AlCircle News Edited By "Rupankar Majumder"
A professional with a technical background, specialising in producing insightful content centred around metals, particularly aluminium, passionately engaged in the intricacies of the recycling sector.
Aluminium scrap import of Indonesia during 2019-21 denotes downfall with gradual rise; 3.5% growth estimated for 2022
Presently, around the world, the primary technique of processing aluminium scrap is remelting in units of various types and then molten metal is usually cast into ingots. However, in some cases, the melt is granulated or gas atomized to produce powder of recycled aluminium. The remelting-casting technologies are very power consuming. The newly industrialized country, Indonesia imported 472,683 tonnes of aluminium scrap during 2019-21, which incurred foreign revenue outflow of $600.08 million for the import. Indonesia, the world’s largest island nation in 2019 imported 160,778 tonnes of aluminium scrap, counting expenditure of $179.17 million, whereas, in 2020, the aluminium scraps import denoted downfall by 7.12%, as the import volume plunged to 149,317 tonnes due to demand and supply...
Romania: Aluminium component manufacturing units for aerospace depressed over high energy prices
In the south-eastern European nation, Romania, a total of four aluminium component manufacturers for global aerospace organisations like Airbus, Boeing and Bombardier, which are managed by the Swiss group Montana Tech Components AG, is highly depressed, as their energy provider has forced them to accept towards paying of higher power prices in comparison to those documented in the agreements that are bonafide until mid-2022. The largest privately held energy company in Romania, Tinmar Energy has already billed an invoice, which reveals that it is Quadruple higher than printed in the contract and craving to enforce the new price w.e.f. 1 st January 2022, or can move to terminate the agreements. Tinmar Energy exemplified by saying, “The market conditions have changed, therefore the price...
India govt. needs to reduce basic customs duty on the critical raw materials for aluminium production: PHDCCI
The proactive National Apex Chamber working at the grass-root level and with strong national and international linkages, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) has urged govt. of India to brush up on the cost structure of the Indian aluminium industry and boost competitiveness in the upcoming Union Budget 2022. However, Nirmala Sitharaman, the Finance Minister of India is scheduled to present the Budget 2022-23 by the next month. PHDCCI, the chamber that acts as a catalyst in the promotion of industry, trade and entrepreneurship has recommended in its pre-Budget memorandum to reduce 2.5% of the basic customs duty on the critical raw materials like - Calcined Petroleum Coke, Raw Petroleum Coke, Caustic Soda Lye, Aluminium Fluoride and Green Anode/ Pre-Baked Carbon Anode. The PHD...
Noranda Jamaica Bauxite Partners built Belle Tierre water reservoir in St. Ann officially commissioned in service
In December 2021, Robert Montague, the Transport and Mining Minister of Jamaica formally commissioned Belle Tierre Reservoir in St. Ann into the service. The waterbody was built by Noranda Jamaica Bauxite Partners, at an estimated cost of US$800,000. The rainwater harvesting facility is located on Noranda’s bauxite mining lands and can stock around 17 million gallons of water that will be used to wet the roads and confront the dust problem. The Jamaican minister highlighted that the adjoining society that has lamenting for years will now have to grapple with a lesser amount of dust due to an escalation of water sprinkling on the roads, as the company will be using around 70,000 gallons of water per day to keep the roads wet. He further added, “So, it is a major investment by Noranda in...
Netherlands import of aluminium household articles during 2019-22 reflects excellent demand upswing
The metal aluminium is an excellent heat and electricity conductor and in correlation to its weight is almost the least when compared to steel and copper and hence aluminium is a preferred metal today for household articles. It is also a superb heat sink for many applications that require heat to be drained away rapidly. However, aluminium reacts with oxygen present in the air to form a thin layer of aluminium oxide, which is very stable and prevents further reaction of aluminium with oxygen. The Netherlands, a small country in north-western Europe imported 62,314 tonnes of aluminium household articles during 2019-21, attracting revenue expenditure of around $312.57 million. In 2019, the iconic nation, Netherlands imported 15,610 tonnes of aluminium household articles, incurring...
Impol-TLM to invest 24 million euros in building an aluminium block casting plant
On 6 th January 2022, Croatia decided to declare the 24.30 million euros (182.87 million kunas) investment by Impol-TLM towards the building of an aluminium block casting plant, which is considered as a project of strategic importance, a drive that focuses to gear up the momentum for the execution of the project. According to Tomislav Coric, the minister of Economy, “The new casting plant which will be constructed in Sibenik will minimize the reliance on external sources of aluminium block castings, boost value-added, upgrade product quality, lessen water consumption and create jobs” The law of the nation, Croatia on strategic investment gives investors the privileged to implement their project with less administrative proceedings. Impol-TLM is the Croatian arm of Slovenian aluminium...
Alba’s production performance in 2021 sets a new record
The first aluminium smelter of the Gulf region, Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba), sets a breaking operational record of 1,561,222 metric tonnes in 2021 as it accomplished its golden jubilee of operations. Furthermore, Alba attained an outstanding Safety milestone by closing 2021 with more than 20 million safe-working hours without LTI – a first in the Company’s 50 years of commercial operations. While commenting on Alba’s achievements, Ali Al Baqali, said, “Despite all odds, we closed 2021 with an exceptional performance by hitting new highs in our production - 1,561,222 metric tonnes and besting 2020 production record of 1,548, 500 metric tonnes. What makes this milestone even more important for us is that we have nailed it without any single Lost Time Injury (LTI)." "I take the...
Alro employees to rally protest against management’s decision on curtailment of aluminium production
The Romanian aluminium producer Alro’s trade unions and also the employees of the company and its suppliers will rally a protest on 6 th January 2022 to show a protest against the management’s decision to axe production of 60% and functionalize with 40% of production capacity due to the surge in energy prices. According to the trade union representatives, the scaling up of energy prices will in due course dent the complete Romanian industry. The workers association also claimed that 1,500 employees from Alro and other companies would record as technical unemployment for this severe decision. However, Alro's management has officially declared that it would functionalize only two of its five aluminium production units in 2022. Even though the management assured that no employee would be...
Tunisia’s export of aluminium scrap during 2019-22 illustrates a fluctuating movement
Aluminium is regarded as a sustainable metal, which signifies it can be recycled again and again with no loss of material, like aluminium cans are 100% recyclable, making them the most recyclable (and valuable) of all materials. The most common source of scrap aluminium is general-purpose items, such as beverage cans and household products. However, aluminium retrieved from aircraft is a small but rising source of scrap material. The northernmost country in Africa, Tunisia exported 25,788 tonnes of aluminium scrap during 2019-21, incurred revenue generation of $26.47 million from the export. In the automotive parts and equipment industry, the construction sector delivers a good amount of aluminium scrap in Tunisia. In 2019, the nation exported aluminium scrap of 10,502 tonnes, counting...
Jamaica’s opposition dismayed over Cockpit Country bauxite mining approval
The opposition party of the Caribbean island nation, Jamaica’s People National Party said that they are dismayed with the decision of the Natural Resources Conservation Authority (NRCA) to accord a permit for the bauxite mining of lands that are part of the Cockpit Country in St Ann via Special Mining Lease (SML) 173. On 3 rd January 2022, the decision was publicized and Noranda Bauxite was granted permission to exploit 1,324 hectares of the lands in the protected area of St Ann. However, it was notified that the land allocation is much smaller than the 8,335 hectares for which Noranda had applied for exploitation. Sophia Frazer-Binns, the Spokesperson on Land, Environment and Climate Change, said, “Although the permit is for a smaller parcel of land than requested, we believe the...
King River Resources makes advancement with battery technology
The Australian Securities Exchange-listed mining and exploration company King River Resources has fortified its high purity aluminium precursor compounds in a tender to supply the increasing demand from the lithium-ion battery industry. The company’s proprietary “ARC” processing technology using its lately commissioned pilot plant has now overshadowed the indigenous expectations continually developing a “Type 1” precursor aluminium salt grading exceeding an incredible 99.999% purity. The laboratory trial plant campaign was run by Source Certain International and was a rerun test of the procedural changes used in the existing trial where a redundant stage in the Primary Crystallisation flowsheet was not applied. King River commented: “The removal of the unnecessary processing step is a...
France aluminium container export during 2019-20 exhibits downfall with marginal growth; 21% dip predicted for 2022
The metal aluminium is the most extensively used non-ferrous metal and is enormously used in packaging materials and a matchless material for making all types of containers. Aluminium foil containers are utilized to prepare, freeze, store, transport, cook and serve a variety of foods. The containers made from aluminium foil are the only containers that are used in all types of ovens like microwave, conventional, convection and broiler. The Western European nation France imported 2747 tonnes of aluminium containers during 2019-21, incurring revenue expenditure of $12.99 million for the import. In 2019, France imported 1185 tonnes of aluminium container, counting an expenditure of $6.10 million, whereas in, 2020, the import exhibited a downfall by 35.27%, as the import volume plunged to 767...
Vedanta’s aluminium production in Q3 chalks up rise by 16%
On 3 rd January 2022, the largest producer of aluminium in India, Vedanta declared that cast metal aluminium production at its smelters stood at 579,000 tonnes in Q3 of the current financial, documenting a rise of 16%. While filing to the BSE, the company stated: “The cast metal aluminium production at our smelters stood at 5,79,000 tonnes in Q3 FY22, higher 16% in comparison to Q3 FY2021 and 2% as compared to Q2 FY2022.” However, the company’s alumina refinery in Lanjigarh produced 472,000 tonnes of alumina in Q3 FY22, a 16% up-rise when compared to Q3 FY2021 and 8% lower as compared to Q2 FY2022. Vedanta created a record in aluminium production, as it registered 1,697,000 tonnes in nine months ended FY2022, 18% higher Y-o-Y and alumina production were 1,465,000 tonnes, 9% higher Y-o-Y.
Alcoa secures 573 MW wind energy deal with Spanish renewable company for San Ciprian aluminium smelter
The American industrial corporation producing aluminium Alcoa Corp has inked a pre-agreement with Capital Energy, a Spanish renewables company to secure some 573 MW of wind power for its San Ciprian aluminium smelter in the north-western part of Spain. Capital Energy in the previous week stated, “We had committed to supply 876 GWh per year to the smelter for an initial period of ten years. The power would come from 11 wind farms that Capital Energy is currently developing in the region of Galicia” It further added, “We had been granted grid access rights for all of the projects, and is now working on securing the permits.” However, the supply of wind energy to the Galicia-based San Ciprian aluminium smelter is set to commence in 2024. The fresh pre-agreement emerges following Alcoa inked...
Failed to reach an energy agreement, Montenegro’s sole aluminium smelter KAP shuts down
In the Balkan nation, Montenegro Uniprom has closed down the country’s exclusive aluminium smelter, KAP, with the proceedings being accomplished by 30 th December 2021, following its failure to agree on a new electricity price with power company EPCG. However, Uniprom notified earlier that it would close KAP due to the skyrocketing price of electricity making its production unviable. Veselin Pejovic, the CEO and Founder of Uniprom Group held liable EPCG for being responsible for this extreme decision, while on the other hand, EPCG urged Pejovic to sit for another round of discussions to find a solution. KAP was paying €45 per MWh plus VAT by the end of 2021, whereas on international markets the electricity price is now around €250 per MWh. The energy supply contract between KAP and EPCG...
“RUSAL had enough courage to step into the ‘unchartered waters’ and try things which other peer companies hadn’t tried”, Irina Bakhtina, Chief Sustainability Officer, Rusal
A graduate in journalism from the Far Eastern State University (Vladivostok), Irina Bakhtina has also completed the INSEAD Business School executive program in Strategic Management and the externship of the Higher School of Management in Economics from St. Petersburg State University. Earlier, Irina Bakhtina served as Deputy Prime Minister of the Komi Republic, where she was responsible for the socio-economic development and the formation of investment and innovation policy in the region, including the Arctic zone of Russia. To know her view about sustainable development and how Rusal is implementing sustainable development strategy across all divisions of the company and on the Group’s wider climate strategy aimed at achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, read the interview below:...
Ireland’s export of aluminium scrap during 2019-21 exhibits standard growth; 9% demand drop predicted for 2022
The demand for aluminium goods is increasing steadily due to its positive contribution to modern living. The metal aluminium is the second most extensively used metal whereas the aluminium can is the most recycled consumer product in the world. The exceptional recyclability of aluminium, jointly with its high scrap value and low energy requirement during recycling make aluminium highly desirable to one and all. Ireland, one of the wealthiest countries in the OECD and the EU-27 exported 99,774 tonnes of aluminium scrap during 2019-21, incurring revenue earnings of 68.44 million from the export. In 2019, the Irish export of aluminium scrap was documented at 24,870 tonnes, counting earnings of $21.98 million, whereas, in 2020, the export exhibited growth by 43.59%, as the export volume...
Top Newsmakers for December 2021: Romania’s Alro slash production at the aluminium smelter, intent for total close down; Aluminium Dunkerque reduces metal output due to rise in power price
The month of December and also the year 2021 ended and the global aluminium industry welcomed the New Year 2022 with a lot of hope and desire. However, the month of December 2021 documented some very important decisions floated by various industry giants. The Romanian aluminium producer, Alro's aluminium smelter has already commenced the closedown procedure, as it has planned to slash down 60% of the production during the first phase. The Dunkerque Aluminium in France has also slashed its production output due to a surge in energy prices, while in India, the flagship company of Adani Group, Adani Enterprises declared that it has engulfed a wholly-owned subsidiary Mundra Aluminium Limited on 17th December 2021. China's aluminium sector, the world's largest, is growing increasingly reliant...
