Development Situation Analysis of Australia Alumina

Australia alumina refining industry has been in the world's leading level. At present, Australia has six alumina plants, four of them in western Australia, and the other two are located in Queensland and Northern Territory respectively. Most of alumina plants are near bauxite mining area, but there is no alumina plant near Weipa bauxite mine.

Compared with other countries, Australia bauxite has been supplied by Rio for years, and also has directly signed long-term contracts with China consumers. But, in 2016, Australian bauxite suppliers will be increased, such as Alcoa, Australia Bauxite Company, Metrau Mining, etc. Australian bauxite export competition will intensify, and the market price is expected to be back.

According to the recent research on bauxite mines in Australia, the total output of the world's largest bauxite developer Alcoa is 45.3 million tons in 2015. This company has seven active bauxites in the world. Its subordinate company – AWAC received bauxite supply agreement which is worth more than $500 million, mainly supplying China, Brazil and Europe. Rio's new project - Amrun plans to produce bauxite with an annual output of 22.8 million tons, which can increase exports about 10 million tons of bauxite for Cape York each year. It is expected to be put into production in the first half of 2019, and can realize full production by the end of the year. The project may be expanded to 50 million tons/year in the future.

At the end of last year, the bulk commodity prices fell, and bauxite, alumina and metallic aluminum prices also fell, which suggests that global market is in economic downturn. However, in supply and demand of the downstream industry, the demand of automation, aerospace and commercial building for bauxite resources is still expected to be improved. The downstream industry consumption is increased, which not only can promote the production of bauxite worldwide, and also will be good for bauxite prices going higher.