IAI introduces web-based tool to visualise aluminium value chain

The International Aluminium Institute (IAI), the global association of aluminium producers, has introduced a new web-based tool at the 14th International Aluminium Recycling Congress in Manchester, UK, that helps the user to know aluminium value chain from bauxite to aluminium scrap, including inter-regional trade flows.

 The IAI’s mass flow visualisation lets users to operate an animated Sankey diagram that allows seeing the production, consumption and trade of bauxite, alumina, ingots (primary and recycled), semis, final products and scrap across nine regions between 1962 and 2014.

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Some highlights from the animation shows:

• In 2004, 15 million tonnes of scrap were available worldwide. In 2014 this scrap availability had increased to 26 million tonnes.
• North America, historically the largest generator of scrap globally, has been overtaken by China, which generated 6.5 million tonnes of scrap in 2014.
• In 2014, 17 million tonnes of aluminium contained in final products was traded between the nine regions.

The Institute’s Director of Product Stewardship, Marlen Bertram said, “the visualisation is a powerful way to express the results of the aluminium mass flow model, which has been developed over the past fifteen years…”

“The Institute will update its mass flow model and the animation annually, with 2015 data being added in the next few months and 2016 data by the end of 2017,” he concluded.