ABB has secured two orders from China’s Southwest Aluminum to supply integrated automation and digital technologies for two six-high aluminium cold rolling mills, supporting the manufacturer’s wide-strip production expansion and upgrade. The projects involve a 2,500 mm two-stand mill and a 3,000 mm single-stand mill, with both lines expected to be fully commissioned and operational by the end of 2027. Chongqing-based Southwest Aluminum is a subsidiary of the Aluminum Corporation of China (Chinalco). The orders build on the longstanding cooperation between ABB and the aluminium producer, with the latest projects focusing on process stability, control precision and production performance. Explore insights and forecasts for the aluminium flat rolled products (FRP) market from our...
India-based PG Foils Limited plans to establish a downstream aluminium manufacturing facility in Bahrain, focusing on electric vehicle (EV) battery foil and pharmaceutical foil production. The proposed investment is expected to expand the kingdom’s aluminium downstream capabilities and strengthen its manufacturing base. Bahrain’s Ministry of Industry and Commerce signed a letter of intent with PG Foils for the project. The agreement was signed by Industry and Commerce Minister Abdullah bin Adel Fakhro and PG Foils Joint Managing Director Sahil Shah during the fourth edition of the Gateway Gulf expo, which opened on November 1 in Manama. Explore: The most comprehensive and forward-looking industry-focused report – Aluminum Foil Market Report Forecast Till 2035 Hosted by the Bahrain...
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Aluminium processing industry in Henan Province, among China’s top three aluminium producing regions, reported production and sales boom in the first quarter of this year, local media reported. Yidian Holding Group posted notable output growth, and its sales of aluminium plate/sheet, strip and foil soared 48 per cent year-on-year to nearly 110,000 tonnes in Q1, yielding over 20 million yuan profit. The company set output target at 460,000 tonnes and profit target at 350 million yuan in its aluminium processing business this year. Henan Zhongfu Industrial High-Precision Aluminium Co. produced 7,847 tonnes of cold-rolled aluminium products in March, a new record high. The company reported marked month-on-month fall in production costs, and power consumption, etc. Wanji Holding Group’s...
Exco Technologies said Tuesday, April 5, it has completed the acquisition of AFX Industries L.L.C. for US$73 million, excluding US$4 million of assumed debt. The transaction was first announced in February. AFX had revenue of approximately $115 million in 2015. Exco said it expects the acquisition will be highly accretive to its earnings per share. “AFX’s high quality operations are extremely complementary to our automotive interior trim business,” said Brian Robbins, president and CEO of Exco. “AFX also provides us with new capabilities and customer/ supplier relationships that undoubtedly strengthen our opportunity for further growth.” AFX was founded in 1998 and is based in Port Huron, Michigan with manufacturing operations in Mexico. The company supplies interior trim components...
Constellium N.V. announced today the opening of the Constellium University Technology Center (UTC) at Brunel University London, a dedicated center of excellence for the design, development and prototyping of aluminium alloys and automotive structural components. Featuring industrial size aluminium casting and extrusion equipment in the first phase, the Constellium UTC will provide rapid prototyping capability that is expected to reduce development times by at least 50% for advanced aluminium alloys required for the continued lightweighting of automotive structural components. The newly developed alloy and process technologies are expected to be transferred to Constellium’s extrusion and automotive structures plants worldwide, thereby closing the gap between fundamental R&D and series...
The Aluminum Association applauds the International Trade Commission for beginning its investigation into the global aluminum industry and the competitiveness of U.S. producers. The federal trade agency announced yesterday it has officially launched its investigation, “Aluminum: Competitive Conditions Affecting the U.S. Industry”. For U.S. producers, overcapacity, particularly in China, is of paramount concern to the aluminum industry. While the demand for aluminum is growing globally, and is particularly strong in North America, the Aluminum Association is concerned about growing overcapacity in China and questionable trading practices. Aluminum producers in the United States have been hurt by these practices, and have urged the U.S. government to investigate these issues. USITC will...
Japan's Kobe Steel Ltd will spend 100 billion yen ($900 million) over the next five years to boost steel and aluminium supplies to automakers and aircraft manufacturers as it looks to drive growth and counter faltering demand in China. Steel producers in high-cost countries say their best hope for surviving the global glut is to develop higher value specialised products although they will still face a tough time competing with low-cost Chinese producers. Under a new five-year business plan announced on Tuesday and starting this month, the country's third-biggest steelmaker aims to bolster its recurring profit, pre-tax before one-off items, to 140 billion yen in the year through March 2021, against an estimated 25 billion yen in the year just ended. In an effort to differentiate itself...
ESI Group, pioneer and world-leading solution provider in Virtual Prototyping for manufacturing industries, announces its participation at CastExpo,16-19 April 2016 in Minneapolis, MN, USA. Sponsored by the American Foundry Society (AFS), CastExpo is the largest metal casting trade show in North America. ESI will showcase on booth 1915 its leading casting simulation software, ProCAST, which addresses a large number of casting processes for diverse metals and alloys including aluminium die casting. Developed over the past 25 years, ProCAST has helped foundries across industries, improve aluminium die cast part quality, reduce manufacturing defects, and lower scrap rates. ESI ProCAST is a versatile, precise and comprehensive casting simulation solution, enabling foundries to tackle easily...
The Pakistan Association of Automotive Parts and Accessories Manufacturers (Paapam) has urged the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to immediately withdraw the new regulatory duty on all raw materials that they import. The government has recently imposed 15 per cent additional import duty on different steel products. However, this has caused problems for the auto industry that imports various steel raw materials under the common Pakistan Customs Tariff (PCT) codes. The intention behind levying duties on steel and other metal imports including aluminium was to protect the local industry in the face of dumping by Chinese manufacturers that resulted in underutilisation of local plants. The association did appreciate the imposition of duty to protect the local metal industry, but asked the...
China's Ningbo DSW Industry Co.,Ltd, specializing in aluminium die casting, has announced that it is all set to provide leading organizations and importers of quality mainstream industrial components with a variety of products that meet international standards to help in the development of more innovative products for the world’s consumers. According to a company spokesperson, the die casting manufacturer capitalizes on its technical expertise in the field of high pressure die casting as well as aluminum die casting in order to create more responsive and more innovative solutions to organizations the world over. The spokesperson of the die casting manufacturer explains that die casting provides greater versatility when it comes to the design of a broad range of shapes and components to...
Aleris International, Inc., the direct wholly owned subsidiary of Aleris Corporation, made an announcement that it has completed its previously announced offering of $550 million aggregate principal amount of 9.50 per cent senior secured notes due 2021. The Notes are guaranteed by Aleris and certain of the company's subsidiaries. The Notes are secured by a first-priority lien on substantially all of our and the guarantors' owned and material U.S. real property, equipment and intellectual property and stock of the company and the guarantors (other than Aleris) and other subsidiaries (including 100 per cent of the outstanding non-voting stock (if any) and 65 per cent of the outstanding voting stock of certain "first-tier" foreign subsidiaries and certain "first-tier" foreign subsidiary...
The global aluminium wire rods market is slated to grow at a CAGR of around 2 per cent during 2015-2019, revealed data released in a recently published market analysis. The increased investments in infrastructure are driving the growth of this market. Developing economies such as India are heavily investing in infrastructure activities to improve industrialization. Initiatives like "Make in India" are anticipated to increase the demand for aluminium wire rods during the forecast period. The increased usage of particular conductors is also expected to drive the market growth during the forecast period. Special conductors such as Al-59, ACAR, and AACSR deliver superior performance in terms of strength to weight ratio without compromising on current carrying capacity. These conductors are...
National Aluminium Products Company (Napco), one of the leading extruders of aluminium profiles in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), has registered a remarkable performance for 2015, achieving robust growth volume in the local market as well as exports. The company earned revenues of OMR24.8 million, compared to OMR19.4 million in 2014, representing an increase of 28 per cent. In addition, Napco has gained a net profit of OMR0.78 million in comparison to OMR0.70 million in the previous year, registering a growth of 11 per cent. Despite a challenging business environment for the aluminium extrusion industry, Napco has managed to increase the capacity utilisation of its existing plant, widen its product offerings, improve client services, and increase its focus on market initiatives,...
PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum), located in North Sumatra, Indonesia, has placed an order with Hertwich Engineering for the supply of a Batch Homogenizing plant including auxiliary equipment. In the context of its strategic aims, Inalum intends to broaden its product range. The Japanese-Indonesian Joint Venture founded in the 1970s (and since 2013 the Indonesian Government has been the sole owner) operates on the basis of a hydroelectric power station (which they own) and an aluminium smelter, which has up until now specialised in the production of pure aluminium ingots of the 99.90 per cent and 99.70 per cent grades. In future the range of products supplied is to be extended to continuously cast extrusion billets. For this, the company has awarded Hertwich the contract for...
Novelis, the world leader in aluminium rolling and recycling, today announced the appointment of Sachin Satpute to the position of Senior Vice President, Novelis Inc. and President, Novelis Asia, effective June 1, 2016. Satpute has nearly 30 years of experience in the aluminium industry and previously served as Chief Marketing Officer, Hindalco Industries Limited. Prior to his role with Hindalco, Satpute held roles of increasing responsibility within Novelis, including Director, Business Development & Innovation for Novelis Asia; Vice President, Sales, Marketing & Technical Services for Novelis Asia; and Managing Director of Aluminium Company of Malaysia Berhad (ALCOM). "We are pleased to have Sachin Satpute rejoin our Novelis Asia team," said Steve Fisher, Novelis President and Chief...
China aluminium semis exports shrunk in February and the trend is expected to continue in March as well. General Customs data showed that the country exported 260,000 metric tons of semis, which is down 34.1 per cent year-on-year and down from January’s total of 330,000 metric tons. The SHFE/LME aluminium price ratio, which rose above 7.6 in the month of March, is expected to continue to limit the export of semis. Chinese traders that spoke to SMM expect to cut exports due to the less-than-favorable price ratio. The unfavorability has yet to affect the larger aluminium processors, as they tend to operate on long-term contracts. Aluminium alloy wheel China’s aluminium alloy wheel exports grew markedly in February in both volume and value. The country exported 55,500 tonnes of aluminium...
For the production of extrusion billets at its newly built plant in Madhya Pradesh, Hindalco Industries decided in favour of heat treatment in a continuous homogenizing furnace. The continuous homogenising and sawing plant for billets (diameter range 178 to 229 mm) has a capacity of 64,000 tonnes per year and is the fourth such unit supplied by Hertwich to India. Hindalco Industries Ltd., which belongs to the Aditya Birla Group in India, employs around 20,000 people and has a turnover of almost US$15 billion per year, making it one of India’s largest companies in the raw materials sector. To extend its pre-material basis Hindalco has supplemented the Renukoot smelter in Uttar Pradesh with a newly built Mahan plant in Bargawan, Madhya Pradesh. The new plant, which also produces...
Pandolfo Alluminio S.p.A., a leading Italian extrusion plant, has placed an order with Hertwich Engineering for the supply of a modern Batch Homogenizing Furnace for extrusion billets. Its commissioning is scheduled for August 2016. Pandolfo has been operating a Hertwich continuous homogenizing unit for 50,000 tonnes per year in its casthouse in Maniago since 2010. To increase its capacity by 35,000 t/y this unit is to be supplemented by a batch-type homogenizing unit – also from Hertwich. The new batch furnace will mainly be used for homogenizing special alloys, which favour a batch homogenizing operation due to frequent programme changes. The diameter range processed extends from 178 mm to 482 mm. The production programme demands particularly precise temperature control in the furnace...
Malaysia based A-Rank Bhd and LB Aluminium Bhd have entered into a potetial synergy that is expected to yield higher returns for both the business entities in the foreseeable quarters. The companies now have a common single largest shareholder in Datuk Leow Chong Howa, a low-profile local businessman. Leow, 57, the executive chairman and major shareholder of LB Aluminium, surfaced as a substantial shareholder of A-Rank with a 27.74 per cent stake last month. He holds a 30.17 per cent direct stake in LB Aluminium, while his family members own another 15 per cent in the aluminium extrusion specialist. Leow, who was appointed to the board in 1985, had been the managing director of LB Aluminium since its incorporation. A-Rank is the country's largest manufacturer and supplier of aluminium...
A Leading business intelligence service group, BIS Group s.r.o., announced that is organizing an exclusive Supply Chain Risk Management Forum with the senior executives, industry leaders, experts and decision-makers within Supply Chain Industry. BIS group s.r.o. informed Supply Chain Risk Management Forum will take place on 23rd – 24th June 2016, in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The event will be held specifically to disclose how to identify, assess and approach risk in the supply chain and how and which tools to use for effective capturing the necessary data. The Forum will showcase how to optimize through supply chain visibility supply chain operations while minimizing vulnerability and achieving resilience. Moreover, it will teach the best framework and strategies for managing supply chain...
