This year will be a challenging one for aluminium. While there are some buoyant sectors on the demand side – particularly aerospace, packaging, and automotive in certain regions – something like 7m tonnes of the metal is stacked up in warehouses around the world, much of it tied up in inventory financing deals. Despite producer cutbacks and reasonable consumption, the stock mountain and economic jitters will keep a damper on prices as we move through the year, in turn exerting further pressure on producers at the higher end of the cost curve. Energy, coke, alumina and other inputs have eroded margins and smelters are having to focus all the more on costs, while further down the industry chain, mills and fabricators are grappling with strong premiums and competitive markets. Not even China, with its 40% share of world production and consumption, is today immune to price and cost pressures.
Metal Bulletin Events’ International Aluminium Conference – the premier international aluminium event on the calendar – will provide a timely and leading-edge forum in which to examine the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead, address business strategies and solutions, and conduct negotiations for 2013. This year the conference moves to Russia, home to no less than four alumina refineries and 12 smelters, as well as an expanding downstream and consuming industry, and to Moscow, headquarters of the world’s biggest producer UC Rusal, with output of over 4.12m tonnes last year.
Join upwards of 500 international aluminium industry executives in Moscow in September to get the best insight into where your industry is pointed in 2012 and beyond, and to make the most of the networking and business opportunities on offer.
Key conference topics:
China, China, China. What are real production costs in China? Will all planned capacity come on stream as expected? Will smelter closures there have any impact? And how will the 12th Five-Year Plan drive supply and demand?
The stock mountain: market relationship. Examining the interplay of contango markets, financing deals, warehousing charges, forward market curves and physical premiums. What take do producers, consumers, banks and investors have on these
Producer strategies in the face of rising costs and narrowing margins. Have cutbacks to date had any impact? How much more is needed? Is relocation to regions like the Middle East the best solution or can adding value to the product range provide a lifeline?
Global economic jitters and the impact on consumption – are flat to negative growth rates on the cards for Europe, North America, Japan? Are the emerging markets in Asia and Latin America picking up the slack?
Will the recovery in automotive continue? How strong is aerospace demand and which alloys and products are making most inroads? What of packaging, engineering, construction? And is aluminium continuing to take markets from copper at current price differentials?
Technology and innovation as tools for survival and success at all stages of the industry chain. Examining solutions for cost containment, environmental compliance, energy efficiency and product quality in an increasingly competitive marketplace.
Reasons to attend:
Get a real understanding of market dynamics through insightful and informative papers and panels from top-notch industry speakers
Use this knowledge to gauge where the challenges – and the opportunities will be in 2013 and beyond
Network with upwards of 500 key industry decision-makers from around the globe – make new contacts to advance your business
Discuss and seal 2013 deals without wasting precious travel budgets and spending weeks away from the office
Meet key CIS industry executives, find out more of what is happening in this growing marketplace, and visit one of Rusal’s flagship operations