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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The Republic of Fiji is home to the Vanua Levu mine, which is one of the largest bauxite mines in Oceana, with reserves estimated at one billion metric tons. Despite having such large reserve of bauxite, bauxite mining has not been explored productively in the country due to difficult location and logistics, the military coup in 2006, the constitutional crisis in 2009, and the current military dictatorship. However, a number of companies have been continuing bauxite mining operations in Fiji despite the difficult situations and infrastructure. {newsStudioGallery} The Fijian government confirmed its first shipment of bauxite in September 2016 from the Fijian port of Bua to be delivered to China for its alumina refineries. According to Xinfa Aurum [Exploration (Fiji) Ltd], the shipped...
India will see maximum people flying with commercial air carriers in 2017 surpassing the biggest ones till now including UK, Germany, Japan and Indonesia, International Air Transport Association (IATA) data shows. This will provide the much needed traction to the annual delivery of commercial aircrafts in the country propelling the domestic aluminium alloys market eventually. Globally too, aluminium alloys market is looking up. According to IATA, number of flyers witnessed a steep increase from less than 3 billion in 2011 to more than 3.7 billion in 2016. This number is forecasted double over the next two decades. In 2016, U.S., China, and UK accounted for majority of the total with more than 1 billion flyers. Aluminium alloys market is dependent primarily on the availability of aluminium...
Patrick Industries, a major manufacturer of component products and distributor of building and construction products serving multiple industrial sectors has announced the complete acquisition of Leisure Product Enterprises, LLC at an approximate price of $73.5 million. LPE is a holding company with three manufacturing subsidiaries: Marine Concepts/Design Concepts (Marine Concepts), Florida Marine Tanks (FMT), and Marine Electrical Products (MEP). LPE primarily serves the marine and industrial markets with combined revenues of approximately $75 million. Marine Concepts has two locations in Sarasota, Florida and Cape Coral, Florida and designs, engineers, and manufactures CNC plugs, composite moulds (open and closed), and CNC moulds for fiberglass boat manufacturers. FMT, located in...
Estimated alumina output derived from China’s domestic production data is expected to improve this month. The country which reported 31.6 million tonnes of aluminium output in 2016 against the world total of 58.8 million tonnes (53.7 per cent) is estimated to produce 5.82 million tonnes of alumina in May. But given the current maintenance work at China alumina refineries how realistic does this estimate sound? Market watchers opine that the actual China alumina output in May is likely to be lower than what is forecasted. In fact, it is going to be even lower than March’s alumina output level since more producers would start maintenance work at their plants if alumina prices keep falling at the current pace. China’s alumina output in April grew at 23.3 per cent rate year-on-year to reach...
PNY Technologies (PNY), a leader in memory manufacturing, has launched pocket-sized ELITE Portable Solid State Drive (SSD) in 240GB and 480GB capacities. The PNY Elite Portable Solid State Drive comes with ultra-compact and durable aluminium housing. The latest SSD can quickly transfer and store large files with read speeds up to 430MB/s and write speeds up to 400MB/s. “In a pocket-sized design, the PNY Elite Portable SSD delivers powerful performance with fast speeds to quickly access large video files or photo libraries,” the company said. With this new line of Portable SSD, PNG focuses on providing innovative and unique products to meet the growing needs of the portable storage market. The company claims this pocket-sized SSD is one of the smallest SSD drive available in the market....
LME aluminium prices are on a steady downtrend. The light metal contract traded globally closed at US$1,879 per tonne on Monday, May 8, down 1.46 per cent from its previous close of US$1,907 per tonne on Friday, May 5. After the fourth day consecutive of descent Shanghai Metals Market (SMM) suggests that LME aluminium may face brief technical corrections and move in the range of US$1,860-1,890 per tonne on Tuesday, May 9. As on May 8, LME official cash buyer price of aluminium stands at US$1,878.50 per tonne, cash seller & settlement price is US$1,879 per tonne, 3M buyer price is US$1,83 per tonne, 3M seller price is US$1,884 per tonne, Dec1 buyer price is US$1,923 per tonne, and Dec1 seller price is US$1,928 per tonne. The current LME official Opening Stock of aluminium is estimated at...
Metro Mining has announced the amalgamation of Bauxite Hills and Skardon River Project in March 2017. Now the company has outlined the final agreements demonstrating strong community support for the Bauxite Hills Mine. According to Simon Finnis, managing director and CEO, the new agreement has been reached jointly with the Ankamuthi People, Traditional Owners of the mining lands and OMAC, the Trustee owner of the land. "The combined agreement simplifies implementation of the undertakings made by all parties and will streamline administration and ongoing monitoring. The agreement also covers a Cultural Heritage Management Plan, provision of employment and training opportunities for traditional owners of the land, business development and contracting opportunities for Ankamuthi businesses...
Danieli, supplier of equipment and plants to the metal industry in the world, has bagged a contract from ALRO SA for the supply of a new aluminium plate stretcher and major cold rolling mill modernization. The new plate stretcher and cold rolling mill are for ALRO’s facility located Slatina, Romania. Alro SA is the largest aluminium producers in Central and Eastern Europe excluding CIS. The company is part of the seven largest aluminium producer worldwide, Vimetco NV. The plant start-up is planned for the second quarter of 2018. The new 18MN aluminium plate stretcher will process thin aluminium plates of alloys series 1xxx to 7xxx which is being used in aerospace, marine, defence and commercial transportation applications. The modernization will allow company’s second cold rolling mill to...
Aluminium ingot stocks in China major markets will continue to keep rising in the short to medium term, Shanghai Metals Market (SMM) predicted after surveying warehouses in Shanghai, Wuxi, Nanhai, Hangzhou and Gongyi. The rise in aluminium ingot stocks is striking because of the fact that this is the peak-demand season in aluminium cycle when the consumption is supposed to be high. However, destocking in the domestic market is lower than expected. As on Friday last week, May 5, total aluminium ingot stock in the aforesaid markets stood at 1.23 million tonnes, up 20,000 tonnes from the previous week, SMM data showed. The trend is unlikely to reverse in the coming weeks as downstream industry players are either all stocked up or going slow with their operations. At the export front too,...
Aluminium scrap export from Japan to South Korea declined in March 2017. The South East Asian country has reportedly turned to Zorba scrap and the US twitch as they have been found to be more economical. March 2017 aluminium scrap export from Japan to South Korea stood at 1,764 tonnes, down from 2,953 tonnes in November 2016. The export is estimated to shrink further as South Korean prosecutors have started an investigation on the aluminium procurement practices of Hyundai Motor Group and its aluminium alloy suppliers, who source a lion's share of their requirement from Japan, a company source reported to S&P Global Platts last week. {newsStudioGallery} Japan is a major exporter of aluminium scrap and automotive grade aluminium alloy to the entire of South East Asia. The country shipped...
Hydro has inaugurated its new state-of-the-art automotive line for light and advanced aluminium solutions in cars in Grevenbroich, Germany. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg were present during the inauguration of the facility. Hydro has invested EUR 130 million in the plant, which will produce 150,000 ton of aluminium parts per year for the automotive industry. The new automotive facility would increase company’s annual production of car body sheet from 50,000 tonnes to 20, 0000 tonnes. The company supplies around one million tonnes of aluminium to the automotive industry per annum. Hydro President & CEO Svein Richard Brandtzæg said: “This is where our light, strong, corrosion-resistant and infinitely recyclable aluminium really comes to life: To...
An e-waste recycling startup in Faridabad, India by “a recycler with professional degrees and an organized setup” is changing the way people in India look at scrap recycling. The Namo E-waste Management was started in 2014 by 28 year old Akshay Jain , who did his MBA from Greenwich University in the UK, where he learnt how organized waste management worked. “Waste was properly segregated, identified and disposed of according to specified norms across the UK. I was inspired by the robust recycling mechanism in place and wanted to do something similar in India,” he says. “I focused on e-waste because of a near total lack of awareness about it and also because it is the fastest growing solid waste stream here,” he says. The company took one year to get the logistics in place and it stated...
EFCO, a leading U.S. manufacturer of architectural aluminium window, curtainwall, storefront and entrance systems, will be acquired by Apogee Enterprises, Inc. (APOG). APOG announced that the company has reached an agreement to purchase 100 per cent of the stock of privately-held EFCO Corporation for $195 Million. Cameron McGinley, EFCO president commented: “A leader in commercial construction products, Apogee is an ideal parent company for EFCO. We are pleased to be joining the Apogee family and look forward to working with Apogee to capitalize on product, market and operational opportunities for EFCO.” EFCO has been owned by Pella Corporation since 2007. It has annual revenues of more than $250 million. The company’s management team will continue to lead the business following the...
Noranda has signed a long-term, exclusive offtake agreement with Concord Resources for smelter grade alumina produced at Noranda's Gramercy alumina refinery in Louisiana. Concord Resources has also agreed to a third party marketing arrangement for bauxite produced at its mining facility in St. Ann, Jamaica. According to a press release the agreement will be valid till 2014 and cover all smelter grade alumina produced at the Gramercy refinery and bauxite mined in Jamaica. Commenting on the agreement, David D'Addario, CEO of Noranda said, “Our partnership with Concord substantially changes the risk profile of our business by giving us a marketing partner to sell our product worldwide.” “By combining our highly efficient production capabilities with Concord's global marketing reach we will...
The descent in LME aluminium prices seems to be continuing this week. The light metal traded globally plummeted during Friday’s night trading to end the week-long journey at US$1,907 per tonne, down 0.36 per cent from its previous close at US$1,916 per tonne on Thursday, May 4. Shanghai Metals Market (SMM) predicts that LME aluminium will consolidate between US$1,900-1,950 per tonne and trail behind SHFE aluminium (aluminium contract traded at Shanghai Futures Exchange) this week. As per Reuters’ analysis, LME aluminium which is already moving below all moving averages may test support at US$1,889 per tonne on Monday, May 8. A break below this support may lead the base metal contract to the next support at US$1,876 per tonne. As on May 5, LME official cash buyer price of aluminium stands...
Earth Sustaining Sciences (ESS) that creates and delivers eco-societally sustainable solutions has developed a solution for neutralizing and managing red mud. ESS founder Wayne Sampey said ESS delivered financially and environmentally viable and sustainable red mud waste management process. Sampey stated: “Solutions delivering multiple biological manifold reaction patterns have been consistently identified in effective all-natural, localized microbial column systems. Data derived from initial single cell reactor stages was used to construct a multi-stage, multiple-biological manifold system which was continuously fed a 50/50 effluent combination of red mud and caustic processing effluent.” ESS in partnership with the Earth Sustaining Sciences Institute has demonstrated their Symbiotic...
With Trump administration initiating trade remedies against steel and aluminium imports, automakers are developing concern about the increase in material cost. Toyota Motor Corp., which is considering the use of aluminium in their car bodies, says that they would face only a minor risk of increased material costs because of import regulations. As said by Jim Lentz, CEO of Toyota Motor North America, the Japanese automaker is considering substitution of steel bodies with aluminium to comply with stricter fuel-economy standards. According to him, the use of more aluminium in Powertrain modifications alone cannot help in lightweighting and fuel economy. “We have to look at many, different ways to improve fuel economy,” Lentz said. “So, obviously, we will be looking at more and more ways to...
Western Australia based rail infrastructure and access provider Brookfield Rail has undertaken major upgrade works on its South West radio communication network. The upgrade aimed to improve efficiency and safety along the railway line from Perth to Burnbury will also service the adjacent lines and the railway station at Worsley Alumina. According to sources aware of the development, the project involves installation of nine radio communication towers that will service the 190 kilometre rail line from Bunbury to Perth. The total project cost is estimated at US$2.5 million. The line is key to the region's economic sustainability because of the fact that each year, it transports 23 million tonnes (approximately) of alumina, bauxite, coal and other commodities from the region to the Kwinana...
