- Initiative aims to address the need for greater transparency and robust price discovery in the global alumina market
- Structured digital bidding to enable competitive bidding and broader market participation.
The initiative comes against the backdrop of a growing need for greater transparency in alumina price discovery. Of the 55-60 million tonnes of third-party alumina shipments traded globally each year, only around 10% is sold through the spot market. Despite representing a relatively small share of overall trade, spot transactions play an important role in shaping benchmark prices that influence a much larger volume of alumina sales, including long-term contracts.
Unlike aluminium, which has an established exchange-based pricing mechanism, alumina pricing relies significantly on privately published indices based on voluntarily reported transactions, which may not capture the full breadth and quality of market information available to participants.
By taking a significant step towards structured digital tendering, Hindalco aims to address this need by enabling competitive bidding for spot cargoes, supporting broader market participation, greater transparency and more robust, market-driven price discovery.
Through its collaboration with Metalshub, Hindalco will introduce a structured digital bidding mechanism, enabling competitive electronic bidding within defined tender windows. By taking an early step towards digital tendering, the company aims to support greater transparency, broader market participation, and robust price discovery.
Saurabh Khedekar, CEO, Alumina Business, Hindalco Industries, said, “Alumina is a critical raw material for aluminium, a metal that is increasingly enabling lightweighting, recyclability and the transition towards a circular economy. By implementing digital tenders for spot sales, our aim is to broaden market participation, strengthen competitive price discovery and bring greater efficiency and transparency to the global alumina market.”
Hugo Brodie, Head of Sustainability and Physical Market Development, LME, said, “I am excited to see one of the LME's key brand producers, Hindalco, join forces with Metalshub to establish a pathway towards more robust and trusted price discovery in the alumina space. The development of independent, transaction-led price references will bring greater pricing transparency and overall market efficiency.”
Dr. Sebastian Kreft, Managing Director, Metalshub, said, “Hindalco is the first major to take this important step towards structured digital tendering for alumina. While only a small fraction of the world’s alumina is sold in the spot market, these transactions play an important role in shaping trade price for the entire market. Structured digital tenders open each cargo to competitive bidding from a wider set of buyers and produce firm, verifiable transaction data rather than voluntarily reported numbers. Metalshub is working closely with LME Insight to support more reliable, transaction-based price discovery for critical raw materials such as alumina. We believe Hindalco’s initiative can encourage wider industry participation.”
Currently, Hindalco markets its alumina using a mixture of long-term contracts and spot selling where commercial arrangements are made for spot sales via a standard RFQ process. Digital tenders will be used to replace the existing sales processes at Hindalco.
The Metalshub platform will enable participants to take part in secure digital tenders and has been vetted from an information security and data governance perspective to support compliance throughout the transaction lifecycle.
Hindalco’s first digital tender is expected to take place between October and December 2026. The exact date, quantity and tender specifications will be communicated to registered participants sufficiently in advance.
Parties interested in participating in future tenders can register on the Metalshub platform at: https://trade.metals-hub.com/
About Hindalco Industries Limited
Hindalco Industries Limited is the metals flagship company of the Aditya Birla Group. A $31 billion metals powerhouse, Hindalco is the world’s largest aluminium company by revenues, the world’s second largest Copper rods manufacturer (outside China), and a world-leading Specialty Alumina player. Hindalco operates across the value chain, from bauxite mining, alumina refining, coal mining, captive power plants and aluminium smelting to downstream rolling, extrusions, and foils. Along with its subsidiary Novelis, Hindalco is the global leader in flat rolled products and the world’s largest recycler of aluminium.Hindalco is India’s largest copper producer, serving more than half the country’s copper requirements. Its copper facility in Gujarat, India, comprises a world-class copper smelter and refinery complex, downstream facilities, and a captive jetty. Hindalco’s global footprint spans 48 manufacturing units across 10 countries. Hindalco has been ranked the world’s most sustainable aluminium company in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) for six consecutive years – 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025.
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