India's state-run National Aluminium Company Ltd (NALCO) has awarded a 30,000-tonne alumina tender to a Russian company at around $350 a tonne, sharply lower than a sale last month, a senior NALCO official said on Friday.
NALCO, Asia's largest alumina producer, would ship the commodity in early July, the official told Reuters. The tender, issued last month, was closed on June 7.
There were no plans in the near future for another tender to sell the commodity in the spot market, said the official, who declined to be identified. Last month, the company sold 30,000 tonnes of alumina to Iran Aluminium Company at $462.50 per tonne FOB (free on board).
Like many commodities, alumina prices rocketed in the past year as China's economy boomed. But weaker demand from Asia's second-largest economy has led to lower alumina prices, the official said.
Alumina, extracted from bauxite ore, is smelted to produce aluminium. Nearly two tonnes of alumina are needed to produce a single tonne of the metal.
NALCO, India's second-largest aluminium maker, mainly sells its surplus alumina through long-term contracts, but sometimes taps the world spot market to sell surplus output.
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