Aluminum, all Alcoa’s billion-dollar plans for Alumina
Alcoa wants to acquire Alumina, one of the world's leading alumina producing companies, for $2.2 billion. All the details on the operation (and the difficulties of the American group)
Alcoa, one of the world's largest aluminum producers, has made a $2.2 billion offer to acquire Australian mining company Alumina.
Alcoa is based in Pennsylvania, in the United States, but is also present in Italy: in the past it owned the Portovesme plant, in Sardinia, which was then sold to SiderAlloys. Alumina specializes in the extraction of bauxite and the processing of alumina , which is necessary for the production of aluminium.
Alumina is already a minority partner of Alcoa, with a 40 percent stake, in the Alcoa World Alumina & Chemicals (AWAC) joint venture, one of the world's largest alumina producers. By acquiring Alumina, therefore, the American company would guarantee itself full control over the joint venture.
THE ROLE, OLD AND NEW, OF ALUMINUM
Aluminum is a widely used metal, necessary among other things for the production of cans, window frames and components for household appliances and means of transport. Aluminum will also be crucial for the ecological transition – as the Atlantic Council has pointed out -, given its presence in electric vehicles and in wind and solar energy infrastructure.
“Globally,” Alcoa CEO William Oplinger said in this regard, “the growth of aluminum-intensive electric vehicles and renewable energy infrastructure will continue to support this positive trend” in demand for metal.
IS EVERYTHING OK IN ALCOA?
In a note, Morgan Stanley judged the operation between Alcoa and Alumina positively. AWAC, their joint venture, owns alumina refineries between Australia, Brazil and Spain, accounting for 10 percent of global production of this intermediate aluminum product.
So everything's fine? Not exactly.
As Bloomberg reports, Alcoa restructured its management team about five months ago, and more recently said it would suspend production at its Kwinana alumina plant in Western Australia to contain costs. The company also informed investors in January that it plans to mine lower-grade bauxite in Australia until it begins a new mining phase, expected in 2027.
The acquisition of Alumina, however, should provide Alcoa with a leaner organization, which in turn will allow it to more quickly implement decisions made for AWAC.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/alcoa-alumina/ on Mon, 26 Feb 2024 11:50:24 +0000.