Getting a clean, smooth finish while removing material quickly is not always easy when machining high-strength aluminium alloys. A new study on AA7075-T6 aluminium alloy has explored this challenge, identifying two different sets of drilling conditions to improve surface quality and maximise machining productivity. The research examined how cutting speed, feed rate and drill depth influence conventional drilling performance. Using response surface methodology and a central composite design, the researchers developed predictive models to determine how changes in these parameters affect the machining process. The models showed a strong level of accuracy, with coefficients of determination (R²) reaching 0.9731 for surface roughness and 0.9359 for material removal rate. Further confirmation...
Cleaner aluminium depends on three things going right at once: scrap collection, melting it in a furnace without much carbon, and the electricity behind the whole chain not being coal-powered. Developments across North America, the UK, the European Union (EU), Egypt, Thailand, Malaysia and India depict how unevenly those pieces are falling into place. While some markets are losing recoverable metal at the sorting line, others are redirecting cargoes or writing scrap into industrial policy, and a few are lining up green projects to hold primary aluminium production together. Aluminium scrap trade: North America leads, Thailand bans, EU retains The international aluminium scrap market is facing a combination of changing trade flows and growing pressure to secure cleaner, more consistent...
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Constellium N.V. announced through a press release that it has signed a multi-year contract with Bombardier to supply aluminium flat rolled products in a variety of alloy mix, shapes and applications. The products would be supplied for a number of Bombardier’s aircraft projects such as C Series, CRJ Series, Q Series, Global and Challenger. After signing the contract, Constellium will become one of the leading suppliers of flat rolled products to Bombardier globally. The agreement will seal Constellium’s position as a strategic supplier to some of the top aerospace companies. “I am proud to see Bombardier and Constellium continuing to build on their partnership. This new contract allows us to further anchor our position as a key supplier of innovative aluminium solutions for Bombardier’s...
The leading Chinese calcined bauxite producer China Mineral Processing Ltd (CMP) has announced the commencement of operations at its newly erected calcination plant in Guizhou, South West China in November this year. Despite ongoing environmental crackdowns and output reduction, the company has managed to receive all the governmental permits required to continue production at its plants in Guizhou and Tianjin. CMP is a wholly foreign owned enterprise (WFOE) operating in China since the early 1990s. The company was set up initially to take advantage of the low costs of processing minerals in China, mainly for export to the global market. Over the years, it has emerged as the largest mineral processing company in Asia to produce a wide range of specialized and customized refractories raw...
China market has reopened yesterday October 9 on a bullish note after the week-long Chinese National day holiday. According to Shanghai Metals Market update, SHFE base metals mostly opened higher yesterday. A00 Aluminium Ingot prices were up across all major markets after the holidays. The average price of A00 Aluminium Ingot today increased further to stand at RMB 16,260/t, up from RMB 16,220/t on October 9. The average price of A00 Aluminium Ingot would range between RMB 16,240 – 16,280/tonne. A00 Aluminium Ingot in spot China market is trading at discounts of RMB 220 - 180/t after resumed trading. Today’s aluminium A00 Aluminum prices across the various markets in China are presented in the table below: Prices of some of the Aluminium alloy ingot grades in specific Chinese markets have...
Austal Limited, an Australian-based global ship building company, has secured €126 million (A$190 million) contract for two 117 metre high-speed vehicle passenger aluminium trimaran ferries for Fred Olsen S.A. of the Canary Islands, Spain. Austal Chief Executive Officer David Singleton said: "It is truly exciting to announce this major shipbuilding contract with Fred Olsen, who had the courage and foresight to work with Austal’s advanced trimaran technology in developing the Benchijigua Express in 2005." The construction of both the ferries will commence in 2018 and are due for delivery in 29 and 36 months. Austal will design and build the aluminium trimarans. The ferries will be the second and third trimarans for the Fred Olsen S.A. “Austal led the world in designing large aluminium...
LME aluminium is staggering up the price curve. The light metal contract which ended last week in a drop at around US$2,121.5o per tonne, edged higher on Monday, October 9, to close at US$2,135 per tonne. Overall base metal prices on LME too outperformed their counterparts on Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) on Monday. Shanghai Metals Market predicts that LME aluminium will continue to rise higher, though slowly, and fluctuate within the range of US$2,160-2,185 per tonne on Tuesday, October 10. Reuters’ technical analysis suggests that LME aluminium may retest resistance at US$2,174 per tonne; a break above the level could lead to a gain to the next resistance at U$2,196, while a break below it could cause a loss into the range of US$2,125-$2,139 in the near term. As on October 9, LME...
During this year's Global Sustainable Aviation Summit in Geneva on 3-4 October, participants in a panel on aircraft recycling highlighted the potential need for more decommissioning or recycling facilities to handle rising retirements of aircrafts. Tim Zemanovic, president of US recycling plant Jet Yard, forecast that 12,000 retired airliners need to be recycled over the next 20 years. "It's been averaging 400-600 aircraft a year for the last several years," he says adding that the annual value of the teardown business stands at $80 million. According to him, there is sufficient recycling capacity to cope with the growing numbers of retired aircraft. Another panellist Pierre Bonnichon, business development manager at Tarmac Aerosave however feels otherwise. "I think for storage purposes...
The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) of India has decided to reject the insolvency petition filed by Anrak Aluminium, The company and the lenders had pleaded for liquidation claiming to have explored all the available options. But NCLT Hyderabad bench advised them to approach government agencies for resolution of the issue before initiating any insolvency proceedings. The regulatory body took the rare decision saying it was in the ‘interest of the nation.’ Anrak Aluminium, a joint venture between India's Penna Cement and Ras Al Khaimah Investment Authority (RAKIA), had moved NCLT after RAKIA served an arbitration notice on the Indian government and the State Government of Andhra Pradesh, seeking fulfilment of bauxite supply commitment or pay damages on its investment of US$44.71...
The Australian federal government has refused to ban the import, sale and use of aluminium composite panels with a flammable polyethylene (PE) core as recommended by a Senate inquiry commission. During a meeting of the Building Ministers’ Forum on Friday, governments partially agreed to halt the use of aluminium cladding products with PE cores “for class 2, 3, or 9 buildings of two or more storeys, and class 5, 6, 7 or 8 of three or more storeys”, till the time further measures have been developed on product labelling and testing. The decision however refused to impose a full ban on PE-core aluminium cladding as recommended by the Senate committee. The Senate inquiry considered all current legal use of PE-core aluminium cladding like signage and low-rise residential applications as...
Japanese steel and aluminium product manufacturer Kobe Steel admits through a statement that the company has put forward fabricated data to falsely present that aluminium and copper products met customer specifications. The company statement says that about 4 percent of the aluminium and copper products shipped by Kobe Steel from September 2016 to August 2017 were falsely labelled as meeting the specifications requested by customers. The products were shipped to about 200 companies but they were never certified as meeting exact specifications from clients, as said by a company spokesman. Kobe Steel has admitted the data was about 20,000 tonnes of metals used in aircraft and automobiles. Falsified products included 19,300 tonnes of aluminium plate and extrusions; 2,200 tonnes of copper...
Emirates Global Aluminium has signed an agreement with The University of Queensland, Australia, to conduct a three-year research programme into turning a by-product of the alumina industry into soil.The ground-breaking research project with The University of Queensland’s School of Agriculture and Food Sciences will investigate combining bauxite residue with agricultural and domestic wastes to create a soil for greening and other uses. The research project is led by Professor Richard Haynes, a renowned soil scientist and expert in the remediation and rehabilitation of bauxite residue deposits. Universities in the United Arab Emirates are expected to join the research project in the coming years, to help tailor the soil for the UAE’s desert conditions. Bauxite residue is a by-product of...
China market has reopened today after the week-long Chinese National day holiday. SHFE base metals mostly opened higher on October 9, the first day following Chinese National Day holiday and SHFE aluminium increased over 1%. Shanghai Metals Market Statistics shows the average spot alumina price has been rising steadily and slowly through September and October to stand at RMB 3395.69/tonne for the monthly average. On October 9, Monday, the average alumina price stands at RMB 3602/tonne, an increase of RMB 50/tonne from the last closed RMB 3552/tonne on September 29. Today’s spot alumina prices in the domestic markets are shown in the table below: Alumina price from large scale alumina enterprises also climbed up in September and is unchanged over October. On October 9, Chalco alumina price...
China, the now largest aluminium market in the world accounting for about 50 per cent of the world’s total output, is a voracious consumer of bauxite. The Asian giant sources its aluminium ore from all the leading bauxite producing countries of the world with Guinea topping the list as the largest supplier. The country is closely followed by Australia (the erstwhile highest exporter of bauxite to China), Malaysia, Brazil, and India. However, over the past three months, bauxite exports from Australia and Malaysia have been declining, while bauxite exports from Brazil have been growing month-on-month. Australia exported 2.37 million tonnes of bauxite in June this year, which dropped to 1.9 million tonnes in July. In August, the export volume rose slightly to reach 2.3 million tonnes....
LME aluminium is on a moderate uptrend. The light metal contract ended last week in a marginal drop from its earlier close at US$2,124 per tonne on Thursday, October 5. The closing price for LME aluminium on Friday, October 6, was US$2,121 per tonne. Shanghai Metals Market (SMM) forecasts that LME aluminium will fluctuate widely within the range of US$2,135-2,165 per tonne around its 5 and 20-day moving averages on Monday, October 9. Source:www.lme.com As on October 6, LME official cash buyer aluminium price (Bid Price) stands at US$2,121 per tonne, cash seller & settlement aluminium price (Offer price) is US$2,121.50 per tonne, 3M Bid Price is US$2,145 per tonne, 3M Offer Price is US$2,146 per tonne, Dec1 Bid Price is US$2,190 per tonne, and Dec1 Offer Price is US$2,195 per tonne. LME...
The week gone by has marked a few developments in the global aluminium trading sector. Merger and acquisition has played key role in the week’s business development. Expansion in the casting, extrusion and rolling segment indicates the aluminium demand growth in the automotive and construction sector. Chinese aluminium export continues to create tension in the west, while the domestic companies in the downstream sector keep their eyes on further capacity expansion. Below are a few headlines that made news in the week from September 2-6. U.S. Commerce Department defers anti-dumping decision on China aluminium foil In a statement published on Thursday, Sept 5 the U.S. Commerce Department said that it would defer the preliminary determination in an anti-dumping duty investigation into China...
The venue for the Frieze art fair in London this week features a sculpted entrance with walls of pleated and folded aluminium which is recycled from waste. Designed by Universal Design Studio, an architecture and interiors firm from London, the venue for this year's Frieze London is designed to spread the message of sustainability to its visitors – through the thoughtful use of recycled and reused materials. The aluminium entrance to the Regent's Park venue was formed using 400 tonnes of aluminium supplied by aluminium extrusion manufacturer SAPA. These sheets were rejected by the company as waste products due to "micro tolerances". The material that would have otherwise gone unused, have been aesthetically utilized in erecting the beautiful structure. The entrance to the tent consists of...
Rio Tinto, the third largest aluminium producing company in the world, is mulling the sale of its biggest aluminium smelter in Europe after the prices for the metal surged in the last few months. LME aluminium has risen by about 30 per cent this year, and this has lent momentum to Rio’s plan of putting up for sale smelters that are “not powered by hydroelectricity.” Europe’s Dunkerque aluminium smelter which currently operates using electricity generated by an EDF nuclear plant is the latest pick for a selling consideration. The plant came on-stream in 1991, and was acquired by Alcan in the year 2003. It has a capacity of 270,000 tonnes of aluminium per year. The Dunkerque aluminium smelter is not the first property Rio has considered for sale. Last year, the company sold its British...
The National Union of Metal workers of South Africa (Numsa) called off a strike at South32's aluminium smelter in KwaZulu-Natal province after accepting the new wage offer from the latter. South32 confirmed in a statement on Friday that it has reached an agreement with Numsa which supports the long term sustainability of its Hillside operation. Mike Fraser, President and Chief Operating Officer for South32 Africa Region, said: “This agreement supports our goal of managing controllable costs at Hillside and has laid a foundation to work with Numsa to jointly identify opportunities to reduce labour costs.” The Numsa said that its members have agreed a hike of 5.1per cent for all workers and a 5.6 per cent for drivers. Numsa's spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi said: “Our members are satisfied...
Sohar Aluminium, the host and organizers of the 2017 Arab International Aluminium Conference (ARABAL), have announced the full programme for the upcoming global industry event. Set to take place in Muscat from November 7th – 9th 2017, it will feature a two-day conference and exhibition featuring over 60 international experts under this year’s theme of ‘Driving Strategic Growth across the Global Aluminium Industry’. Sohar Aluminium has also confirmed it will be taking delegates, sponsors and media partners on a site tour of its smelter and facilities in Sohar. Regarded as the leading aluminium industry event in the Middle East, ARABAL 2017 will attract over 500 delegates from 30 countries. The conference is held annually and hosted on a rotational basis, and this edition marks the second...
