Rio Tinto back to fulfilling commitments after lifting operational force majeure

In a recent news piece by S&P Global, the report of Rio Tinto Group removing the halt on alumina exports from its Gladstone refineries in Australia has come up. "... We received notice that [the] FM has been lifted [and] operations are close to normal," an Australia-based trader said. At least four other market sources validated the receipt of the notice.

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Rio had earlier declared force majeure — a legal clause allowing a company not to fulfil contractual obligations from its refineries in Queensland, Australia, due to bounded gas capacity levels at its facility operations.

The restriction added to a flood of supply disruptions from Jamaica to China, adding to the set of factors sending alumina prices to record highs since September and squeezing the smelters that churn out the intermediate product into aluminium. Rio has alumina production facilities at its Yarwun refinery and Queensland Alumina Ltd., in cooperation with Russia's United Co. Rusal International PJSC.

In the Q3 report released on October 18, Rio Tinto declared that gas supplies were satisfying about 95 per cent of necessities, while alumina production for the quarter was 7 per cent lower Y-o-Y at 1.77 million tonnes due to "the breakage of the third-party operated Queensland Gas Pipeline in March."

"Basically, it doesn't matter whether the force majeure is lifted or not. It is just a positive signal to their downstream customers. Their Q3 report already said that they have recovered 95%," a trader has said on this note. However, a Rio spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.