All about aluminium

29 January MELBOURNE, Press Release	BHP Billiton announces appointments to the Board The BHP Billiton Board today announced that Mr Paul Anderson and Dr Gail de Planque will retire from the Board on 31 January 2010 and Mr Malcolm Broomhead and Ms Carolyn Hewson will be appointed as Non-executive Directors from 31 March 2010. Mr Anderson has accepted an invitation to become a director of BP plc and Dr de Planque will retire due to her current need for continuous treatment for Lyme disease.
26 January MUMBAI, Press Release	Hindalco announces Q3 FY 2009–2010 results Hindalco Industries Ltd, an Aditya Birla Group company, today announced its unaudited financial results for the third quarter ended December 31, 2009. With a 5% higher aluminium metal production, a 34% increase in the rolled aluminium production and a 22% higher Copper production, compared to Q3 FY09, the quarter has been amongst the best ever.
26 January PITTSBURGH, Press Release	Alcoa Announces Dividend and Stock Contribution to Pension Plans The Board of Directors of Alcoa declared (a) a quarterly common stock dividend of 3 cents per share payable February 25, 2010 to shareholders of record at the close of business on February 5, 2010 and (b) a quarterly dividend of 93.75 cents per share on Alcoa’s $3.75 cumulative preferred stock payable April 1, 2010 to shareholders of record at the close of business on March 12, 2010. Alcoa has paid a quarterly dividend on its common stock for more than 60 years.
25 January OSLO, Press Release	Hydro selling Hydro Trans to SKA Invest SKA Invest, a Norwegian investment company, has entered into an agreement to buy Hydro Trans, which has activities in Norway, Finland and Denmark.
25 January DUBAI, Press Release	Dubai Aluminium Celebrates Major Production Milestone Confirming its status as a leading player in the global aluminium industry, the Jebel Ali primary aluminium complex owned and operated by Dubai Aluminium Company Limited (“DUBAL”) produced 1,009,772 metric tonnes of cast aluminium products in 2009. Ranked as the world’s largest modern smelter with a captive power station and widely regarded as the industrial flagship of the UAE, the entirely state-owned enterprise attributes the achievement of this major production milestone to a strategic focus on optimising capacity utilisation, maximising operating efficiencies, continuous innovation and pro-actively meeting market needs.
20 January MELBOURNE, Press Release	BHP Billiton publishes Production Report for the Half Year Ended 31 December 2009 During the December quarter we saw strong price recovery across the commodity suite driven by demand in China and restocking in the developed world. Government stimulus measures appear to have supported a gradual return to normalised global trade, albeit from a low base, and most key indicators across the developed economies showed improvement. Going forward the speed of recovery in the developed economies remains uncertain, particularly considering the eventual withdrawal of government stimulus. In China the impact of measures to control loan growth will add another future variable. Consequently we expect some degree of volatility in the short term outlook for our commodities.
16 January WASHINGTON, Press Release	Alcoa Defense Hails the Commissioning of New Aluminum Navy Littoral Combat Ship Alcoa Defense, the defense industry’s leading supplier of aluminum, titanium and other light alloys, today hailed the commissioning of the first General Dynamics Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), the USS Independence. Designed and built by a team led by General Dynamics and Austal USA in Mobile, AL, the ship’s all-aluminum trimaran hull allows it to be faster and more agile than a conventional Navy ship. The ship’s amahs, or side pontoons, provide buoyant support on each side of the vessel’s center hull and give it maximum stability, even when turning at high speeds.
14 January MELBOURNE,	Rio Tinto publishes its fourth quarter 2009 operations review Rio Tinto on Thursday disclosed its fourth quarter 2009 operations review. Production cutbacks were maintained in the Aluminium group in response to market conditions. Bauxite production was down one per cent, alumina down two per cent and aluminium down three per cent, compared with the fourth quarter of 2008.
12 January OSLO, Press Release	Hydro aims to take global lead in reducing climate emissions from primary aluminium production After having already reduced direct emissions from primary production by 70 percent since 1990 – equal to a staggering three tonnes CO2-equivalents per tonne metal produced – Hydro aims to curb emissions even further and take global lead in the aluminium industry within the global fight against climate change.
12 January ABU DHABI,	EMAL produces its first aluminium Emirates Aluminium (EMAL) energised the first of 756 pots today in time for the United Arab Emirate’s 38th National Day – well ahead of any date that had been earlier predicted. The energising of the first pot means that EMAL smelter has now officially started producing aluminium.
12 January NEW YORK, Press Release	Alcoa Finishes 4Q 2009 Strong; Free Cash Flow Positive, Revenues Up 18% Alcoa today announced it finished its fourth quarter 2009 free cash flow positive, the first such quarterly achievement since the second quarter of 2008 when the economic downturn began to impact results. The Company is ahead of its key financial goals for 2009, including being free cash flow neutral by the end of the year. In the fourth quarter of 2009, Alcoa generated free cash flow of $761 million, a $947 million improvement from the third quarter of 2009 driven by strong cash from operations performance of $1.1 billion, a $940 million increase from the third quarter of 2009. The Company also surpassed targets for each of its Cash Sustainability Program initiatives in 2009, a major contributor to the strong cash performance.
11 January MOSCOW, Press Release	UC RUSAL announces new appointments in the Aluminium Division UC RUSAL, the world’s largest aluminium and alumina producer, announced a management reshuffle in its Aluminium Division. Eugueny Zhukov, who previously held the position of managing director of the Krasnoyarsk aluminium smelter, was appointed general director of the Urals aluminium smelter. Mr. Zhukov will be replaced by Eugueny Nikitin, the former managing director of the Sayanogorsk smelter. Meanwhile, Boris Smolyanitsky, who had been managing UAZ for nine years, was appointed adviser to Head of the Aluminium Division.

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