aluminum-related subsidiaries through a combination of share issuance and cash payments totaling $150 million. The transaction provides Maaden with full ownership of Maaden Bauxite and Alumina Company and...
READ MOREContemporary Amperex Technology, China’s largest battery manufacturer, has commenced construction of an integrated battery production facility in Indonesia through a joint venture with Indonesia Battery Corporation and state-owned PT Aneka Tambang. The project targets initial production capacity of 6.9 gigawatt-hours by late 2026, expanding to 15 GWh for electric vehicle applications, while Indonesian officials suggest...
READ MORERusal, Russia’s largest aluminum producer and the world’s biggest primary aluminum manufacturer outside China, has completed strategic investments in Chinese and Indian alumina facilities to replace supply disruptions from Australia and Ukraine totaling approximately 2.8 million tonnes annually. The company acquired a 30% stake in Hebei Wenfeng New Materials for $316 million and agreed to...
READ MOREIndonesia has attracted over $80 billion ($102.5 billion) in nickel smelting investments during the past decade and now seeks to replicate this success in copper processing, where the country operates only four copper smelters compared to more than 50 nickel facilities. The Southeast Asian nation’s copper industry has secured over $9 billion in recent investments,...
READ MOREFastmarkets, a London-based commodity intelligence firm specializing in metals and mining market analysis, forecasts that China will surpass Australia as the world’s largest lithium producer by 2026, marking a fundamental shift in global battery metal supply chains. Chinese mining operations are projected to extract 8,000-10,000 metric tonnes more lithium than Australian competitors next year, representing...
READ MOREEurasian Resources Group, a Kazakhstan-based mining conglomerate with operations across Africa and Central Asia, plans to invest $20 million in gallium production facilities that would position Kazakhstan as the world’s second-largest producer of the critical semiconductor metal after China. The company will extract gallium from bauxite ore waste streams at its existing alumina operations, targeting...
READ MOREThe International Copper Study Group, a global intergovernmental organization monitoring copper markets, reported that worldwide refined copper surplus declined marginally to 233,000 tonnes during the first four months of 2025 compared to 236,000 tonnes in the corresponding period of 2024. Global refined copper production increased 3.2% year-over-year to 9.4 million tonnes while consumption expanded 3.3%...
READ MOREThe Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (CoMP) has warned that the recent U.S. airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities are likely to heighten volatility in industrial metals markets, particularly nickel and copper, while prompting investors to seek refuge in gold. The assessment comes as global commodity and financial markets react to escalating geopolitical tensions in...
READ MOREAdani Enterprises, a diversified Indian conglomerate, has started processing ores at its new Kutch Copper smelter in Gujarat, India, after facing multiple delays. The facility, designed to be one of the world’s largest single-location smelters, commences operations at a time of unprecedented tightness in the global market for copper concentrate, the raw material it needs...
READ MOREInventories of aluminum in London Metal Exchange (LME) warehouses have fallen to their lowest levels since 2022, creating significant underlying volatility in the market despite a seemingly stable headline price. Stocks have decreased from over 1.3 million metric tonnes two years ago to approximately 345,000 tonnes as of mid-June 2025. This tightening of available supply,...
READ MORESouth Korea’s three primary aluminum flat product manufacturers—Novelis Korea, Choil Aluminum, and Daeho Al—collectively reported an increase in sales and domestic shipments in May 2025. Total sales for the month reached 78,898 metric tonnes, a 3.1% gain from 76,508 tonnes a year prior. Domestic shipments rose by 6.7% to 25,600 tonnes. However, the impact of...
READ MORESK Nexilis, a subsidiary of SKC specializing in copper foil manufacturing for secondary batteries, has secured a $110 million investment from Japan’s Toyota Tsusho. The deal, formalized at a signing ceremony in Seoul on June 18, 2025, involves the transfer of a partial stake in SK Nexilis’ Malaysian subsidiary to Toyota Tsusho. This partnership is...
READ MOREHindustan Zinc, a subsidiary of Vedanta Group and India’s largest integrated zinc producer, has approved a ₹12,000 crore ($1.39 billion) investment to construct a new 250,000-tonne-per-annum integrated zinc metal complex at Debari, Rajasthan. The project, part of the company’s “2X growth” strategy to double production capacity across zinc, lead, and silver, is scheduled for completion...
READ MOREThe International Finance Corporation has committed an additional $400 million subordinated loan to Barrick Gold’s Reko Diq copper-gold project in Pakistan, bringing the World Bank Group’s total financing commitment to $700 million for what is expected to become one of the world’s largest copper mines. The loan, announced June 13, supports the project’s total estimated...
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