Aluminium producer Hulamin has drawn attention to upbeat prospects for the company’s 2017 financial year. Speaking at its annual meeting last week, Hulamin chairman Mafika Mkwanazi said a stronger product mix, increased utilisation of scrap metal and efficiency improvements — supported by a solid manufacturing performance — were expected to benefit profits for the first half of 2017. He said the benefit of a stronger global aluminium price was expected to offset the negative effect on Hulamin’s conversion margins based on the significantly stronger rand-dollar exchange rate average recorded in the first few months of the new financial year. Mkwanazi said Hulamin was seeing encouraging momentum across all its operations, particularly its rolled products division, with a full order book for the balance of the current year and buoyant customer demand. He said local packaging and engineering markets had improved since late 2016 and were "somewhat stronger" than the first quarter of 2016...
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