This review covers the activities of the primary aluminium industry during the first half of the year 2016. According to IAI statistics, world production of primary aluminium amounted to 28.212m tonnes at the end of June, slightly down 1.3% compared with the corresponding period in 2015. The largest production cuts were reported from North America (-203kt/-9.1%) and China (-509kt/ -3.3%) whereas Asia ex China expanded production (+201kt/+14%). It remains to be seen if this overall downward trend will continue in the second half of the year. LME stocks of aluminium high grade fell from 2.890m at the beginning of the year to 2.382m at the end of June. The LME aluminium price (spot) recovered from USDl,466/t to USDl,635/t in the same period. As regards company highlights: Alcoa is in the final phase of splitting into two independent companies which broadly group those branches associated with the upstream/low value and with the value add business, respectively.
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