Welcome also to all of you following us on webcast. The results will be presented as normal by CEO Svein Richard Brandtzæg and CFO Eivind Kallevik. We'll have time for one-on-one afterwards like usual. Svein Richard?
The EBIT of this quarter was NOK 1.5 billion, which is NOK 100 million below the previous quarter and NOK 700 million below the Q3 of last year. We have had higher realized aluminum prices, but that was offset by stronger currencies in, especially in Brazil, affecting our Brazilian assets. We had the record high aluminum production in the quarter, 6.5 million tons annualized production in the quarter, which is above nameplate capacity, which is 6.3 million tons. On the back of also very high bauxite production of about 11 million tons annualized in the quarter. Both in Paragominas and Alunorte, we are now operating above nameplate capacity, but we will now in Alunorte continue to stabilize the production around nameplate capacity.
Q3 is normally weaker on sales than the Q2 due to seasonal variation, and we also experienced this in the Q3 this year with about 1.8% lower primary sales globally. I'm happy to see that we have now started the trial production in our automotive line three in Germany. With regard to the improvement program, the BETTER program, we have NOK 9 billion ambition to improve the bottom line with NOK 2.9 billion within the end of. We are now seeing that we maintain. We will end up in the higher part of this estimate. Supply-demand balance.
On the right side, you see the towards 1,000,000 tons deficit as it is in the Q3. Percent lower on primary globally. It was stronger demand in China than expected. We saw in total almost 7% growth in China, 2.5% growth outside China, and all in all about 4.7% growth in the Q3 compared to the Q3 last year. Again, when we look at the total picture now, we see that the estimate that we gave previously, that we also increased to 45%, will be maintained. We see that we will end up on the higher range as mentioned in this growth estimate.
If you now take a look at the curtailments and the growth in additions of supply. There are some additions in India and Malaysia in the quarter, also some additions in northwest of China. On the curtailment side, we have seen that moving at a slower pace than what we estimated previously. When we look at the total, it's about 1 million tons-1.5 million tons in deficit. In China, we said previously we estimated closer to 0.5-1 million tons oversupply in China. All in all, we see there could be a small deficit in the end of the year.
If you now take a look at the development, we have seen improvements from $1,582 per ton to, on a market price level, we realized $1,612 during the quarter, coming up from $1,546 in previous quarter. If you look at the premiums we saw in the U.S. market, the premiums went down from $172 per ton to $142. In Europe, the premiums went down from $132 to $119 per ton. Today, we see that the premiums are trading at higher levels, both in the U.S. market, we see about $145 per ton on premiums and on standard ingots, and also around $130 or so in the European market.
In Norwegian krone, the development was very similar to what we saw in our dollar terms during the quarter. If I look at the export levels from China, we have talked about that previously. We saw in 2015 and parts of 2016. Today the same level as we saw in the previous quarter, at least when we look at the July, August preliminary September figures is also very close to that level. Alumina prices. It's a quite dramatic change in Q4 last year, when we saw curtailments of aluminum production in China. That ended up with prices that were so low that about 10 million tons alumina capacity was curtailed.
We saw increases in the Q1 this year, and later, a reduction of prices in the Q2 into the Q3. Now we have seen quite steep increases again in the alumina price, compared to the realized price that was $234 per ton. Or at least the market price was $234 per ton. The realized price was $240 per ton. We have now seen the price is up to $285. We also see now that the alumina price in China is in fact higher than the LME price, including freight costs. That is partly due to some disruptions in China, limitations on transport.
It seems that the Chinese have now limited the volumes that can be transported on the roads. Also some other effects, of course, also some shutdowns of capacity in the West with two alumina refineries. One, Gramercy, is in Chapter 11, so that can also influence, of course, this picture. When we look at the bauxite imports to China, we see that there's been a shift in sources. Indonesia has a ban on export. Malaysia has a temporary ban that has been prolonged until the end of the year. Guinea is coming up as a new important source, and we know there are a lot of bauxite in Guinea.
Earlier this year, we saw 500,000 tons-600,000 tons per month being exported from Guinea to China. Now we see that is approaching 1 million tons. Next year, there are signals showing that this could be 30 million tons from Guinea to China. Also increases of export in bauxite export from Brazil to China. We see that all in all now Brazil is exporting around 400,000 tons per month. If you then look at the Pacific, that was representing the biggest part of export to China. Now Atlantic is coming up from 5% previously, representing 5% of the total import to China. Now we see at least 30% is coming from the Atlantic region.
If we take a look at the export-import balance to China on different categories. We have talked about bauxite. We saw higher import of alumina to China in the quarter. We saw somewhat higher scrap import coming up to similar levels on semi-fabricated products. We see that is also fairly stable. Similar figures as in the previous quarter, except that we see somewhat higher import of alumina, obviously. Let us move over to operations and our BETTER program, the improvement program. NOK 2.9 billion is the target to be delivered within end of 2019. We are on track in total. We are on track also in improvements. Also on track this year to deliver NOK 400 million in improvements in 2016.
We have talked about the $180 program for the joint ventures previously, and we are delivering that according to plan at the end of the year. In the Rolled Products, we are on plan for the 2019 target, but we are somewhat behind on the 2016 target. Two factors. One is the fact that we are a bit slower on moving over to automotive feeds and higher margin products. Another factor is the delay in the recycling line in Germany, and that will still take some time before we are in full speed on that line. In Bauxite & Alumina, we are absolutely on target for 2019 and also for the 2016 target, where Bauxite & Alumina is going to deliver half a billion NOK.
We have good production, as I mentioned, in Brazil. We have higher production than the nameplate. We are now going to concentrate on the consumption factors in Brazil going forward. If you then take a closer look at the alumina refinery, our main operations in Brazil, we see the development since 2013, where we have stabilized the production at higher and higher levels. Now at 6.5 million tons, with nameplate capacity of 6.3, which is very good improvement during last quarter. We are not promising 6.5 going forward. We are more targeting the nameplate capacity of 6.3. Focus on potentials for further cost improvements.
If I take the alumina costs, we had slightly higher cost, $3 higher in the quarter due to currency movements. Also higher sourcing cost of alumina. Good production as mentioned, and also stable realized prices. When the cost went up $3, we also had $3 lower margin in the quarter. Realized price was $2,540, as mentioned. If we go to Primary, we had higher raw material cost, alumina cost, for example. We had lower fixed costs, and seasonal lower volumes and negative currency effects. All in all, $50 increased the implied primary cost.
If you then take a closer look at the margins, the margins are about $5 lower than in the previous quarter. We had some positive non-operational effects in the Q2 when we compared with the Q2. Moving downstream to Rolled Products, and compare the Q3 with the Q2 last year, seasonally, 3% lower sales in most of the categories except for can, due to the fact that we had higher can export to markets outside Europe. Compared to the Q3 last year, 1% lower sales. Also there some improvement in can, but negative in other categories. We should remember here that the Q3 last year was exceptionally strong.
We are comparing this year with a very strong market last year. That's why we are showing also the yearly development, where we had 4% higher sales year to date in the Q3 compared to year to date in the Q3 last year. Strong development in automotive, of course, as we have talked about previously, but also strong development in special products. In Extrusions, I know we're talking about Sapa. We had 5.8% lower sales in Europe in the Q3, and then 4.6% lower sales in the U.S. market in the quarter due to the seasonal variation that we are expecting. Compared to the Q3 last year, we had 0.7% higher sales in the U.S., and 2.1% higher sales in Europe.
In U.S., it's very much supported by automotive, also some support on building and construction. In Europe, the building and construction market is quite mixed, but we have a stronger market, of course, than the drive for replacement of steel to aluminum in the automotive market. The truck and trailer market in U.S. is low, and that is, of course, affecting this negatively. In total, somewhat higher sales and higher growth in the market as we see it in U.S., but even better in Europe. We should expect that there will be moderate development in Europe. We expect a sideways development, but it will still be higher sales to automotive. Also we expect the continued demand growth in North America.
We also know that there are certain market segments like truck and trailer that are quite weak. Again, we know also that the Q4 is normally seasonally even weaker than the Q3. That should be taken into account. If you then look at the earnings development in Sapa, quite good development if you look at last year's from Q3 2014, NOK 100 million in underlying EBIT for our as our share, NOK 202 million in the Q3 of 2015, and NOK 244 million in the Q3 this year. In regards to underlying net income, we are now at NOK 157 million on our share. This is due to, of course, successful restructuring of this business.
Quite good development for Sapa to move into higher margin products. Sapa is really taking the opportunities in the growing aluminum market. Now we see several segments are moving very positively, and Sapa is doing a good job in this market. On Energy, we had stable prices in the quarter. Quite surprising to see that we have similar power prices in the summer months as in the winter months in the NO2 area at least. If you look at the Mid Norway market, that market was higher. We had 212 Norwegian kroner per MWh in the NO2. In NO3 was around 270, very much due to influence of higher power prices in Sweden.
Also the power prices in the south of Norway was influenced by restriction on export through the cables. If you look at the water reservoir level and the development, we are now moving into the drier season. It has been drier weather during the Q3. That is also now what we see now in the beginning of Q4. When we look at price development on the continent, that is also influencing now the fact that they're influencing the power prices, and we see now that they are increasing significantly during the last period.
I mean, now, closer to NOK 300 per MWh. Some minutes on the two growth project for Hydro, which is one is the Karmøy technology pilot that is now 40% finished. The construction is ongoing, and we are moving according to plan, both with regard to time and scope and budget. NOK 1.6 billion has been spent, and we got Enova support of NOK 1.4 billion so far. In total, the budget is NOK 4.3 billion, where NOK 1.6 billion will be support from Enova. This pilot is of course one of our strategies to improve the competitive position of our smelting operations.
We have done cost reductions over several years, and when we are finalizing all the NOK 2.9 billion program, we will utilize the technology elements from this pilot to bring the cost even further down. One thing is that we are going to run aluminum production at Karmøy with the lowest energy consumption the world have ever seen. We also have a lot of other technology elements that will be utilized in the existing smelters going forward. We are really looking forward to bring forward this technology pilot and start production in the H2 next year.
We have the automotive line three in Germany that is also now moving according to plan, and we have started the trial production, and it is also moving according to budget, which was EUR 130 million. We know there are a lot of customers waiting for this capacity to come on stream. The booking looks better than what we estimated previously, and this will lift the capacity for Hydro to 200,000 tons into the automotive market. We are in the front line on the with regard to technology and competence in this market, and we will be number two volume-wise in this market going forward with this in full production.
That concludes my part of the presentation, and then I will give the word to Eivind, and he is now a temporary leader of Bauxite & Alumina, which I'm very happy for. Now he will be presenting this result as CFO. Please, Eivind.
Thank you, Svein Richard, and good morning to all of you also from myself. With that, I'll suggest that we dive straight into the quarter's financial figures. This quarter, we delivered an underlying EBIT of some NOK one and a half billion, slightly down from the NOK 1.6 billion that we delivered in the previous quarter, 30% down to the same quarter last year. We've seen an increase of 3% in all-in metal prices on the back of the higher LME, which contributed positively between the quarters. The alumina price was stable between the quarters. On the other hand, the net currency effect reduced the result by approximately NOK 200 million this quarter. This is on the back of the stronger BRL versus the dollar, negatively affecting the Brazilian operations.
For the first time in several quarters, the dollar-NOK rate has remained relatively stable between the quarters, and as such, did not have a big effect on the results in this period. As expected in a seasonally weaker Q3, we saw lower sales throughout the metal as well as the downstream segments. This was partly offset by somewhat higher volumes within bauxite and alumina, but overall, it had a net negative impact of NOK 200 million. Finally, some other items which I've not mentioned netted out to a small negative or a small positive effect of slightly below NOK 100 million Norwegian kroner. I will get back to more in some more detail on the different business areas later on in the presentation.
If we then take a look at the key financials for the quarter. Revenues also down by some NOK 200 million compared to the previous quarter. This is very much a result of the mixed developments of volumes and prices throughout the value chain. While alumina and bauxite sales increased for the period, the realized alumina prices remained flat. Energy also had somewhat higher volumes, but stable market prices in the period. At the same time, metal and downstream product shipments were seasonally lower, offsetting the positive effect of higher aluminum prices. This quarter, we have excluded from reported EBIT of around NOK 1.4 billion, a loss of NOK 101 million in timing and other effects, not reflecting the underlying performance for the period. I will go through these in more detail on my next slide.
Financial items for this quarter amounted to approximately NOK 317 million positive. This includes unrealized net currency gains of NOK 358 million, reflecting the strengthening of the NOK versus the euro, having an impact on both the embedded derivatives in our power contracts as well as some intercompany debt positions. As a result, the income before tax for Q3 was positive NOK 1.7 billion, compared to the NOK 2.9 billion that we saw in the previous quarter. Income tax of NOK 574 million, roughly 34%, very much in the line with the long-term guidance we do on tax. This gives us a net income of NOK 1.1 billion, down from the NOK 2.1 billion that we had in the previous quarter.
As a reminder, please remember that last quarter included significantly higher unrealized currency gains, as well as the gain on the sale of the Herøya Industripark. The underlying net income excluded the net currency gains for the period, amounted to some NOK 958 million positive, just shy of 200 million, down from the 1.1 billion that we realized in the previous quarter. Consequently, the underlying earnings per share also somewhat down to 0.46 NOK per share. If you then get back to the loss of NOK 101 million that we have excluded from reported EBIT, so we can better portray the real performance for this quarter. Then let's just look at the large ticket items. First, we had a charge of NOK 124 million.
This relates to the decision to demolish the smelter or smelter site of Kurri Kurri that we had in Australia. Furthermore, there is an impairment charge of NOK 140 million relating to a sale of an industrial site in Hannover, Germany. We also excluded a net gain of NOK 50 million in Sapa relating to some smaller rationalization charges as well as currency and derivative gains. As usual, we also excluded the results from unrealized derivative effects on LME product positions, power and other raw material contracts, as well as the metal effects in Rolled Products. We now turn to the different business areas and start with Bauxite & Alumina. The underlying EBIT declined somewhat to NOK 153 million, down from the NOK 174 million that we had in Q2.
The higher production we realized in this quarter contributed clearly positive. As already mentioned, Alunorte delivered 6.5 million tons, record production, well above nameplate capacity. And of course, the development we are extremely pleased with. Also for Paragominas, we came back to roughly 11 million tons on annualized production after we had the ball mill maintenance at the end of Q2, as well as the successful pipeline maintenance at the beginning of the Q3. All in all, a very good and strong operational quarter. Alumina sales price remained stable between quarters as the 5% higher LME basically was offset by 6% lower PUC price in the period.
The sourcing portfolio, on the other hand, had a somewhat higher proportion of LME-based contracts this quarter, resulting in $3 higher per ton on the implied alumina cost. We continue to see positive effects of the BETTER program in Brazil and in Bauxite & Alumina. Basically, it impacts the alumina production, but more importantly this quarter, it is also very big impact on the different consumption factors for the raw material components that we use, improvement of energy mix, and also then a lower cost, fixed cost per unit, given the higher proportion of production. This was also supported by somewhat lower bauxite and energy prices, which was partly offset by higher caustic prices in the period. Finally, the currency was again a major driver in the negative direction for the Brazilian operation.
On average, the BRL strengthened some 7% compared to the Q2, impacting the result negatively with NOK 150 million between the periods. If you look into the Q4, we do expect bauxite and alumina production to remain at high levels. As I mentioned, the primary focus now will be to keep Alunorte around nameplate capacity in the coming quarters. The BETTER program is ongoing, and we are quite confident that we will reach this year's target of half a billion by the end of the Q4. The net index exposure in Q4 is anticipated to come somewhat down, but still remain very much in line with the 50% average that we've guided on for 2016 as a whole.
Let me again remind you that the currency development is still one of the major factors to watch for when we evaluate the results for Q4. So far this quarter, the BRL has strengthened an additional 3% against the dollar, indicating somewhat further drag on the B&A results in the Q4. Turning to Primary Metal, the underlying EBIT declined from NOK 702 million in Q2 to NOK 637 million in the third. On the positive side, the realized all-in metal price increased by 3% in the quarter, 4% lift on LME, somewhat offset by 7% average reduction in the realized premium.
On the other side, and as we guided for, we did see some higher raw material costs, in particular on the alumina side, as this is trailing the market price with some 2-3 months. Also, the fact that the power cost in Albras had a full quarter of inflation adjustment in this Q3. It was somewhat shorter in the Q2. Seasonally, we had somewhat lower sales volumes in addition to seasonally somewhat lower fixed costs. Also, for B&A, the BRL strengthening against the dollar has a negative impact on the BRL-denominated cost in our smelter in Brazil, Albras.
Furthermore, when you compare second to Q3, it is important that you remember the non-operational effects, positive impacts that we had in the Q2 of roughly NOK 125 million related to the reversal of ICMS tax on historical power sales in Brazil, as well as the insurance compensation we received in the Q2 for the power outage at Årdal. Looking into Q4, at the end of the quarter, we have sold roughly 50% of our production at around $1,600 per ton, when you exclude Qatalum. We booked roughly 55% in dollars per ton.
Remember that a bigger part of the outstanding shares are more ingot-related and that the average premium will come down, and we anticipate that it will land in the range. Seasonally, Q4 is normally the weakest quarter in terms of activity level and demand, and we expect sales volumes out of Primary Metal to come somewhat down compared to the Q3. Also, on the fixed cost level, we do expect those to normally increase as we have more maintenance periods towards the end of the year. Metal Markets, we have delivered an underlying EBIT of NOK 117 million, which is up from the NOK 75 million. The currency and inventory valuation effect, the result is fairly stable at around NOK 160 million.
As expected on the back of summer maintenance seasons in Europe compared to the Q2. This effect, however, was offset by, in part due to the stronger ingot premiums that we saw at the end of the quarter. If you look into the Q4, also for Metal Markets, we do expect metal sales to decrease due to seasonally weaker demand in Europe at the end of the year. At the same time, as we always do, let me just remind you that the trading results and currency effects in Metal Markets is by nature volatile and can impact results also in Q4.
For Rolled Products, as expected, underlying EBIT, again, declined seasonally down to NOK 211 million in the Q3 compared to NOK 242 million in the Q2. Shipments were down some 3% driven by seasonally lower demand for all product segments, with the exception of beverage can that was seasonally strong as it normally is in Q3. The average margin that we realized in the period is then also negatively affected due to the different product mix that we have in Q3 compared to the Q2. Some of these effects with lower volumes are offset by lower production-related costs, as should be expected. Metal prices.
If you look into the Q4, we do expect sales volumes to seasonally come further. In addition, also here, we expect costs to come somewhat higher, in the Q4, in part due to the increased maintenance activities that we have in the Q4 of the year. As mentioned, we have started trial production in automotive line three, now. That also means that there will be further depreciation coming into Rolled Products in the Q4 as we start to depreciate the automotive line number three. If we look to Energy, the EBIT declined somewhat to NOK 285 million in the Q3. The hydropower production itself increased strongly to 2.9 terawatt-hours in the Q3, encouraged by relatively high summer prices in addition to good reservoir situations during the quarter.
The higher results were the main positive contributor for the result development in this quarter. The prices in our production areas remained stable at around 212 NOK per MWh. At the same time, prices in Mid Norway, where Hydro short power increased to 271 NOK per MWh, as these prices are typically more coupled to the Swedish markets, where we've seen maintenance periods in the nuclear power plants. We've seen worse hydrology situations in Sweden, leading to a widening area price difference between NO2 and NO3, also as we guided on in the last quarter. Furthermore, also remember that property taxes are higher in Q3. They will come down again in Q4 due to the new accounting rules and of periodization effects.
If you look into the Q4, or quarter to date, the average price 5 NOK per MWh and 313 when you look at the NO3 pricing area. The area price difference has come somewhat in, but it's still relatively wide seen in historical context. We do expect the prices in NO2 to remain relatively low compared to the NO3 area, partly driven by the restrictions we have on the cables out of Southern Norway, limiting the price uptick, while in the Mid-Norway it's still the hydrology situation in Sweden, the Swedish and the continental prices.
Turning to Sapa, when we compare to the Q2, the Q3 for Sapa was negatively affected by the seasonally weaker market demand, both in Europe as well as in North America. As a result, the underlying EBIT between the quarters reduced by roughly 40%. However, when you compare it to Q3 last year, the underlying EBIT is some NOK 40 million higher, reflecting the positive developments in all business areas, with an exception in Extrusion Americas. Better results are driven by the continuous improvement efforts and an increased share of higher margin volumes and higher margin business. Sales volumes were slightly down between Q3 and this year and Q3 last year, primarily driven by the market development seen in the U.S.
When it comes to market outlook, remember again that Q4 is usually the weakest quarter of the year due to customer demand and destocking towards the end of the year. In addition, as mentioned by Svein Richard, certain market segments that we operate in the North American market, in particular the truck and trailer market, is relatively weak at the moment, while the rest of the U.S. demand appears to be relatively healthy. Other eliminations amounted to NOK 75 million in this quarter, compared to NOK 125 million positive in the Q2. We've just been through the Sapa results, and if we then look at the other line, which describes the charges for common services and other businesses, it was down to NOK 66 million in Q3 from NOK 100 million in the Q2.
This is, as you will see, somewhat below the quarterly guidance that we have of NOK 150 million. In addition, the year-to-date number is NOK 328 million, which means that the full year estimate for this will be below the NOK 600 million that we guide on an annual estimate. On the Q4, however, we do continue to guide for NOK 150 million, as typically the charges in this area are somewhat higher in the Q4, compared to the previous three. Relatively small effects on eliminations this quarter, negative NOK 17 million compared to the negative NOK 45 million that we had in the Q2.
If we then look at the net cash development since last quarter, you can see that we continue to improve our cash position, increasing now to NOK 5.4 billion at the end of the Q3, pretty much driven by positive cash flow from operations. We started the quarter with NOK 4.8 billion in cash. We've delivered an underlying EBITDA of NOK 2.8 billion being the major positive contributor this quarter. Net operating capital remained relatively flat between the two periods. Taxes paid and adjustments for non-cash effects related to equity accounted investments in EBITDA reduced net cash by some NOK 500 million. As a result of this, we generated a net cash flow from operations of positive NOK 2.4 billion in the Q3, down from the NOK 3.5 billion we had in the Q2.
Q2, as many of you will remember, were positively impacted by NOK 700 million that we received on the tax dispute that we had with, the Norwegian tax authorities. We've invested NOK 1.5 billion in the Q3, of which NOK 375 million is related to the net CapEx on the Karmøy pilot. So far this year, we have, invested a total of NOK 4.9 billion, which means that, or at least indicates that there will be significant CapEx coming into Q4 to reach the annual guidance of NOK 8.1 billion. Finally, dividends to minorities and other effects reduced the net cash position with approximately NOK 300 million in the quarter, thus leaving us with NOK 5.4 billion in net cash.
When it comes to the adjusted net debt, it decreased further by NOK 700 million to NOK 8.1 billion in the Q3 if you exclude the net debt in equity accounted investments. The main reason for this reduction is, of course, the build of net cash that I just went through on the previous slide. Net debt in both Sapa and Qatalum decreased by a total of more than NOK 1 billion between the quarters as a result of net cash flow in both entities and a smaller translation adjustment of the debt in Qatalum. Total adjusted net debt decreased by no less than NOK 1.7 billion to NOK 14.2 billion at the end of the quarter. With that, Svein Richard, I'll leave the floor to you.
Thank you, Eivind. Going forward, first of all, we are committed to deliver on the NOK 2.9 billion improvement program, and we are according to plan to deliver that within the end of 2019. I'm happy to see that there are strong commitment also in the organization to deliver that. We will continue to strengthen our position through the technology pilot and the technology elements from the pilot, and we look very much forward to start up the technology pilot at Karmøy next year. We also look very much forward to starting up full production at automotive line three in Germany for the body-in-white market in Europe. Finally, in this volatile market, we maintain the strength and financial flexibility going forward. Thank you very much for your attention.
Okay. Thank you. Then we open for questions from the audience and also from webcast. We have the microphone coming around here. Starting in the back. Okay, then you.
[Uncertain] Markets. Two questions, please. First, you mentioned or you have a comment in the report on restarts in China that is expected to have an effect in 2017. Can you maybe talk a bit on your view on the 2017 balance with respect to that comment and also downstream on Sapa, especially a bit softer sales to the U.S. Can you please extrapolate or elaborate a bit on that? Thank you.
With regard to the curtailments and restarts in China, we have seen that the restart has been slightly slower than what we expected. This is sensitive to the price development. As I mentioned, we expect that this restart will continue, and it will continue into the Q4 and then also into 2017. With regard to the supply demand balance, it's, we believe it will be largely balanced also next year. We see it could be a small deficit this year. I think with all the uncertainties we have in this when we are calculating this balance, it's very difficult to in a way give other direction that we expect to largely balance the market.
It could be some oversupply in China dependent on or as it is today, but depending on the price development, because it seems that at least the curtailments that has been done is now reversed, and we expect more capacity to come online in China going forward. With regard to the market of Sapa, we, as mentioned, have seen good development in automotive, but also very weak in truck and trailer. We have seen also positive development, although on a low level in building and road construction. We thought previously that truck and trailer reduction could be an early warning of something more happening in this market.
It is too early to say, but at least some of that effect is ascribed to the situation in the shale gas development and coal transport, but it remains to be seen.
Jacobson, Swedbank. In view of the recent management changes in Brazil, should we take it as a sign that there are some untapped potential with regard to cost of production?
I think that we have seen, as also has been done up to now, a very good development in cost reduction, that will continue, as we have done so far. We have had strong focus in Brazil on lifting the production capacity up to at least nameplate capacity. Now we have demonstrated we can do even more. We are now committed to stabilize that on a level around nameplate capacity. Bauxite has been during last quarters been at very high levels, 11 million tons, which is very good. Nameplate capacity at 9.9. At least I expect that the bauxite will continue at quite good level, but good level in Alunorte will be closer to 6.3 million tons going forward.
We will focus, as I mentioned, on the consumption factors, as we have done also up to now. That will continue.
On the new automotive line in Germany, when do you expect it to contribute positively to the EBIT line?
That will, of course, be a gradual ramp up. As the order book looks now, we have a better situation than what we expected, but we have to do this in a controlled manner, so we cannot turn this speed up to full production from day one. It will be during the next year, gradually, supporting the bottom line. It's difficult to be more specific than that because we are starting, of course, from a low level and then ramping up in a controlled manner. It's good to see that the order book is in very good shape.
Thanks.
Okay, we have another question here.
Danske Markets. I have two questions. One on alumina, one on generally downstream. You showed us a chart. Alumina price is increasing quite dramatically. Do you have any thoughts on what that might do on, you know, restarts on capacity going forward in general? The other one is, we have seen some interesting things on the downstream. Aleris being bought by China Zhongwang or what's the name of it? Do you think that the Chinese moving into a value-added business is going to affect also the global downstream business and affect margins? Or do you think they're gonna use this more to increase the competence within China mostly?
With regard to the alumina market, you're absolutely right. There are quite some changes there. I've seen that the Chinese alumina refineries has been quite flexible with regard to curtailments and also restarts. These are big chemical process plants that requires a lot of efforts to curtail but also even more efforts to restart again. But the Chinese operations has been flexible and within certain price ranges they have curtailed when it comes below and when it comes above then they restart and that is what we should expect also going forward so I think the situation we see now with very steep increase in aluminium prices in China could encourage some more restarts at least that is what we have seen previously that is also something that remains to be seen because we see that China operations is sometimes suprising us.
With regard to the next one with regard to Chinese acquisition Aleris if you look at the Aleris portfolio that we gave the Chinese company competence and also access to markets but they also Aleris had operation in China that they are struggling with and I think the Chinese will be in better shape to run that operation going forward so all and all I think it makes sense but it gives clearly access to China's claim to the western markets and also competence in aerospace that they didn't have before we are not into aerospace market such but this could be one of the stategy behind it and we are following that carefully going forward.
If I can add just a comment on the aluminium price development. I think there is such a concern on the cost development in China so if you look at the cost price development over the last say 4 to 6 to 8 weeks on the back of new legislation in China that has gone up quite sIgnificantly impacting the cost base and also as I mentioned the transportation cost of raw materials in China changed quite significantly so if this upholds it pushes the cost curve quite significantly to the right and north.
Thank you. We have a question from webcast. [uncertain]
From Hjalmar Ahlberg, Kepler Cheuvreux. Can you comment on CapEx 2016? Year-to-date, it's NOK 4.3 billion. Are you still looking at 18.1 for the full year 2016?
We're still guiding on NOK 8.1. Clearly, then there will have to be significant CapEx spent or invested in the Q4. If we are to point out that the risk is probably on the downside in terms of spending slightly less than what we have indicated as from NOK 8.1.
Another question from Hjalmar. You indicate high production in B&A in Q4. Can you keep the all-time high level as of Q3?
I think six and a half million tons is, you know, at the current stage, pushing B&A quite hard. The indication should more be that we want to stabilize around 6.3 million, which is the nameplate capacity at the plant. Which is quite a new achievement compared to the historical production levels that we've seen in Alunorte. That will be the focus.
Okay. Thank you. Any more questions from the audience here today? No. We'll say thank you very much for coming, and have a wonderful day. Thank you.