OSLO, July 22, 2008 (AFP) - Norwegian aluminium producer Norsk Hydro said on Tuesday that profit margins crumbled in the second quarter amid rising costs and despite strong prices for its products.

LONDON, July 10, 2008 (AFP) - The price of aluminium rose to a record peak of 3,380 dollars per tonne on Thursday after Chinese moves to cut production, analysts said.

That beat the previous all-time high of 3,327 dollars that was hit on Tuesday in trading on the London Metal Exchange.

MOSCOW, April 19, 2008 (AFP) - Some 40 Russian miners ended a week-long hunger strike in the Urals Saturday and started talks with management, Interfax reported, almost a month after they walked out over pay and work conditions.

SYDNEY, April 16, 2008 (AFP) - The world's third largest miner Rio Tinto Wednesday said iron ore sales were at a record level in the first quarter despite lower production from Western Australia.

MOSCOW, April 4, 2008 (AFP) - A group of 97 Russian miners on Friday left a mineshaft in the Ural Mountains where they had spent more than a week in protest at pay and conditions, the aluminium company that owns the mine said.

ABU DHABI, Jan 30, 2008 (AFP) - The Emirati firms Mubadala Development Co and Dubal signed a memorandum of understanding on Wednesday to build an aluminium smelter for more than five billion dollars, the companies announced.

DOHA, Nov 19, 2007 (AFP) - Qatar started work on Monday on its first aluminium plant costing around 6.5 billion dollars in a joint project with Norway.

An AFP journalist said Qatar's Crown Prince Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani laid the project's foundation stone at a launch ceremony in the tiny Gas-rich state.

DOHA, Oct 29, 2007 (AFP) - Qatar said on Monday that work would begin next month on building one of the world's largest aluminium plants in the tiny gas-rich Gulf state.

The plant will produce 585,000 tonnes of aluminium per year and will be the 'largest aluminium plant in the world built in one stage,' Minister of Energy and Industry Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah said.

Speaking at the start of an international conference on gas in the Qatari capital, Doha, he said that production would begin at the end of 2009.

MUMBAI, July 31, 2007 (AFP) - India's largest aluminium firm Hindalco said Tuesday its fiscal first quarter net profit remained flat from a year ago, but forecast growing domestic and regional demand for its products.

Hindalco said net profit for the three months to June rose 0.16 percent to 6.02 billion rupees (149 million dollars) from 6.01 billion rupees a year earlier.

Revenues rose 10.3 percent to 48.02 billion rupees.

'The robust growth in the Asian region, led by China, would continue to drive demand for metals,' the company said in a statement.