Progress towards new investment is delayed by major restructurings and energy price hikes, but...

One major aluminium producer finally managed to restructure its debts which will have momentous consequences, since he has his fingers in many projects. Its country also makes the right decisions to finance revamping of its huge power generation system. However speculation on commodities affects aluminium by supporting a piling up of LME inventory. Growing long term demand is certain to gradually clean it up, but not right now. This government will take over the country's sole smelter and states the date - scroll down after clicking - It will mean capacity investments by then.
This other government envisions serious and massive energy generation investments of multiple sources which will facilitate investments already planned - scroll way down - in its small but solid primary aluminum industry. But here are the new facts indicating that the future of European smelters is doomed more than ever, witness the European Commission's recent attitude towards a major foreign producer. In Asia, more investments illustrate to what extent the local industry favors integrating energy generation with metal smelting. This highly efficient smelter, world leader in lowest energy per tonne consumption, goes further by a spin-off of its most promising pilot cell in original financial conditions. This smelter increases capacity by one third. In China, now the world's biggest aluminium producer, industry faces a serious energy price increase.This greenfield can now resume construction: The country hosting it got an incitation from Europe triggering megafinancing of its energy sector. In Latin America, this producer definitely emerges as a future leader, and pursues investments right now to that effect.