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.
Indian skincare brand Vilvah goes Aluminium
The Indian natural skincare brand Vilvah, based in Tamil Nadu consciously takes sustainable measures, as it recently launched a recycling program, where a consumer can bring empty containers to their physical stores for discounts. Villa firmly believes that saving the earth is an individual responsibility and being a natural skincare brand, it consciously takes sustainable measures in every step forward. The firm has decided to go plastic-free in the year 2019 and from then the sustainability journey continues. As per Vilvah, they found that aluminium can be recycled an infinite number of times and it has high scrap value. It requires low energy for recycling and of all the aluminium ever produced 75% is still in use today. The major sales of the brand happen online, so they felt to...
Italy’s import of Aluminium Powder and Flakes during 2018-20 indicates downturn
In its 2021 budget to foster an economic rebound from the recession caused by the coronavirus crisis, the Italian government has approved a new stimulus package. Roberto Gualtieri, Minister of Finance and Economy communicated over social media handle by saying: “Expansionary measures in 2021 will total more than 39 billion euros ($45.70 billion), including some 15 billion euros of grants from the European Union's Recovery Fund.” Italy’s import of aluminium powder and flakes during 2018-19 has been recorded at 2970 tonnes and the expenditure incurred remained at $13.08 million. The evaluated import for 2020 has been marked at 1017 tonnes and expenditure to stand at $4.80 million; when the import volume and expenditure of the existing two years gets added it signifies 3987 tonnes and $17.88...
Canyon Resources: “Dimitri Bacopanos” joins the board as Non-Executive Director
Canyon Resources Ltd has announced that Mr Dimitri Bacopanos joined the Board of as a Non-Executive Director. Mr Bacopanos’ appointment follows the completion of the successful A$10 million equity placement by the Company, including completion of the A$5.6m investment in Canyon by interests associated with Peter Su. Mr Bacopanos has been nominated as a director by Mr Su, according to the subscription agreement entered into between the Company and interests associated with Mr Su as announced on ASX on 31 st August’20. Dimitri Bacopanos is a Chartered Accountant and Fellow of the Securities Institute of Australia with more than thirty years of experience in a wide range of industries, geographies and roles. He was previously an Executive Director with Ernst & Young in their Transaction...
GFG Alliance to increase Aluminium production to 1 million tonnes/year, more acquisitions to follow: Sanjeev Gupta
On 19 th October’20, Sanjeev Gupta, Executive Chairman and CEO of GFG Alliance in the London Metals Exchange (LME) Seminar, said: “GFG Alliance plans to boost its aluminium production capacity to at least 1 million tonnes/year within the next two years via acquisitions” “This would be up from the group's current capacity of almost 600,000 tonnes/year of aluminium production”, Gupta told delegates at the virtual event. He said: "We're targeting more acquisitions. Aluminium will play a vital role in the transition to a sustainable world, by reducing the weight in electric cars, for example, we see growing demand ahead." The GFG Alliance Chief did not comment on whether further expansions might occur but revealed they would be in Europe. GFG's current aluminium production capacity is focused...
International Aluminium Institute heralds global recycling data
On 20 th October’20, The International Aluminium Institute (IAI) released global aluminium recycling data. According to figures from the IAI, recycling of just one aluminium can conserve enough energy to recharge up to 20 mobile phones, while global aluminium recycling saves enough energy every year to power the whole of France. Marlen Bertram, IAI’s Director - Product Stewardship, commented on the recycling data: “Aluminium is one of the most recycled materials on earth. Today, the global recycling efficiency rate is 76%. High recycling rates in all regions underline the economic and environmental value of aluminium scrap. With comprehensive statistical data and pioneering material flow analysis, the IAI can track scrap globally from source to consumer by-product, quality, form and...
Oman’s export of Aluminium scrap during 2018-20 remains uneven, earnings keep rising
Oman is heavily dependent on oil and gas resources, which generates between and 68% and 85% of government revenue, depending on fluctuations in commodity prices. The key components of the government's diversification strategy are tourism, shipping and logistics, mining, manufacturing, and aquaculture. Oman's economy is expected to contract in 2020 due to the oil price slide and the COVID-19 public health response. An increase in gas output and infrastructure spending plans will help growth recover over 2021-22. Rigid recurrent spending will keep public debt high, estimated to exceed 70% of GDP in 2020 and beyond. The gulf nation’s export of aluminium scrap during 2018-19 has been recorded at 30,329 tonnes and the revenue generated through this export remained at $30.82 million. The export...
Tiwai smelter: Hopes are gathering to keep open Rio Tinto’s aluminium plant longer
Hopes gradually appear to grow for the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter to remain open for another three to five years. However, the major stakeholder Rio Tinto declared in July’20 that it would shut down the Tiwai Aluminium smelter by August 2021 provided its high energy costs and a challenging outlook for the aluminium industry. The Southland leaders and present ruling Government have to fit in the shoes to try and keep Tiwai aluminium smelter open for a longer period, otherwise, 1000 jobs would be lost, another 1600 indirect jobs would be at risk and the economy would take a massive blow. A spokesman for finance minister Grant Robertson said: “This week a priority of the new Government was to reach an agreement with Rio Tinto that would result in the plant staying open for three to five...
Norsk Hydro’s German factories distressed by high penalties after alleged aluminium dumping
The US Department of Commerce recently declared that punitive tariffs will be imposed on producers of rolled aluminium from 18 countries. The tariffs mainly go from a few percent to up to 50%. However, for Hydro Aluminum Rolled Products GmbH, a wholly-owned German subsidiary of Norsk Hydro, the rate will be 352.71%. As per one Hydro’s official: “Hydro's German factories are subject to sky-high penalties - Unreasonable and unfounded.” The reason for the punitive duty is that Hydro and the other companies are accused of dumping aluminium for billions of Norwegian kroner in the American market. Halvor Molland, Senior Vice-President Communication, Norsk Hydro, said: “We believe this is an unreasonable and unfounded decision.”
Chile’s import of Aluminium cans during 2018-20 exhibits downmarket, expenditure remains high
The economy of Chile is a market economy and high-income economy as ranked by the World Bank, and is considered one of South America's most prosperous nations. According to IMF estimates, inflation reached 2.3% in 2019 and is expected to slightly increase to 3.4% in 2020 and 2.9% in 2021; this means that despite the COVID-19 pandemic Chile's Central Bank target of 3% of inflation is still met. The South American nation’s aluminium cans import during 2018-19 has been recorded at 3674 tonnes and expenditure stood at $39.04 million. The projected import for 2020 is analysed at 957 tonnes and expenditure is expected to rise and remain at $22.11 million, however, when the import and expenditure get added with previous two months, it demonstrates 4631 tonnes and $61.15 million respectively. In...
Bechtel Corporation secures engineering consultant contract for Egyptalum's 7th production line
The largest aluminium producer in Egypt and one of the largest in Africa, Egyptalum, has assigned the US-based company Bechtel an engineering consultant contract for the former's seventh production line project. The main purpose of the project is to increase Egyptalum's production of aluminium, with Bechtel being highly qualified in managing aluminium smelters projects. An official of Egyptalum said: “Based on the selection, the company will start implementing the project before the end of 2020. In a two-stage process, Egyptalum aims to increase its production of primary aluminium by 250,000 tonnes per year using modern technology.” Egyptalum said that a session in which the technical bids were opened was held according to the date set for the public tender that had previously been...
Tunisie Profilés Aluminum: Domestic market performance cushions the effects of “Corona crisis”
Tunisia’s largest company “Tunisie Profilés Aluminum”, a specialized manufacturer of aluminium alloy profiles has announced its third-quarter’20 results, which reflects an overall revenue rise by 28% and this stands at TND 44,576,567 (Tunisian Dinar) against TND 34,957,488 in the 3rd quarter of 2019. The overall turnover at 30 th September’20 is TND 95,453,914 against TND 113,622,308 for the same period of the previous year, which is a downfall by 16%, however, the downswing recorded on 30 th June’20 is 35%, when compared to 30 th June’19. At the end of the 3rd quarter of 2020, the Tunisian Aluminium company recorded an increase in domestic turnover of 30% compared to the same period of 2019 to stand at TND 33,017,811 against TND 25,446,506. Indeed, this progression made it possible to...
MCX: India’s largest commodities exchange to debut first tradeable real-time base metals indices by name “METLDEX”
METLDEX, the first base metal futures indices from MCX, India’s largest multi-commodity exchange is going live from 19 th October’20 and is ready to reform the way prices are spotted as the indices will be traded on the real-time domestic prices. Presently, domestic metal prices are pivoted to the London Metal Exchange (LME) prices which have been a restraint to real-time price discovery. MCX said: “But with METLDEX, this is going to end. These indices will be the first tradable real-time base metals indices in the country.” METLDEX is established on base metal like Aluminium and also on other four metals like zinc, copper, nickel and lead which are traded on the MCX. On 16 th October’20, Chittaranjan Rege, Head of base metals at MCX said: "With the launch of the iComdex base metals...
“ElementUS”: A DADA Holdings and Enervoxa ground-breaking joint venture to extract rare earth elements from bauxite residue at New Day alumina refinery in Gramercy
DADA Holdings LLC, the principal owner of New Day Aluminum, and Enervoxa, a Canadian based green technologies company, together announce a ground-breaking joint venture, ElementUS, to extract valuable rare earth elements and minerals from bauxite residue at New Day’s alumina refinery in Gramercy, Louisiana. ElementUS will deploy Enervoxa technology to separate bauxite residue into its component materials, including several rare earth elements along with iron, titanium and alumina. The refinery’s bauxite residue contains 10 of the 17 rare earth elements and 15 minerals identified as strategic and critical by the United States Defence Logistics Agency, many of which exist in unusually high concentrations. ElementUS plans to build a one million ton per year state of the art and...
Hitachi delivers Aluminium bodied train for Ho Chi Minh City metro line
On 13 th October’20, Hitachi has delivered the first of 17 train-sets for the metro line under construction in Ho Chi Minh City. Line 1 will run for 19·7 km between Ben Thanh Market in the central District 1 and Suoi Tien Theme Park in District 9 to the northeast, with 17·1 km of the route being elevated and 2·6 km underground. There will be 11 elevated and three underground stations. The metro line is constructed with Japanese Official Development Assistance funds and preferential loans. Hitachi is responsible for the supply of track, electrical and mechanical works and rolling stock under a ¥37bn contract signed in 2013, and Japanese experts are now providing staff training. In 2012, the project started and is reported to be 77% complete, however, the opening of the line is now expected...
Austria’s import of Aluminium household articles during 2018-20 manifests “seesaw” movement
Austria is a highly developed industrialized country with an important service sector. The most important industries are food and luxury commodities, mechanical engineering and steel construction, chemicals, and vehicle manufacturing. The nation’s economic freedom score is 73.3, making its economy the 29th freest in the 2020 Index. Its overall score has increased by 1.3 points, led by a higher score for government integrity. The Southern part of Central European country’s import of aluminium household articles has been recorded at 9254 tonnes and expenditures incurred for the import stood at $63.40 million. The import for 2020 has been marked at 4200 tonnes and expected expenses to occur stands at $30.05 million; when the import volume and expenditure gets assorted to the preceding two...
Dutch designer Richard Hutten melts down Amsterdam Schiphol airport’s old chairs for ‘sweeping’ new seating system, starts with aluminium frame recycling
Dutch furniture and interior designer Richard Hutten worked with award-winning design label for contract furniture and office furniture, Lensvelt to develop 27,000 new seats for Amsterdam's Schiphol airport that make use of the building's existing resources. According to Richard Hutten, this: "radical new way to produce a product emits 95% less carbon in its production than any comparable product.” The designer followed circular design principles, with all of the seats' constituent materials being either recycled, recyclable or biodegradable. It begins with the frame, which is cast from aluminium that was recovered from the airport's previous, unserviceable seats that would otherwise have been discarded. The process not only helped to conserve resources but also energy, as recycling...
Vedanta invests big on Industry 4.0 and digitization, to stay ahead of the game
Vedanta, the multi-billion dollar mining and metal Group invests big on industry 4.0 and digital technologies to stay relevant in the metal industry. The demand for metals is growing continuously, as the global population rises and aluminium stands as the second most essential metal in the world. The metal industry plans to invest significantly in digital operation solutions over the next five years across the globe. However, this investment is rendering into a progressively advanced level digitalization and integration, and the outcome of it is substantial operational cost savings, safety, and sustainability of the business as well as social inclusiveness. The companies in the metal industry are counting on Industry 4.0, besides from digital technologies. The technology empowers...
Threatened jobs at MBF Aluminum in France, employees on demonstration in Saint-Claude
MBF Aluminium in France, an automotive subcontractor for aluminium components, intended to defend their 300 jobs, which is standing on a threat in the more or less short term. On 15 th October’20, the employees meet in front of the cathedral of Saint-Claude in the morning to demonstrate a protest. As per report commissioned by the Ministry of the Finance and Economy concerning the foundry at the national level does not herald happy days for automotive subcontractors. Of the 13,500 jobs in the entire foundry industry in France, 5,200 would be cut by 2025. For MBF, this would result in the elimination of 150 positions, so half of the workforce. The CGT union said: "Which would mean closing in the medium term because the foundry would no longer be economically viable.” Management and...
