Melbourne’s Alumina has given a strong hint that increased dividends are in the pipeline thanks to rising prices for alumina, the weaker dollar, and the benefits of cost cutting.

No specifics were mentioned at the annual meeting yesterday. But CEO Peter Wasow gave plenty of clues that after several years of no or small dividends, happier days are around the corner.

Alumina is a 40 per cent non-managing partner in the global alumina alliance known as AWAC with Alcoa. AWAC produces more than 15 million tonnes of the intermediate aluminium product alumina from a spread of global operations, with its operations in the Darling Ranges of Western Australia the mainstay.

Mr Wasow said that AWAC’s average earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation increased from $US45 a tonne in 2013 to $US54 a tonne in (calendar) 2014.

But EBITDA in the last quarter of 2014 rose to $US85 a tonne and had risen further to $US102 a tonne in the first quarter of 2015.

The market has been awake to AWAC’s/Alumina’s improved fortunes, pushing Alumina shares 26 per cent higher in the last 12 months in an otherwise weaker resources sector. A small final dividend was paid in March of US1.6c a share. But the stock is now being priced on expectations of higher payouts to come.

AWAC recently caused investors in Alumina some indigestion by paying upfront for long-term future gas supplies to the WA ¬operations. The payments are in instalments, with the first of $US300m ($380m) to be sent off this year.

But such is the strength of the figures reported by Mr Wasow yesterday that the expectation of substantially increased dividends payments remains intact.

Apart from a rise in alumina prices in response to a lack of ¬investment in western world capacity at a time when Indonesia has stopped exports to China, the main consumer, the improved margins reflect cost-cutting benefits and the lower dollar.

Another factor has been the steady increase in alumina sales being made under an index pricing system rather than the ¬traditional method of pricing the aluminium input as a percentage of the aluminium price.

Mr Wasow said alumina index priced sales were headed towards 75 per cent of total sales. That means there is an on-going roll-off of lower margin metal-priced linked contracts.