Two recent Tesla stories sit at opposite ends of the range. Tesla Model 3 is set to benefit from cost-focused Cybercab inverter technology, announced on November 1 2026. The flying car, Tesla Roadster, uses aluminum in its battery cells and underbody protection, reinforcing power delivery, thermal management and lightweight construction. The two models reveal how aluminum can serve very different engineering priorities, from making electric vehicles (EVs) more affordable to helping them deliver extraordinary performance. Tesla Model 3: the everyday car gets Cybercab hardware Nick Verzini, Tesla’s Head of Drive Unit Engineering, mentioned on a Munro Live factory tour that a new printed circuit board assembly and power stage from the Cybercab’s inverter will enter Model 3 production in...
Aluminum foil is getting a seasonal makeover as Reynolds Wrap introduces its limited-edition Snowflakes Fun Foil, bringing decorative appeal to everyday kitchen tasks ahead of the holiday season. Featuring an embossed snowflake pattern, the product combines the familiar functionality of aluminum foil with a festive appearance suited to food wrapping, holiday entertaining and homemade gifts. The new design allows consumers to use Reynolds Wrap foil for more than routine food storage, adding a decorative touch to meal preparation and presentation. Its winter-inspired pattern makes it suitable for covering dishes, preserving leftovers, packaging baked treats and creating festive crafts. Despite its seasonal appearance, Snowflakes Fun Foil retains the practical functionality of conventional...
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Shanghai Metals Market reports that China is speeding up the development of new energy vehicles, as Beijing and other major cities have announced plans to replace gas-powered taxis with electric cars in the next few years, as part of an initiative to boost NEV sales and reduce pollution. The Beijing Municipality Transport Commission said on October 30 that in the next two years, all newly registered or replacement taxis in Beijing have to be fully electric. According to the report from the commission, more than 1,000 brand new fully electric taxis have already hit the road in Beijing. By the end of next year, the target is to switch 20,000 taxis to NEVs. Shenzhen, the technology hub in South China, has also taken the lead among many other Chinese cities. Only fully electric vehicles will...
Ardagh Group announced its results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2019. The company reported revenue of $2,377 million in the three-month period ended September 30, 2019, down 1% year-on-year. On a constant currency basis, revenue rose by 2% on higher volumes in Metal Beverage Packaging Europe and Metal Beverage Packaging Americas and the pass through of increased input costs. Paul Coulson, Chairman and Chief Executive, said, “The Group reported a strong performance in the third quarter, with notable growth in Glass Europe and Metal Americas. We took advantage of favourable markets during the quarter to further improve our debt maturity profile and obtain material interest savings. We completed the Trivium transaction today, with cash proceeds of $2.5 billion to be used for...
Slowing economic growth and strict vehicle emission rules may bring down China’s new vehicle sales to 26 million in 2019 registering a drop of about 8 per cent YoY. This will be second consecutive yearly drop for the world’s biggest auto market. The sales drop forecast by Fu Bingfeng, executive vice chairman of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) is more than his previous forecast of 5% drop in July. China, which has seen the biggest growth in the global auto industry in last 20 years, is going through downturn leading many leading automakers to cut down production. Automakers such as General Motors, Ford and Peugeot have all reported double-digit percentage sales declines. Smaller automakers have started cutting or closing down capacity and merging with other...
Ball Corporation, a supplier of innovative, sustainable aluminium packaging solutions, reported net earnings attributable to the corporation of $92 million in the third quarter 2019 on sales of $2.95 billion, compared to $59 million in 2018. In January-September, net earnings attributable to the corporation were $406 million on sales of $8.76 billion, from $303 million on sales of $8.83 billion in January-September 2018. The company’s global beverage volumes increased by 4 per cent in the third quarter and 6 per cent in the first nine months of 2019. "Positive momentum in our aluminium beverage packaging and aerospace businesses continues. During the quarter, our global beverage volumes increased 4 percent and our aerospace contracted backlog increased 9 percent. With global customer and...
A new range of aluminum coffee capsules is soon to hit the UK market as Illycaffè will reportedly launch them and make them available for UK retailers by 2020. As per the report, the capsules to be launched are a result of the licensing agreement between Illycaffè and JAB. Illy claims that its new capsules will be compatible with Nespresso coffee machines and will help the company “keep in-step with modern consumption trends.” Initially, three flavours will be available in the range: Classico, Intenso and Forte. Jacobs Douwe Egberts will reportedly handle the production and distribution of the capsules in retail channels outside Italy, while Illycaffè will be responsible for the distribution in all other sales channels, as well as all sales channels in Italy. Massimiliano Pogliani,...
Aluminium is gaining fast popularity as a medium of art because of its lightweight and formability and easy availability and recyclability. The Kansas City Chiefs have unveiled a new aluminium sculpture in the Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City on October 28, 2019. The 11-feet-tall and 600-pounds in weight, the sculpture is a new addition to the Arrowhead Art Collection. The sculpture called “Third-and-Long” is created by local artist Jacob Burmood for the American football fans that visit the stadium and depicts players moving in every direction during a game. “We loved Jacob’s abstract and structural work. We’ve been looking for more sculptures to place outside the stadium,” said Sharron Hunt, Chairwoman of the Arrowhead Art Collection. Jacob took over 800 hours to construct the sculpture...
The German luggage manufacturer Rimowa never fails to mesmerise its patrons with its quirky innovation, and this time a bunch of colourful suitcases added to its Original aluminium collection. Inspired by the bright feathers of the scarlet ibis bird of Colombia’s and Venezuela’s tropical grasslands, and the vivid blue of the Mediterranean Sea, Rimowa’s new Original aluminium collection is now available in two fresh hues – scarlet and marine. The new line is made in the same way as Rimowa’s silver version, using a combination of anodising processes to inject directly into the suitcase’s skin to yield a result that is rich and metallic. The new shades are available in cabin, check-in and trunk plus sizes starting at all Rimowa stores. The price tag they carry is HK$8,350 (US$1,064). The...
Turkish automaker Oyak Renault will manufacture aluminium engine blocks at its plant, for the first time in Turkey, making it the only hybrid engine production facility in Europe. This was announced by the country's industry and technology minister Mustafa Varank on Oct. 23 at the factory's test production site in Bursa. The minister, in his speech said that the engines will be exported to China, Spain, and the U.K. He noted the latest technology machines had been installed in a 10,500 square meter facility for manufacturing the engine blocks. Renault has also hired more than 100 qualified engineers and operators to run the manufacturing operations. Antoine Aoun, director-general of Oyak Renault Turkey, said on the occasion: "We have completed our production center in a very short time as...
KinsBrae Packaging Inc. in Ontario has launched the PortaVino aluminum wine bottle at the Ontario Craft Brewers Conference in Niagara Falls. The KinsBrae PortaVino is a personal size, resealable aluminium bottle for wine, which makes wine drinking fun. Its elegant shape and convenient 250 ml volume, provides perfect versatility for the on-the-go lifestyles of a new generation of wine drinkers. PortaVino bottles can be easily slipped into a handbag or backpack for a day at the pool, golf-course, beach or spa or for casual home parties. “Wine in cans is rapidly gaining popularity with annual sales projected to reach $70 million in 2019 in the U.S.,” said Shawn Bonnick, President of KinsBrae Packaging. “As a proud, family-owned Ontario company, we’re very excited to help Canada’s leading...
Changan Automobile Co., Ford’s local partner in China estimates its loss to increase to RMB 550 million in Q3 2019 from RMB 160 million (US$23 million)in Q2. The loss is claimed to be driven by plunging sales in its proprietary car unit and joint ventures with Ford Motor Co. and Mazda Motor Corp. The state-owned carmaker said in a filing on the Shenzhen stock exchange that the total losses in the first nine months of 2019 now stand between RMB 2.4 billion and 2.8 billion. For the first nine months of 2019, sales at Changan’s own brands fell 19 per cent YoY to around 580,000 vehicles. In the period, deliveries at Changan Ford dropped 58 per cent to about 129,000 and sales at Changan Mazda dropped 25 per cent to roughly 96,000 units. Changan Ford makes sedans and crossovers for Ford brand...
The trial conducted by 25-year-old Akshay Singhal on his electric car Mahindra e2o Plus to run on water and aluminium had done several round ups on the internet last year, and now its receipt of a $3.5 million funding is drawing attention. The news came on Monday, October 21, when the company Log 9 Materials announced that it received the funding in Series A round led by Exfinity Venture Partners and Sequoia Capital India’s accelerator programme Surge. According to the report, this funding will be used for product development, and commercial and industrial deployment of aluminium fuel cell, which the company has been working on since last year. Aluminium fuel cells are aluminium-air batteries that produce electricity from oxygen and aluminium reaction, and the technology used is similar...
Alumex PLC, the aluminium extrusions subsidiary of Sri Lanka’s Hayleys group, has reportedly unveiled a new aluminium product range for the Sri Lankan market. The news came last week after the company announced the introduction of the new product range, which includes unitized curtail wall systems, windows, doors, and sliding systems. Launched under the umbrella of Alumex Building Systems (ABS) and accredited by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), the products are designed for high-rise buildings and engineered in a way to be able to resist challenging weather conditions. Thanks to a glazing thickness of up to 24 mm. Alumex PLC Managing Director Pramuk Dediwela said, “The introduction of Alumex Building Systems represents a major milestone for the Sri Lankan...
During the recent Mundus Vini 2019 summer wine tasting festival, wines using aluminium closures accounted for 23% or 397 of the total 1737 award-winning wines. This was about 15% more from 20% or 344 out of 1730 winning entries in 2018. Still wines accounted for 1551 winners this year, of which 25% were sealed using aluminium closures, registering another double-digit (13%) increase. Awards to still wines in the Gold Medal category increased by 42% year on year and their overall share of the medals also increased. Aluminium closures stayed right on track with a 42% increase YoY. The number of Gold Medals awarded to still wines with aluminium screw caps increased to reach 166 or 23% of the total. The use of aluminium screw cap is growing in the modern markets like Australia, Austria,...
Urging the Indian automobile industry to focus on manufacturing electric vehicles, Nitin Gadkari, the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, said on Wednesday: “We have to make India the global hub of electric automobile manufacturing. This is difficult but not impossible.” The automotive industry should focus on the indigenous development of technology as well, opined the union minister at the launch of Bajaj Auto’s first electric scooter. But while encouraging for the development of electric vehicles, Gadkari did not miss to assure the automobile industry that there is no ban on petrol and diesel vehicles. He only pointed out that India’s fuel import bill touched INR 7 lakh crore, which is a big amount for India’s economy. According to him, the consumer in the future would...
According to a recent report, aluminium or steel water cans may replace plastic water bottles in Indian railways if the cabinet ministry approves a consumer affairs ministry proposal. As per the report, the cans would be initially offered to railway passengers, especially on premium trains such as Tejas Express and Vande Bharat Express. Government officials familiar with the matter said that the consumer affairs ministry is in talks with the Steel Authority of India (SAIL) to produce steel cans in two of the most common grades of food-grade stainless steel - 18/8 and 18/10, also known as Type 304. “We are in talks with SAIL for making water bottles/cans for the railways’ Rail Neer brand. These will be initially offered to passengers aboard premium trains such as Tejas Express and Vande...
According to a recent report, commercial aluminium systems specialist Jack Aluminium has partnered with Geze UK to create the first PAS24 approved automatic sliding door system. Designed to fill a gap in the healthcare and care home sectors where residents and care teams need the convenience of sliding doors and also where safety and security are of utmost importance, this new system would use Jack Aluminium’s JD47 Non-thermal Door & Shopfront system and Geze’s bespoke hardware. Jeff Pearson, Sales & Marketing Director at Jack Aluminium Systems, explained: “We knew from talking to customers that there was a real market for an automatic sliding door system that could meet the high levels of security that these healthcare facilities need.” He also said, “This new product resolves this issue...
According to the global export-import data, aluminium cans import into Belgium from Germany is estimated to come in at 7,494 tonnes in 2019, compared with 10,327 tonnes in 2018. This means this year is likely to see a downfall of 27 per cent in Belgium’s aluminium cans import from the previous year. In 2018 as well, Belgium’s aluminium cans import from Germany was lesser than that of 2017, as the import volume in the latter year was at about 11,338 tonnes. This indicates a year-on-year drop of 9 per cent in 2018. From the Netherlands, on the other hand, Belgium’s aluminium cans import is likely to record year-on-year growth. From 9064 tonnes in 2018, the volume is expected to increase to 13,337 tonnes, up 47 per cent. But in the last year, the import volume was down by about 23 per cent...
Ball Corporation is planning to build its first dedicated aluminium cups manufacturing facility in Georgia, according to a recent report. The facility will be adjacent to the company’s existing aluminium beverage can manufacturing plant and is expected to ramp up production in the fourth quarter of 2020. The report states the facility will be worth around $200 million and create jobs for 145 new employees (approx.). “We’re increasingly hearing from customers and consumers that they want to do the right thing for the environment, and they need more options,” said John Hayes, Ball chief executive officer. “This product launch is aligned with our ‘Drive for 10’ strategy and is another step in innovating to serve unmet needs. Using our years of experience and specialised expertise, we are...
