MARKETS-MINERALS-ALUMINIUM = 2

Oct 13 - Bosnia's sole alumina plant, Birac, has raised its output to pre-crisis levels of 50 percent of total capacity because of increased demand, its general manager said. The global economic downturn, lower alumina prices and shrinking demand earlier this year had forced the company, in the eastern town of Zvornik, to cut output to 21 percent of installed capacity of 600,000 tonnes per year. [ID:nLD92338] Oct 13 - Vimetco said it expects to produce around 700,000 tonnes of primary aluminium this year from its smelters in China and Romania. The company's Alro smelter in Romania is currently operating at about 25 percent below its design capacity and is expected to produce 201,000 tonnes of metal this year. [ID:nLD653059] Oct 12 - Aluminium smelters across the Balkans will wait before restoring full output in response to rising demand and higher prices on the world market because of high operational costs, officials say. The exception is Bosnia's smelter, which began returning to full production in September, saying its modernised aluminium plant enabled it to cope better with the economic crisis than other regional smelters. Russia's En+ Group, co-owner of Montenegro's sole smelter Kombinat Aluminijuma Podgorica , says the indebted firm could return to full output levels only after cuts of workforce and restructuring. [ID:nL7700646] Oct 9 - Vimetco said it is restarting its Alum alumina refinery in Romania. The company began an upgrade programme at the plant in February 2007. [ID:nWLA5254] Oct 8 - Russian aluminium firm United Company RUSAL said it is still committed to a planned Indonesian alumina joint venture project with state miner PT Aneka Tambang Tbk . Indonesia wants to speed up the project which started in late 2007 and the country's investment board has been in talks with Norsk Hydro ASA about the possibility of it working with Antam on the project if there is no serious progress with RUSAL. [ID:nJAK435687] Oct 5 - Rio Tinto said it is selling its 80 percent stake in Ghana's only bauxite mine to Chinese minerals group Bosai, Rio said on Monday. The firm has shelved an earlier plan to develop an integrated alumina refinery which would have been fed by the Awaso mine, as a result of poor local infrastructure and lower global demand for minerals. The mine in the West African country produced 637,000 tonnes of bauxite, according to the firm's website. The sale to Bosai, which produces alumina and aluminium in China, will be complete by the end of the year and is subject to approval by Ghana's parliament, a Rio spokesman said. [ID:nL595951] Oct 5 - Emirates Aluminium's plans to become the world's largest single aluminium smelter is on track, while it has secured deals to export the additional production globally, its chief executive said. Production from the first phase of the $5.7 billion project is expected to start by the end of the year and will reach full capacity of 700,000 tonnes of aluminum per year by December 2010, he said. [ID:nL5723024] PRICES Despite its poor fundamentals aluminium prices held up pretty well in October, ending the month at $1,904 a tonne, little changed from $1,891 a tonne a month earlier. The market took its general lead from LME benchmark copper, pulled this way and that by moves in the U.S. dollar and economic data. Three-months rose to $2,030 a tonne on Oct. 27, but failed to hold on to these gains on a stronger U.S. dollar and doubts over the pace of economic recovery. In July, the twice-yearly Reuters base metals price poll [MET/POLL] put the median average for the LME cash aluminium price at $1,499 a tonne, compared with the January forecast of $1,604.70 a tonne. STOCKS Total exchange stocks were 4,817,160 tonnes, just under 51 days of demand, and little changed from 4,814,214 tonnes a month earlier. The bulk is accounted for by LME stocks, which totalled 4,555,525 tonnes at the end of October. They looked to be on a general downtrend through the early part of last month. Despite some hefty rises soon after, LME inventories did not return to the all-time highs above 4.6 million and have since drifted lower again. Total visible stocks, including latest International Aluminium Institute unwrought stocks, were 6.008 million tonnes, down slightly from 6.046 million tonnes a month earlier. IAI stocks stood at 1.191 million tonnes in September, down from 1.232 million at the end of August. Consultants Brook Hunt recently estimated that total reported stocks of aluminium stood at 95 days of consumption and expected them to peak next year at 110 days worth. [ID:nLF655284] Estimated aluminium stocks at the Japanese ports of Yokohama, Nagoya and Osaka totalled 169,900 tonnes at the end of September, down 11.6 percent from a month earlier and the lowest since Marubeni Corp <8002.T> began taking records 14 years ago. The latest data is down 33.5 percent from the end of September 2008. [ID:nT26543] For a graphic on aluminium stocks and three months prices, click on: http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/119/LME_ALI1109.gif (3000 Xtra users can access Reuters Metal Production Database by clicking on http://mpd.session.rservices.com. MPD details historical and predicted output and capacity for bauxite, copper, lead, zinc and gold mines, alumina refineries, aluminium, copper, lead and nickel smelters and copper, zinc, lead and nickel refineries between 1997 and 2012.)