Aluminium alloy powder production for additive manufacturing is set to expand through a new technical cooperation agreement between CNPC Powder China Ltd and Xi’an Bright Laser Technologies Co Ltd (BLT). The agreement covers the production and international distribution of BLT-AlAM400, an aluminium alloy powder developed for applications in humanoid robotics, new energy vehicles (NEVs), aerospace and other industrial sectors. Under the agreement, BLT has authorised Shanghai-based CNPC Powder to manufacture BLT-AlAM400 on a contract basis in China and sell the powder internationally. CNPC Powder has also secured exclusive overseas agency rights, excluding BLT’s direct sales network and existing regional agents. With an annual powder production capacity of almost 10,000 tonnes, CNPC Powder...
BorgWarner has won its first commercial order for an electric motor developed with aluminium-wire hairpin winding technology. The US automotive supplier will provide the new eMotor to a major Chinese automaker for use in hybrid vehicles, bringing the technology into its first production application. The motor uses aluminium-wire hairpin winding technology and is designed for hybrid vehicles. Its applications include generator motors and traction motors for auxiliary drive systems, with production scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of 2026. Explore AL Circle’s report ALuminium Wires & Cables - Insights & Forecast to 2030 for insights into aluminium applications, industry developments and opportunities across the electrical sector . Compared with conventional copper-wire motors with...
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Major Indian aluminium producers National Aluminium Company Limited (Nalco), Hindalco, and Vedanta Aluminium have come forward to jointly protest against the massive power duty hike in Odisha, reported global news agencies Platts and Aluminium Insider. In a petition to the Government of Odisha the companies sought revocation of the hike, which they claim would be detrimental to their aluminium smelting operations in the state as production costs spiral up. In more than past twelve months, Odisha’s power duty has risen twice, first time by fifty per cent to INR 0.30 per kilo watt, and then in the recent times- by almost double to INR 0.55 per kilo watt. Domestic aluminium producers say this jump in power tariff would translate in an increase in cost of production by US$61.90 per tonne. Dr....
Jamaica’s Minister of Transport and Mining Mike Henry says that the re-opening of the JISCO Alpart bauxite/alumina plant has already created positive vibes in St Elizabeth and neighbouring Manchester. He says that this has marked a positive beginning and the revival of mining in Jamaica. He was speaking at the 'production restart ceremony of the Alpart plant called ‘JISCO's partnership in Jamaica's progress' at St Elizabeth. The event was highlighted by the official resumption of refining at the plant, which had been closed since 2009 due to global economic crisis on the bauxite/alumina market. “It's the revival of the mining industry, and I am given to put it in perspective because I want to ensure that the distortions of history are corrected,” he said. Henry credited the former...
Vedanta Group, one of the world’s leading diversified natural resources company with interest in aluminium value chain, is mulling an INR 16,000-crore worth electronics product manufacturing facility in Mihan, Nagpur. The project will be set up under Twinstar- a joint venture of Vedanta and its Korean partner LG. An official announcement to this effect was made by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Gangadhar Fadnavis on Sunday, June 25. On the occasion of the opening of a new railway overbridge, Fadnavis announced the project saying, “The company has already purchased land in Mihan and has applied to state and central governments for clearances. It will be the biggest investment in Mihan.” As per the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the company oficals and the state...
Alumina import in China dropped significantly in May this year as demand slowed down among domestic smelters post environmental protection checks conducted by the regional governments over the last two months. Total alumina import in May stood at 139,571 tonnes, down 20.4 per cent from the previous year, showed data released by the General Administration of Customs, China on June 23. {newsStudioGallery} The total volume of alumina imported by China in the first five months of 2017 was also down by 13.4 per cent at 1.3 million tonnes. The country imported its major chunk of alumina requirement (in excess of domestic output) from Australia and Indonesia. China’s alumina import from Australia, though down by 43.3 per cent year-on-year totalled the highest at 67,818 tonnes; alumina import...
Bauxite and prices in the domestic China market have registered the first gain on June 26 since May. Throughout June bauxite prices remained flat in all major Chinese provinces. Mining operations in major bauxite-producing regions Shanxi and Guizhou were mostly suspended in May as the central government ramped up anti-pollution measures in these regions. This has caused tightness in supply in a month and raised the prices in these provinces. As reported by Shanghai Metals Market, average Bauxite (6.0=Al/Si<7.0) prices in Henan province were up from RMB 380/t to RMB 385/t on June 26. Bauxite (4.5=Al/Si<5.5) prices in Henan province were up from RMB 275/t to RMB 280/t on June 26. Bauxite (5.5=Al/Si<6.5) prices in Guizhou province registered a 4.35% gain from RMB 230/t to RMB 240/t on June...
LME aluminium has been largely range bound over the last seven days. The light metal which showed a mild uptrend on Thursday (June 22), last week, settled at US$1,868 per tonne after night trading on Friday, June 23. Shanghai Metals Market (SMM) observes that LME aluminium will keep swinging widely at the lows. The aluminium prices will range between US$1,862-1,877 per tonne on Monday, June 26. As on June 23, LME official cash buyer aluminium price stands at US$1,867 per tonne, cash seller & settlement aluminium price is US$1,868 per tonne, 3M buyer price is US$1,875 per tonne, 3M seller price is US$1,875 per tonne, Dec1 buyer price is US$1,908 per tonne, and Dec1 seller price is US$1,913 per tonne. The current LME official Opening Stock of aluminium is estimated at 1429525 tonnes, total...
According to a recent press update, Metro Mining has received final environment approval from the Commonwealth Government for the Bauxite Hills Mine at north of Weipa. It was the Bauxite Hills Project component of the Bauxite Hills Mine, which is so renamed after the incorporation of the previous Skardon River Bauxite Project that has got the government approval. With this, Bauxite Hills Mine has secured both Commonwealth and State environmental approvals for the Bauxite Hills Mine. As Metro Managing Director Simon Finnis said, the final approval came after an extensive environmental assessment and community consultation process. “Achieving this milestone within only 2 years is a credit to the hard work and expertise of the Metro team and demonstrates the strong support Metro secured from...
Sculptures of tumblers in gravity-defying top hats from World Expo ‘88 — have been recast with aluminium for permanent display King George Square. Lord Mayor Graham Quirk and Sir Llew Edwards pose in front of a recast sculpture from The Human Factor The two artworks, from The Human Factor series by John Underwood, have been unveiled by Lord Mayor Graham Quirk and World Expo ‘88 chairman Sir Llew Edwards for the public. The artwork has been recast from the original fibreglass into aluminium as a prequel to the 30th anniversary of the event in 2018. Sir Llew said World Expo 88 was an event that allowed Brisbane residents to present their view of the home city to people from all over the world. “Also, I think it showed us that we in this great city can do anything we want to in the future.”...
Ezi-Duct, the leading company in the field of dust collection and fume extraction equipment in Australia, recently installed a dust collection system for a multinational company located in the South Eastern Melbourne suburb of Dandenong. The factory provides variety of rolled and extruded aluminium products to the Victorian market. The company was looking for a powerful and efficient system that could collect aluminium waste from its production process. The dust collector is a fully automatic self-cleaning dust collector that uses a pulse of compressed air to automatically clean its many filter bags. “The dust collector automatically deposits the aluminium swarf waste directly into a 3m³ waste bin via an Ezi-Duct rotary valve,” as reported. Ezi-Duct modular ducting diminishes installation...
Chip Conrad, a stamping engineer in Ford, North America led the designing of a closed-loop recycling system that recycles 5 million pounds of high-strength military-grade aluminium scrap every week. Now in operation at three Ford factories, two of which build F-150, the bestselling pickup trucks in America, the system is saving monumental energy and material. According to the company website, the amount of recycled high-strength military-grade aluminium alloy, saved by Ford through closed-loop recycling is good enough to build either 51 commercial jetliners or more than 37,000 F-150 truck bodies a month. According to Conrad using high-strength military-grade aluminium-alloy bodies for F-150 helps their customers with sustainability. This according to him makes sound business sense and...
Italy is going through a very radical transformation from traditional manufacturing to advanced, sustainable, and flexible manufacturing. The leaders of Italian manufacturing sector, of which aluminium constitutes a very significant part, are staking their future on advanced machinery, robotics and related areas. To leverage upon this trend, family owned SMEs who once formed the basis of aluminium downstream manufacturing in the country are coming forward and forging strategic alliances with global technology companies resulting in wide diversifications. The eleventh edition of METEF which is being currently held at VeronaFiere, Verona, Italy (from June 21 st to 24 th ) saw a huge congregation of many of these evolving Italian aluminium manufacturing companies. Following are the top five...
AMAG, a leading Austrian premium supplier of high-quality aluminium cast and flat rolled products, opened state-of-the-art aluminium cold rolling mill in Europe. With this, the company becomes the leading centre of expertise in aluminium rolled products. Helmut Wieser, CEO of AMAG Austria Metall AG, said: "We are very satisfied with the precision with which this project has been realised, including its implementation to deadline. Outstanding work by our project team and project partners has made this possible." The company made an investment totalling around EUR 1 billion (of which around 90 per cent in Austria) over a ten-year period. “Around EUR 300 million of this amount is attributable to the most recent plant expansion,” it said. AMAG doubles production capacity to more than 300,000...
The China Non-Ferrous Metals Industry Association (CNIA) has recently released data covering China’s aluminium industry chain for H1 2017 as well as forecast for aluminium production and consumption by 2020. West China’s 11 provinces produced 9.21 million tonnes of primary aluminium in H1 2017. The total productions are of nearly 60 per cent of national total. The Shandong province was the top producer of primary aluminium in H1 2017. The Shandong province‘s production was up 12.1 per cent year-on-year to 3.94 million tonnes, over 25 per cent of national total. As of the end of May, China’s aluminium capacity stood at 41.02 million tonnes. At present, 38 million tonnes of aluminium capacity are in operation, and over 7 million tonnes are under construction. CNIA expects China’s aluminium...
Production of secondary aluminium alloy ingots in Italy is of global significance. The European nation excelling in metallurgy and engineering has been producing a major chunk of the entire Western Europe’s aluminium demand mainly created by the automotive manufacturing companies clustered in this region. Aluminium alloy ingots produced from unwrought aluminium as well as from various aluminium scrap commodities in Italy find huge demand in the international market. Export-import data shows aluminium alloy ingot export from Italy has risen by 7.5% from 2015 till 2017 (estimated). Italy exported 231525.5 tonnes of aluminium alloy ingots (primary + remelted) in 2015, which grew by 4.2% year-over-year to reach 241438 tonnes last year. In 2017, the country is estimated to export a total...
United Airlines entered into an agreement with Boeing to convert 100 of its current 737 MAX orders into 737 MAX 10s. The companies made an announcement at the 2017 Paris Air Show. United Airlines also announced an order for four additional 777-300ER aircraft. The new order is likely to be delivered in late 2020. Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Kevin McAllister said: "We're excited that our long partnership with United will extend far into the future. The 737 MAX 10 will provide even more flexibility to United's route schedule and will bring to their operation the best economics of any airplane in the single-aisle segment.” Apart from this new agreement, Boeing also extended partnership with the aerospace experts of the thyssenkrupp Group. The thyssenkrupp Group will continue...
Major China aluminium scrap prices declined on ScrapMonster Price Index on Wednesday, June 21. The price trend followed the slump witnessed in China's ferrous scrap market. Other base metal scrap prices too dived on sluggish demand and a comparatively tighter supply. The prices of 6063 aluminium extrusions declined by CNY 100 per tonne, while that of aluminium ingots were down by CNY 100 per tonne. The prices of E.C aluminium wire, old cast and old sheet recorded decline of CNY 100 per tonne from their previous day's prices. In the meantime, aluminium radiator scrap prices and aluminium transformer prices slipped only marginally by CNY 50 per tonne each on June 21. Zorba 90% NF prices and UBC were down by CNY 100 per tonne as well. As per Shanghai Metals Market data, prices of some of the...
According to a report produced by Shanghai Metals Market, the aluminium usages in passenger vehicles are not extensive yet because of the expensive aluminium parts. A survey of nearly 20 carmakers including BMW, Audi and SAIC Motor has revealed that the aluminium applications in cars are still very limited. The company uses aluminium structural parts to reduce vehicle weight. Currently, aluminium parts are limited by high costs. Due to this, the brands like Audi and Land Rover are mainly using these parts in their vehicles. The aluminium use in passenger vehicles will see a small peak by 2019 as China will require all light vehicles to adhere to tougher new "China VI" emission standards by 2020, SMM says. However, Kobe Steel recently announced its plan to expand its capacity to supply...
LME aluminium is showing mild uptrend. The light metal upon failing to break a support zone of US$1,862.50-US$1,871 per tonne, closed at US$1,872 per tonne on Thursday, June 22, marginally up by 0.34 per cent from its previous close of US$1,865.50 per tonne. Reuters’ technical analysis suggests that LME aluminium may again test a support at US$1,862.50 per tonne. If it succeeds to hold ground at the current level, the rebound will be extended to US$1,885 per tonne. According to Shanghai Metals Market forecast, aluminium prices on the global bourse will range at US$1,860-US$1,880 per tonne on Friday, June 23. As on June 22, LME official cash buyer aluminium price stands at US$1,871.50 per tonne, cash seller & settlement aluminium price is US$1,872 per tonne, 3M buyer price is US$1,877 per...
