Item 1 of 2 American Industrial Partners logo is shown in this illustration taken August 21, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
[1/2]American Industrial Partners logo is shown in this illustration taken August 21, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
PARIS, Nov 21 (Reuters) – U.S. investment firm American Industrial Partners plans to sell or list on the stock market Aluminium Dunkerque, France’s largest aluminium plant, a union official said on Friday.
The local management informed workers’ representatives of AIP’s plan, Johan Vlietinck, a representative of the CGT union at the site, told Reuters.
Sign up here.
Bloomberg News had reported earlier that AIP was considering a sale or listing for Aluminium Dunkerque, which it acquired four years ago following a debt default by GFG Alliance, owned by commodities tycoon Sanjeev Gupta.
A spokesperson for AIP in France said the investment fund was not denying the press reports but would not comment further.
Aluminium Dunkerque did not respond to a request for comment.
The smelter is classed as a strategic site and any non-French buyer would be subject to a special foreign investor procedure, the economy ministry said, without commenting on the reported sale process.
LONG-TERM POWER CONTRACT SECURED
Unions had anticipated a possible sale after Aluminium Dunkerque signed a 10-year power contract with utility EDF in May, providing long-term cost visibility for the energy-intensive business, Vlietinck said.
Aluminium Dunkerque, located next to the northern French port of Dunkirk, produces around 300,000 metric tons of raw aluminium per year and is one of Europe’s biggest aluminium smelters.
It has an annual power consumption roughly equivalent to that of Marseille, France’s second-largest city.
It generates annual turnover of more than 800 million euros ($921.4 million), according to its website.
No offers for the business have been communicated to workers’ representatives, Vlietinck said.
Bloomberg cited sources saying there had been non-binding offers from companies including Rio Tinto (RIO.L), opens new tab, (RIO.AX), opens new tab, Glencore (GLEN.L), opens new tab and Metlen Energy & Metals (MTLN.L), opens new tab. The three companies mentioned all declined to comment.
The CGT is opposed to any potential return of mining group Rio Tinto, which it considers to have underinvested during its ownership of the site before selling it to GFG Alliance, Vlietinck said.
The union would like the French state to invest as part of a consortium, he added.
($1 = 0.8682 euros)
Reporting by Gus Trompiz, editing by Kirsten Donovan and Alex Richardson
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
Elite hitmaker Justin Tranter is set to be honoured with the Global Songwriter Award at the conclusion of the 26th global edition of MUSEXPO next year.
The award – which salutes exceptional songwriters whose creative…
MUMBAI: The rupee fell to an all-time low of 89.48 against the US dollar on Friday, dragged down by weak global risk sentiment and uncertainty surrounding the US–India trade deal. A steady dollar index, which extended gains above the crucial 100 mark following stronger-than-expected US non-farm payroll data of 119,000 and hawkish Fed commentary on delaying rate cuts, further pressured the rupee.
There were also reports of an Indian company being on the list of sanctioned firms for buying Iranian crude. Traders now expect the rupee to weaken further beyond 90 level in the short term, however positive development on the US-India trade deal would relieve pressure on the rupee. The 10-year yields also fell by 4 bps to 6.57 per cent.
The currency is now among the weakest major Asian performers this year, as foreign investors have withdrawn $16.5 billion from Indian equities so far. During the financial year to date, the rupee has depreciated by around 4.4 per cent.
The rupee’s fall comes despite the RBI Governor on Thursday stating that once the US-India trade deal is done it would be positive for the rupee and the current account. But during the day, the RBI stopped defending the rupee at 88.80 (a level it has held for a long time) much to the surprise of importers and dealers.
A trader said that once the dollar-rupee broke decisively above 89, aggressive short covering kicked in across onshore and offshore markets, triggering stops and amplifying the upside move.
At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 88.67 and plunged 82 paise to hit its lowest-ever intra-day level of 89.50 before trading at 89.48 against the American currency. On Thursday, the rupee had depreciated 20 paise to close at 88.68 against the US dollar. The unit had recorded its previous all-time intra-day low of 88.85 on September 30. The previous lowest closing level was registered at 88.81 against the US dollar on October 14.
According to Abhishek Goenka, founder and chief executive officer at IFA Global, the RBI has already expended considerable forex reserves defending 88.80. It’s short position in forwards including NDF is likely over $ 70 billion. “The RBI would have wanted to keep some ammunition dry to intervene at higher levels rather than go all in at 88.80. Going forward we expect the Rupee to settle in a new 88.80-90.00 range. We have maintained that the Rupee will deliberate in a gradual, staircase like manner,” added Goenka.
Rahul Kalantri, vice-president commodities at Mehta Equities Ltd said, “Today’s USD-INR weekly close above 89.20 is a negative signal for the rupee. We expect the rupee to weaken further towards 90.40 and 91 levels, while the key support remains at 88.45.”
Car Design News takes a look at news that may have gone under the radar, including the latest updates from Rolls-Royce, Ferrari, Hyundai, McLaren and Jeep
Note: This new series gathers the Inside Line panel to discuss the major storyline surrounding each NTT INDYCAR SERIES team entering the 2026 season. An installment on each team will appear at INDYCAR.com on Fridays.
Millions of us unwind with reality television. It’s comforting, social and, when the format is good, brilliantly engineered drama. But there’s an invisible carbon cost to all that escapism.
An Israeli soldier crouches near a Merkava tank on November 17, 2025. (IDF)
Palestinian terrorists in Gaza have violated phase one of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas on at least eight occasions between November 13 and…
This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback.
Efforts to modernize bottle bills are still hamstrung by old myths, according to advocates representing the plastics, glass and metal packaging industries. Butevolutions within the U.S. policy landscape amid the Trump administration’s emphasis on domestic manufacturing and the launch of state extended producer responsibility programs havehelped build momentum in a productive year for these bills, they say.
The myths include that MRFs won’t be able to survive alongside bottle deposit schemes and that these systems burden consumers, said leaders from the Association of Plastic Recyclers, Can Manufacturers Institute and Glass Packaging Institute during a webinar Thursday on deposit return systems. The event was organized by the National Stewardship Action Council.
Today, only 20% of U.S. states have bottle deposit programs, and many of those policies are decades old.
“We are fans of many different policies to improve plastics recycling. Bottle deposits are one of them,” said Kate Bailey, APR’s chief policy officer. “Sixty percent of what we collect for plastic recycling, in terms of PET bottles, comes from the 10 states that have bottle deposits.”
GPI President Scott DeFife noted a similar statistic – 60% of the cullet that can go back into glass bottles comes from the 10 bottle bill states, he said. Conversely, when glass is recovered in a commingled single-stream system, the glass is much more likely to end up as something other than a bottle due to quality issues, he said.
Recycling refunds, a newer moniker for these policies, are “hands down the best policy in terms of getting the consumer to see an economic incentive on their container and recycle it,” said Mike Smaha, CMI’s vice president of government affairs.
One new catalyst for bottle bill discussions this year has been the start of packaging EPR programs, led by Oregon. That’s opened more serious conversations in the beverage space about the role for recycling refunds, rather than just EPR fees, Smaha said. “I think that there is a cost savings for folks who want to utilize a recycling refund program versus an EPR program,” he said.
Bailey highlighted Oregon’s depot model. “We’re also learning so much as EPR is rolling out, that not everything is going to be collected through a curbside recycling program,” and drop-off sites will be needed for hard-to-recycle items, Bailey said. “Many of us are familiar with bringing our electronics to a depot for recycling,” which spurs the realization that “you can scale a depot program that can collect bottles.”
Strengthening circularity in the US
There’s more cheap virgin plastic than ever before, according to Bailey. What’s more, for U.S. companies that are still trying to incorporate recycled plastics, it’s often cheaper to source recycled content from Thailand, Vietnam and other parts of Asia than it is from domestic sources.
“We need to make sure the recycled content that companies are using is actually coming from our North American recycling programs,” Bailey said. This will require stronger policies to ensure recycled materials stay in the U.S. and are subsequently reused in U.S. manufacturing, she said, which would go hand in hand with placing disincentives on the use of imported materials.
Smaha described similar priorities for the can sheet manufacturing industry, which he said has invested heavily in U.S. production.
“The problem is we can’t get enough used beverage cans back to feed those plants,” Smaha said. With the current administration’s discussion of reshoring, “we’ve got all this material – whether it’s glass, it’s plastic, it’s metal – that we are consuming and we’re disposing of here in the U.S.; why are we not capturing it and remaking things from it?”
While glass is largely a regional commodity, domestic bottle businesses are still struggling to get enough recycled material, DeFife said.
“Our biggest competition is the landfill,” DeFife said. “End markets that really shouldn’t have to compete for material like this are ending up competing for material.” But circularity rates in bottle bill states are much higher.
To that end, NSAC and the Stewardship Action Foundation recently launched a “ReMade in America” pledge, calling on recycling stakeholders to support “a circular economy that truly works for America and for Americans,” ensuring that material manufactured in the U.S. is then recycled and reused domestically.
This would include commitments from recyclers to process and produce high-quality materials ready for remanufacturing by U.S. manufacturers, and from companies to use that recycled content. Signatories include Republic Services, Recology and others.
States to watch
Advocates celebrated numerous cases of legislative progress in 2025, even for bills that didn’t make it across the finish line.
Maryland and Washington ultimately passed EPR bills this year, but they also discussed bottle bills. Rhode Island ended up approving a needs assessment that calls for data that might be used to consider a possible bottle bill in the future. And a Texas bill moved out of committee before running out of time. “That’s a pretty big win,” Smaha said.
Meanwhile, New York discussed a bottle bill expansion, Iowa assessed changes on redemption access and Michigan held study meetings that could inform possible modernizations.
Illinois and Virginia could be statehouses to watch in the next couple of years, Smaha added.
Bailey expects cost to be a huge factor in upcoming government discussions the next two years. “I think there’s a real opportunity for us to talk about the cost to local governments and the cost to consumers of the problems we have today, and the opportunity to reduce those costs with new programs — like deposits, like EPR — moving forward,” Bailey said.
Additionally, “we’re talking about jobs and domestic manufacturing and a resilient domestic economy, and that message is always welcome in governments, and particularly welcome these days,” Bailey said. “Those are two themes that are really going to be beneficial for us to focus on in the next couple of years.”
EPR is poised to further shift thinking around bottle deposits. As EPR programs in the U.S. get off the ground, “eventually there’s going to get to be a performance objective that needs to be met,” DeFife said.
Examples from around the world show that combination programs have the highest recovery rates, DeFife said, and “I think there’s going to be a realization that some need to change and augment the system in order to get to the higher performance rates.” As such, these discussions will continue “for the next five to 10 years, at least.”
Another key going forward will be not just adding more bottle bills, but actually modernizing this type of policy. This requires understanding pain points in the existing 10 states, and addressing those issues in new bottle bill states, Smaha said.
