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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According to the data published by the World Bureau of Metal Statistics (WBMS) in their Metals Balances Report for the first eleven months of 2016, the global primary aluminium market recorded marginal deficit during January-November 2016. There was a deficit of 970,000 tonnes compared to the full-year deficit of 551,000 tonnes in 2015. Primary aluminium production dropped by 221,000 tonnes during the period under review and the total stock of metal reported shrunk by 27,000 tonnes in November 2016. The total stock of aluminium at the end of the first eleven months of 2016 stood at 2,644 kt against the corresponding previous year’s stock of 3,787 kt. The combined aluminium stock held in London, Shanghai, USA and Tokyo exchanges totalled 2,242.5 kt at the end of November 2016, down by 988...
Aluminium extrusion is one of the most popular forms of aluminium products. Extruded aluminium products are being used worldwide every day in innovative application areas. The possibilities for using aluminium profiles have no bounds. They are used for their strength, flexibility, durability and sustainability in a number of end user sectors such as construction, transportation, electrical, machinery and consumer durables. They are 100% recyclable and the processing is easy and emits little hazardous gasses. Aluminium extrusion is replacing steel in transport and construction sector mostly for its lightweight and corrosion resistance quality along with infinite recyclability. Building and construction segment is the biggest market for aluminium extrusion. About 65% of the aluminium...
Rio Tinto has awarded a $70 million bulk earthworks contract for infrastructure development to QBrit, a civil engineering firm, at its Amrun bauxite project in northern Queensland. As per company, the contract will create 150 employment opportunities in addition to supporting 1400 continued workforce based in Weipa’s bauxite mine. The Amrun bauxite project will also support 2000 employees at the Yarwun and Queensland Aluminium refineries in Gladstone that are fed with the bauxite. Stephen McIntosh, Rio Tinto’s growth and innovation group executive said QBirt’s work on roads and infrastructures was important for future Amrun operations. QBirt will construct about 40 kilometres of sealed access roads and a haul road network and will develop the mine stockpile zone, tailings and separation...
The Robert Owen Academy in Hereford received re-deployed buildings from the London Olympics in 2012. The government and the Olympic Committee were keen on reusing and recycling the building. Fairoak Construction in collaboration with ARP took to the redesigning of the building and decided to decorate the building with light ivory powder coated bands to suit the present surroundings. ARP’s Trueline aluminium bespoke fabrications were ideal for this solution as they were made to the exact dimensions of the building. ARP specified and manufactured 330 individual custom made pieces to make up the bands for the building. In order to speed up the installation process and to ensure the pieces were fitted to the right places on the first attempt, ARP coded the individual saving valuable times....
AlCircle, the trusted information and business portal for the global aluminium industry, is going to co-host a roundtable conference on Aluminium and New Materials: The Investment in Technology today, January 20, at 4 p.m. at ITC Sonar Bangla Hotel in Kolkata, West Bengal. Leading Italian industrial bodies namely, Metef, Verona Fiere, and Art Valley are co-organizing the event. Aluminium has made an impactful foray into a large number of industries over the last one decade. From aerospace and automotive engineering to electricals, building and construction, packaging and consumer durables, it is being used in a wide variety of applications today to address lightweighting and sustainability issues. As the world’s emerging economies are increasingly realigning their focus on sustainable...
RS Components (RS), the trading brand of Electrocomponents plc , the global distributor for engineers, has presented an innovative RS Pro range of painted die-cast aluminium enclosures designed for explosive environments. RS Pro enclosures meet standards of ATEX and IECEx certification and IK09 impact rating and come with waterproof ratings. They can be used for deployment in a variety of industrial market sectors. Each RS Pro enclosure is made to offer high quality standards at low cost, for use in equipment deployed in hazardous environments. RS pro range of enclosures is made for the demand of industrial sectors such as plant maintenance, marine and offshore, food and beverage etc. It is used in applications in locomotives, crane hoists, solar panels, load cells, oil meters and...
Mexican aluminium industry is characterised by the presence of a large number of secondary aluminium smelters and die-casters which cater to the domestic automotive industry- globally the seventh-largest in production volume. Most of these smelters are fed by aluminium scrap imports from the U.S. Mexican scavengers, popularly known as buscabotes (literally: can seekers) recover aluminium cans in the U.S. and sell them across the border where they are used by the automotive OEMs. {newsStudioGallery} Aluminium scrap comprises one of the key imports of the country which shares a common border with the U.S. The market for recycled aluminium in Mexico shows a strong demand for scrap due to significant differences in prices for the virgin and secondary metal. However, the country also exports a...
Last week the US filed a World Trade Organization (WTO) case on Chinese aluminium subsidies. European Aluminium through a press release has confirmed that as firm proponents of free and fair trade, the association will closely follow the case as it develops and expects the European Commission to do the same. The US complaint filed at the WTO against Chinese subsidies alleges that cheap state-directed loans and subsidised energy enable Chinese companies to sell primary aluminium at artificially low prices. The case is a step towards addressing imbalanced market conditions explaining global aluminium overcapacity. Today Chinese overcapacity in primary aluminium is five times the size of EU production. “We have been closely monitoring the developments in the WTO case,” stated Gerd Götz,...
Alcoa announced on Friday morning that its Portland aluminium smelter will resume production of the lost capacity after the federal and Victorian governments offered rescue packages for the smelter worth A$30 million ($23 million) and promises to keep the smelter open till 2021. The company also secured electricity supply agreement with the energy company AGL for the Portland smelter. Alcoa said the smelter will return to 85 per cent capacity that it was functioning at before December 2016. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told the smelter's workers, "This is our commitment to ensure that you can get back on your feet and get going again, creating great export dollars and defending 700 jobs here and over 2,000 in the region." The four-year electricity supply deal with AGL will...
Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside oil and gas, has seconded 10 young UAE National engineers abroad as part of its preparations for the start-up of its AED 11 billion Al Taweelah alumina refinery next year. EGA’s young engineers have been seconded for five months to Ma’aden in Saudi Arabia, the only operating alumina refinery in the region, to gain experience of a new industrial process for the UAE. In total 27 UAE Nationals are set to be seconded to Ma’aden over the course of this year as part of their training. EGA’s Al Taweelah alumina refinery is the first to be built in the UAE and is currently the largest construction project in the country’s aluminium industry. Once it is in production in 2018, the Al Taweelah alumina...
It's a near trade-war situation, when the President-elect of the world's most powerful economy tells his people that the currency value of the country is way "too strong" to compete with the Asian power called China. Just one more day to go, and then Donald Trump takes charge of the White House in the United States of America - before that, he calls out to China and its weakening currency, saying that for the U.S. companies to stand upright in the face of Chinese competition, the U.S. dollar value has to come down. His words send the U.S. dollar index down by one per cent to the lowest level in last one month, thereby lifting LME aluminium prices up by 1.78 per cent from Wednesday to US$1,832 per tonne after Thursday's night trading. According to Shanghai Metals Market forecast, the...
Spanish aluminium composite panel manufacturer Alucoil has raised its stake in Aluminium du Maroc- a Casablanca-listed company, reported industry sources. The aluminium fabricator for the construction, transportation and industry is learnt to have acquired, in a block transaction, 20,160 additional shares in the Moroccan company for an undisclosed amount. Alucoil now owns 7.32 per cent (34,115 shares) in Aluminium du Maroc- the manufacturer of high-quality aluminium alloy profiles. According to the release, the transaction, With an average share price of 1,100 dirham, is valued at around 22.17 million dirham minimum, making $2.18 million. For the half-year period ended June 30, 2016, Aluminium du Maroc registered an actual net income of 30.4 million dirham. During the same period, the...
Rio Tinto today announced that the company will slash aluminium production worth more than $110 million and 30 jobs due to high power prices in the state at its Boyne aluminium smelter. The company will reduce up to 45,000 tonnes of aluminium production in 2017. Rio Tinto’s decision comes after Alcoa’s Portland smelter in Victoria struck a deal for subsidised power and that the Australian Energy Regulator conducts a report into spikes in Queensland’s wholesale power price. Commenting on the move Queensland’s state owned power supplier, Stanwell said it was Rio only who was to blame for such production downsizing. Richard Van Breda, Chief Executive of Stanwell said, “If Boyne had accepted one of the many offers presented to it, not only would it have avoided the current volatility in spot...
Italy is the world’s largest consumer of aluminium after USA, Japan, People’s Republic of China and Germany. The aluminium market is concentrated almost exclusively in the north of the country. The large part of aluminium is used by extrusion plants and foundries to supply to the automobile industry. In addition to extrusion, Italy is also a leader in metal casting. Together with Germany and France, Italy is one of the largest producers of foundry products. Major carmakers like Ducati in Modena, Alfa Romeo in Milan and Fiat in Turin drive the demand for aluminium extruded products and foundry products in Italy. Italy’s largest shipbuilding company, Fincantieri - Cantieri Navali Italiani S.p.A., is also based in the northern region and account for significant aluminium consumption. Italy...
One of the world's largest aluminium producers UC RUSAL is going to invest over RUB 5 billion in construction of an alumina transshipment terminal in Vanino Bay within the framework of Free Port of Vladivostok (FPV), Russia, reported sources aware of the development. Three more projects are also being lined up for implementation in the Vanino District. The approval of all the projects was obtained from the Committee of FPV Supervisory Board on January 17, Tuesday. Prichal LLC, a subsidiary of Rysal, has been awarded the contract of building the alumina terminal that will facilitate transshipment of 1.5 million tonnes of alumina in a year, on completion. The total investment for the project is expected to exceed RUB 5 billion. Prichal is currently pursuing the procedure of obtaining the...
One of the leading Metal Additive Manufacturing or 3D Printing Company Sintavia, LLC has announced that it has developed full end-to-end parameters for producing additively manufactured parts in F357 aluminium, as well as other Al-Si alloys to be used in precision manufacturing. Sintavia’s developed its exclusive process for printing F357 aluminium powder to cater to aerospace and automotive industry needs, to manufacture components with low density, good processability, and heat conductivity. Usually, aluminium alloy parts are manufactured using traditional casting processes. But, Sintavia is expanding beyond traditional manufacturing in foundry-grade aluminium alloys to venture into additive manufacturing. Commenting on their technology development, Doug Hedges, Sintavia’s President and...
The automotive, aerospace, construction, electrical and packaging sectors emerged as the largest aluminium end users in 2016. These sectors will continue to drive aluminium consumption in the foreseeable future as well as in 2017. Let’s explore: {newsStudioGallery} Automotive The year 2017 projects aluminium consumption for automotive body and chassis structure will increase significantly. Aluminium in automotive industry is expected to reach at a CAGR of 7.4% from 2015 to 2020; showing steady growth of aluminium demand in 2017.The North America and Europe will use maximum aluminium in their automobiles after the enactment of Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority (TransLink) signed a $C 93m ($US 69.5m) contract with...
LME aluminium touched record highs since the beginning of 2016 during Wednesday's night trading only to come down a little (-2.7 per cent from the previous closing at US$1,805 per tonne) and close at US$1,800 per tonne. According to Shanghai Metals Market forecast, the contract will move within the range of US$1,810-1,835 per tonne on Thursday, January 19. The faltering oil prices and the looming uncertainty on the U.S. Federal Reserve before Donald Trump assumes his office in another 48 hours are seemingly impacting the base metals market. As on January 18, LME official cash buyer price of aluminium stands at US$1,800 per tonne, cash seller & settlement price is US$1,800.5 per tonne, 3M buyer price is US$1,798 per tonne, 3M seller price is US$1,798.5 per tonne, Dec1 buyer price is...
