Norway will provide a guarantee of up to NOK 150 million (USD 16.08 million) to support revenue security for the planned 255 MW Thakadu solar project in South Africa, helping reduce the risk faced by investors in the renewable energy development. The guarantee will be provided to Lyra Energy, an electricity sales platform jointly owned by Scatec, Standard Bank and Stanlib. It will cover the risk of companies buying electricity from the solar plant failing to make their payments. The agreement, announced on September 14, 2026, is the first involving a private company under Norway's renewable energy guarantee mechanism. The NOK 5 billion (USD 536 million) programme is designed to encourage greater private investment in renewable energy projects in developing countries by taking on part of...
The latest escalation in the US-Canada trade dispute is putting pressure on one of North America's most deeply integrated manufacturing networks, with auto-parts makers facing higher costs and growing uncertainty over where and how components should be produced. The two countries have spent decades building an automotive supply chain in which parts and materials routinely cross the border multiple times before reaching a finished vehicle. The latest tariff measures, including duties on aluminium and steel, threaten to disrupt that model and could force suppliers to reconsider long-established production routes. The immediate challenge for automakers and their suppliers is deciding whether to absorb higher costs in the short term or make expensive changes to their supply chains. For...
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Throughout this month’s Formula One United States Grand Prix, several sustainability initiatives will be taken up by the Circuit of the Americas (COTA). The racing track would be populated with 96-gallon recycling bins and 90 per cent recycled aluminium cups provided by Ball Corporation in place of single-use plastic ones. Aluminium is infinitely recyclable, and with aluminium cups or beverage cans, it is the easiest because no additional sorting process is required. This can induce a circular economy beneficial for the entire community and the world. The President and General Manager of Ball Aluminium Cups, Emily Fong, exclaimed: “We are committed to bringing fans a more sustainable way to enjoy beverages as they watch their favourite sporting events.” “By partnering with venues like...
Sibu, an inland city in the central region of Sarawak, Malaysia, reportedly witnessed the launch of its first locally built aluminium fast crew boat on Wednesday, October 5. The boat is named Marine Success, built by Sapor Shipbuilding Industrial Sdn Bhd at a cost of RM20 million. Ting Hua Ang, managing director of Sapor Shipbuilding, said the boat is the first of its kind, with a speed of 32 knots. He also told at the launch that the ship measures 41.5 metre in length and can carry up to 70 passengers. It is built as per the order by MS Offshore Sdn Bhd and would be used by Petronas for offshore operations. Ting Hua Ang added, “It comes with three main engines supplied by Yanmar Diesel with a horse power of 1,650 per unit, hence making it one of the fastest crew boats available thus...
Norway-based Flokk, in partnership with Hydro, has designed a chair with the lowest environmental impact, the HÅG Celi. Flokk has utilized the technological expertise of Hydro in making these low-carbon aluminium furniture series. Flokk has been making eco-friendly furniture for over a decade though it was officially launched in 2017. Flokk uses recycled materials harbouring the need to conserve natural resources with the aim of downsizing energy usage, residual wastes and carbon emissions. Even during the inception of the HÅG Celi conference chair's design, aluminium was considered to be the primary material for components like the frame and legs. To embark on this journey, the company has collaborated with Hydro to use aluminium in making its flagship products. Keeping the initiatives...
MCP Yachts, a Brazilian shipyard specialised in designing and constructing highly customised aluminium motor yachts, has reportedly launched its 37.4-metre all-aluminium superyacht Queen Tati. As per the report, the yacht is scheduled to be delivered by 2022. The vessel was designed by Vripack, including the interior, representing a ‘new superyacht era in South America,’ according to the shipyard. Queen Tati, weighing 316 gross tonnage, features a semi-displacement hull with a beam of 8.1 metre and a draft of 2.2 metre. It offers accommodation for up to 12 guests across four cabins, with quarters for a crew of eight. Queen Tati is the second largest yacht built by MCP Yachts, following the 43.76 metre Raffaella II, also designed in collaboration with Vripack. When delivered, the vessel...
Australian Macquarie Group and Origin Energy have signed a deal to invest in the Aluminium Revolutionary Chassis Company (ARCC), a developer and manufacturer of lightweight bolted aluminium city bus chassis. Aluminium Revolutionary Chassis Company claims to be the first Australian manufacturer who has designed a zero-emission indigenously-made bus chassis. The organisation has also put forward a lightweight aluminium bus chassis that curtails fuel and energy intake while also permitting better passenger sitting capacity in comparison with other zero-emission buses available in the market. The ARCC group has also developed a streamlined, bolted assembly system which helps in keeping the production time short while supporting the local Australian manufacturing market. ARCC Managing...
The largest producer and exporter in the Polish railway industry, Alstom, which employs over 4000 people in 11 sites and has operated for over 25 years in Poland, launched an aluminium welding line at its rolling stock production plant in Wrocław. As part of the sustainable mobility strategy and development trends in the rail industry, this investment replaces heavier and more challenging to process steel with lighter and more efficient aluminium, e.g. due to its high strength-to-weight ratio and corrosion resistance. An investment of almost €10 million in Alstom's Wroclaw aluminium welding line includes new equipment and machinery, infrastructure upgrades, and employee training. Alstom's Wroclaw plant will be able to acquire new projects and produce aluminium boxes for regional trains in...
The end-user sector is where all the upstream components meet to form various utility products to be sold in the retail market. The Managing Director of the Gujarat-India headquartered Goldi Solar, Ishver Dholakiya, on September 26, announced an investment plan worth US$600 million by 2025 in order to accelerate its module producing capacity to 6 gigawatts. UK-based Sainsbury's, the supermarket chain, has replaced plastic with aluminium in making their patent coffee pods. Velux, an aluminium extrusion specialist, has joined with Hydro to provide its customer with low-carbon aluminium products. UK-based Sainsbury's is completely shifting to infinitely recyclable aluminium instead of plastic for making their flagship coffee pods. The users only would have to empty the aluminium pods, wash...
As lightweight and low carbon emissions have become the two prime criteria for manufacturing vehicles, aluminium is hogging maximum limelight as a crucial raw material in the transportation industry for obvious reasons. The silvery-white metal is lightweight and infinitely recyclable, which has made the use of aluminium popular in manufacturing automobiles. To throw more light on the demand and consumption of aluminium in the transportation sector, AlCircle has published a report on “Future of Aluminium in Transportation Sector - an industry analysis with forecasts to 2027.” The report has revealed that aluminium consumption in the global transportation sector stood at around 25.5 million tonnes in 2021, representing 27% of the total global usage of 93.5 million tonnes. It grew 5.8% per...
Hailing from Denmark, VELUX, a global provider of construction variants, has signed an agreement with Hydro to reach a level below 2.0 kg of carbon emitted per kilogram of aluminium by 2030. This partnership will focus on the whole aluminium value chain, particularly on the extruded aluminium components Hydro supplies to Velux. As the manufacturer claims, by the end of 2022, this conglomeration would help Velux recede almost 15,000-20,000 tonnes of carbon from its aluminium profiles, where in the beginning, 94 per cent of its carbon footprint emerged from raw materials used in making the products. The roof window and skylights maker, Velux's Executive Vice President responsible for Products & Innovation, Tina Mayn, illustrated: "With buildings accounting for almost 40 per cent of CO2...
UK-based Sainsbury's is completely shifting to infinitely recyclable aluminium instead of plastic for making their flagship coffee pods. This attempt at sustainability has been followed by an initiative Sainsbury's took the previous year by morphing some of its coffee pod packagings from plastic to aluminium to aid customers in recycling their used coffee pods at home. The users only would have to empty the aluminium pods, wash them and put them in their local kerbside recycling bin. The supermarket chain claims this new aluminium packaging might save 10 million pieces of plastic annually. Overall, 11 SKUs, including Lungo, Espresso and Taste The Difference Signature Light Roast, will all be subjected to the change. Sainsbury's is also going to downsize the use of cardboard by 20 per cent...
The International Organization of Aluminium Aerosol Container Manufacturers (AEROBAL) revealed that during the first half of 2022, global exports by its members had increased by 5.5 per cent, reaching a total of almost 3 billion units. According to the reports, the surge in demand was mainly contributed by the hairspray, home goods and medicines industry. The hairspray industry reported a growth of 34 per cent compared to 2021, home good hiked by 15 per cent and medicines ascended by 9 per cent. The volume-dominant deodorant market and the 1.2 per cent contribution from the perfume market accounted for almost 57 per cent of all deliveries. “The global energy crisis, logistics bottlenecks and the lack of skilled workers are amongst the biggest worries of international aluminium aerosol can...
Octave de Gaulle, the ENSCI graduate designer interested in space objects and interiors has wrapped a glass bottle in an aeronautical-grade aluminium shell for French champagne house Maison Mumm, to grant champagne to be consumed in space. Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar champagne was created by Maison Mumm for Axiom Space's flights to be "the first champagne bottle and tasting experience designed for space travel and human spaceflight". In addition to being contained in a bottle designed by De Gaulle, who founded an agency specialising in space designs called SPADE, it will also be supported by CNES and Comat. The "high-tech" bottle is designed to counter space-specific issues, including how champagne acts in the non-existence of gravity, while still clinging to the regulations of Champagne...
A South Korean plastic films maker, Youlchon Chemical Co., on September 28 signed a document confirming the supply of a primary battery component utilised heavily in electric vehicles. The US$1.04 billion supply deal was successfully drawn for the upcoming six years with the joint venture formed by U.S. General Motors Co. and LG Energy Solution Ltd, two of the most well-known brands in the modern world. Ultium Cells LLC, the LG and General Motors JV would accept highly-malleable aluminium pouch films used in lithium-ion battery pack casings from South-Korean Youlchon. The latter will provide the former with aluminium pouch films for the better part of 2023 all the way to 2028, as was reported by the company in a regulatory filing. This agreement is the first where a South Korean battery...
A state research organisation that created a low-cost casting-based neutron-absorbing aluminium composite material plate of up to two metres has transferred its technology to Konasol, a producer of titanium carbide alloy steels in South Korea. Konasol will use this technology to produce materials for spent nuclear fuel transport and storage containers. The term spent nuclear fuel refers to used nuclear fuel irradiated in a nuclear reactor. Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS) created inexpensive casting-based composite material plates because it was crucial to localise an aluminium composite material with neutron absorption capability. In dry casks and spent fuel storage racks, the criticality of fuel assemblies is avoided using neutron absorber materials. Neutron absorber...
With the opening of a printed can factory in 2022, American Canning will bring technologically cutting-edge, internationally renowned Aluminium Toyo Ultimate Can (aTULC) manufacture to Austin, Texas. David Racino, the Co-Founder and CEO of American Canning, along with COO and Co-Founder Mike Daniel, had come together in 2020 to address the lack of can packaging accessibility for the craft beer industry. Toyo Seikan was simultaneously looking to enter the American craft beverage sector with their newly created small manufacturing line. The aTULC line was created by Toyo Seikan (Japan) in order to balance the environmental impact of the manufacturing process with the limitless recyclability of an aluminium can. This was done in keeping with American Canning's vision of finding inventive and...
On 26 th September 2022, the Managing Director of the Gujarat-India headquartered Goldi Solar, Ishver Dholakiya, said that India’s leading quality solar PV module manufacturer is planning to invest around $600 million (INR 5,000 crore) by 2025 to proliferate its module manufacturing capacity to 6 gigawatts. Dholakiya added, "At present, the total module manufacturing capacity of its plants in Pipodara and Navsari, Gujarat is 2.5 gigawatts (GW)." During the launch of HELOC Plus (high-efficiency low on carbon) module series with Heterojunction technology, the MD said, “We have plans to infuse over $600 million (INR 5,000 crore) as part of expansion plans to increase module manufacturing from 2.5 GW to 6 GW." “The expansion of the renewable energy business will be channelled into auxiliary...
Contemporary design team we+ debuted their aluminium work, "Resonance: Vortex to Diversity," during Milan Design Week 2022. The piece has a large vortex-shaped volume covered in a single metallic pigment that simultaneously reveals several hues. Through a partnership with Toyo Aluminium, the surface of the large-scale artwork is highlighted in erratic, unexpected displays. "Resonance: Vortex to Diversity" was jointly developed by we+ and Toyo Aluminium for Milan Design Week, the most fantastic design event in the world. The work of art made of aluminium won the Special mention Fuorisalone Award 2022 and was displayed at Superstudio Più in Milan's Tortona neighbourhood. Coated purely in Chromashine, an interference aluminium pigment created by the Japanese company Toyo Aluminium, the...
Big companies in the aluminium industry are changing how their businesses operated in the past and implementing waste management techniques due to the global shift toward sustainability. Hylux, a US-based manufacturer of health beverages, has introduced a new recyclable, resalable aluminium bottle for its unflavoured spring water. The Boston campus of North-eastern University will be the first purchaser of the bottles, which will initially be made accessible to select organisations for sale and distribution within their networks. The second ship, built at Asyad Drydock, was successfully developed, according to Asyad Group, an Oman-based provider of logistical solutions. The 24-metre-long MEFK Pearl boat will travel through the Fujairah port once operational. The first Emirati astronaut,...
