Fire crews responded to a molten aluminium spill at Bridgnorth Aluminium on September 14 afternoon after the incident caused several small fires at the facility. Crews from Bridgnorth and Much Wenlock arrived shortly before 4 pm on September 14. The incident was recorded as a building fire, and operations officers also attended. Firefighters dealt with the fires caused by the molten aluminium spill. The incident also shows the role fire crews can play when such an incident occurs at a production facility. Molten aluminium is handled at very high temperatures, so a quick response is important when a spill leads to fire. Firefighters are trained to deal with these situations and can provide industries with support when an unexpected incident takes place. Prompt actions play a key role in...
Futures: The most-traded SHFE aluminium 2610 contract closed at RMB 24,150 per tonne, up RMB 110 or 0.46 per cent from yesterday's settlement price. It opened at RMB 24,120 per tonne during the day and fluctuated in the range of RMB 24,075-24,195 per tonne. Prices traded below MA5 (24,205.00) and MA10 (24,312.50), and above MA30 (24,065.00) and MA60 (23,616.83). The short-term rebound structure has been partially repaired, while the consolidation pattern continues, with short-term moving averages above forming key resistance. The MACD DIF (123.0407) is below DEA (150.9039), and the MACD green bar stands at -55.7263, indicating bulls' momentum remains weak. The suggested core trading range for SHFE aluminium is RMB 23,800-24,600 per tonne. The LME aluminium 3M contract settled at USD 3,249...
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As the country's metals sector has boomed, Iran has reported significant increases in aluminium production. On February 20, 2023, IMIDRO, Iran’s state metals and mining company, stated aluminium production in four leading smelters in the country had reached over 528,000 tonnes in the first ten months of the financial year to January 20. IMIDRO confirmed that the figure increased by 17% compared to the previous period. In the ten months leading up to January, the South Aluminum Corporation (SALCO), which produced more than 226,000 tonnes of ingots, produced more than 43% of all the aluminium produced in Iran. Just four years after it was established in the southern province of Fars, SALCO has surpassed all other aluminium smelters in Iran regarding output size. The findings come as Iran...
On February 14, 2023, a top executive of the Norwegian aluminium giant stated during a discussion with international media that Hydro wouldn't increase production merely due to a decline in power costs. The company will ramp up when it feels comfortable and see that demand is more robust than expected. In August 2022, when European gas prices reached an all-time high of €345 per MWh, Norsk Hydro and several other primary aluminium producers in Europe announced significant output reductions for the remainder of 2022. This was in response to the significant decline in domestic demand. Hydro Karmoy and Hydro Husnes in Norway temporarily lowered their combined capacity by 110,000 to 130,000 tonnes. Also, the company declared that due to excessive energy costs, it would halt primary aluminium...
Introduction We are living in an interesting time, facing a multitude of variables. On the one hand, the world is coming out of the pandemic and trying to regain the level of economic activities of the pre-pandemic time, only with more zeal and vigour. On the other hand, ignorance cannot be an excuse; forget about bliss when it comes to the effect of greenhouse emissions on the climate and its impact. The governing bodies, activists as well as customers are being increasingly informed and asking about the carbon footprint of any product or service before reaching them and after being served. For example, before buying cloth, today’s knowledgeable customers are increasingly mindful of whether the material is recycled and recyclable after usage. Before going to a hotel, some customers, if...
“Aluminum recycling is essential for sustainability,” says Andrew Stein, CEO of TST. “It saves over 95 per cent of the energy to recycle aluminium versus creating new primary aluminium. However, the process of melting aluminium scrap creates dross and salt cake that is difficult to recycle without having waste end up in a landfill. [Hydrova’s] technology solves that problem by utilizing 100 per cent of this co-product into valuable products.” Julian Davis, Co-Founder and CEO of Hydrova Without recycling, it would be virtually impossible for the industry to achieve sustainability targets. However, processes for recycling aluminium generate dross and salt cake waste streams, which have long been a headache for secondary aluminium producers. Hydrova sees a unique opportunity in these...
The sustainable development strategy of the RUSAL United Company aims at making, by decoupling our business growth from the environmental footprint, sustainability affordable across the entire aluminium value chain and creating a new class of assets in the non-ferrous metal sector. This means building by 2035 such a business model that is future-fit and addresses the needs of low carbon and circular economy, is based on an agile, fair, safe and inclusive supply chain, and is built on the most advanced technologies. Irina Bakhtina, Chief Sustainability Officer at Rusal Therefore, a sustainable supply chain is at the heart of the Company's ESG transformation. Understanding our suppliers and the degree of their ESG maturity is the key element to start with. RUSAL is sourcing raw materials,...
Climate change around the world is causing great catastrophes, with no continent left untouched. The heatwaves, droughts, typhoons, and hurricanes are causing mass destruction around the world with disasters such as the heatwave in the UK, the West’s water crisis, hurricane Ian in the US, and many more. Mohan Agarwal, MD, CMR Green Technologies Ltd Countries around the globe are now shifting their focus on sustainability with real and measurable actions. The focus is now on developing sustainable products and services and supply chain practices to increase revenue, satisfy investors and regulators, and improve their reputation. Countries as well as companies are allocating funds to addressing environmental issues. McKinsey and Company recently said that India can increase green...
Green, carbon footprint, energy optimization, net-zero are currently key topics across meeting rooms in most industries, particularly in our aluminium sector. While a lot of great dialogue and action has been happening in the recent past, AlCircle started to build one of many roads towards sustainability for the aluminium industry over a decade ago. Started in 2010 with a vision to bring the global aluminium value chain online, AlCircle has since established a worldwide presence, shown proof of concept and continues to innovate around how not just AlCircle, but the entire industry can work towards reducing their carbon footprint through adopting digital tools and processes. With a vision of ‘Think Aluminium, Think AlCircle’, we are growing each day towards our ultimate goal of promoting...
China’s domestic A00 aluminium ingot price has opened the week on Monday, February 20, with a hike of RMB 230 per tonne to RMB 18,690 per tonne, found the Shanghai Metals Market. This brings the price week-on-week higher by RMB 220 per tonne or 1.19 per cent from RMB 18,470 per tonne but stands low compared to RMB 18,980 per tonne on January 20. According to SMM, the average prices are estimated to range between RMB 18,670 per tonne and RMB 18,710 per tonne, with spot contract likely to trade at a discount price of RMB 100-60 per tonne. In Foshan, the ingot price has climbed up RMB 240 per tonne to stand at RMB 18,700 per tonne, followed by the rise of RMB 225 per tonne in Wuxi and Hangzhou to RMB 18,680 per tonne and RMB 18,685 per tonne, respectively. In Shenyang and Tianjin, A00...
LME aluminium opened at US$2,413 per tonne last Friday and closed at US$2,390 per tonne, a decrease of US$28 per tonne or 1.16 per cent. On Friday, February 17, both LME aluminium cash bid price and LME aluminium official settlement price moved down by US$6.5 per tonne or 0.27 per cent to halt at US$2,334.50 per tonne and US$2,335 per tonne. 3-month bid price and 3-month offer price slipped by US$9 per tonne or 0.37 per cent and US$8 per tonne or 0.33 per cent to stand at US$2,372 per tonne and US$2,374 per tonne. LME aluminium opening stock halted at 591950 tonnes. Live warrants and Cancelled warrants came in at 451875 tonnes and 140075 tonnes. LME aluminium 3-month Asian Reference Price pegged at US$2,398.24 per tonne after recording a growth of US$4.24 per tonne or 0.17 per cent. SHFE...
Theodore Levitt once said: ‘Creativity is thinking up new things, innovation is doing new things.’ As it relates to the electrification process of industrial vehicles, it’s a bit of both. The task is the same whether the vehicle uses a conventional diesel engine or an electric one, so you need creativity to discover the technological breakthroughs that will ensure it works just as well in application and an innovative approach to organizing its workflow to ensure its success. This article takes stock of why 2023 seems to be the right time for an aluminium producer, Rio Tinto, to undertake an ambitious project like the electrification of an Anode Hauler fleet and the motivation behind embracing this change and the challenges of switching from diesel to electric engines from theory to...
As a result of the shortage of hydropower in Yunnan after the Chinese New Year holiday, a new round of power rationing is likely to be introduced again to impede aluminium production. In addition, some aluminium smelters are already planning to halt their electrolytic cells. The rumours of electricity restrictions did not surprise aluminium smelters . Several of them had already planned ways to reduce their energy usage, although the formal announcement regarding power rationing has yet to be made. A fresh wave of power restrictions is reportedly set to begin in Yunnan from February 13 to February 15, and aluminium producers will have to reduce their capacity by around 650,000 tonnes annually before reducing it further depending on the water level, as reported by SMM. However, on February...
The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM), which deals with all the matters relating to the management of Govt. of India investments in equity, including disinvestment of equity in Central Public Sector Undertakings, has rejected any disinvestment agenda for the state-owned National Aluminium Company (NALCO). Tuhin Kanta Pandey, the secretary of DIPAM, has flowed this information concerning Nalco. In Budget 2023, the government froze a much lower disinvestment target of INR 51,000 crores for FY24. DIPAM's secretary added, "The goal of the divestment is to follow a calibrated strategy and not distort the market. However, the divestment strategy did not include NALCO ." Nirmala Sitharaman, the Finance Minister of India, said in her budget speech, "It is proposed to...
This week the primary aluminium industry witnessed some prominent events. From top companies like Ma'aden, Nalco and Hydro announcing their fourth-quarter results to LME aluminium price hitting a 5-week low due to rising stockpiles in LME-approved warehouses dampened investor mood. As per the results, Ma'aden, the state-owned mining firm of Saudi Arabia with its headquarters in Riyadh, announced an increase in net profit of more than 87% for the entire year of 2022, boosted by increased sales and higher average prices. National Aluminium Company Ltd (Nalco), a state-owned integrated aluminium corporation in India, reported a net profit of INR 274 crore for Q3 FY 2022–2023 on February 10, 2022, an increase of 61% over the prior quarter. Apart from the financial results, another significant...
According to our sources, analysts from the metal industry have stated that Russia might restrict exports of critical metals like nickel and palladium if Washington imposes high tariffs on Russian aluminium imports. The Russian aluminium supply accounts for only a minor share of the US supplies. However, nickel is essential for the aerospace industry and electric vehicle batteries. Conversely, Palladium is a vital component for autocatalysts in gasoline-fuelled cars. According to Trade Data Monitor (TDM), around 11 per cent of the 92,624 tonnes of nickel imported by the US last year was imported from Russia, while Russian palladium shipments, at 20 tonnes, accounted for almost 35 per cent of US imports. The United States is planning to increase the import tax on Russian aluminium to 200...
Vedanta Limited has again reduced its aluminium ingot and aluminium products prices, with effect from Friday, February 17, bringing its aluminium ingot price to INR 223,750-254,250 per tonne. The price is down by INR 4,000 per tonne from INR 227,750-258,250 per tonne on February 14. Vedanta has also cut its aluminium wire rod price by INR 4,000 per tonne to sell it at INR 231,250-238,750 per tonne versus INR 235,250-242,750 per tonne on Tuesday, February 14. This marks the second cut in a week. The company’s aluminium billet price has come in at INR 232,750 per tonne, down by 1.7 per cent from INR 236,750 per tonne on February 14. Vedanta links its aluminium ingot and aluminium products prices to the three-month futures of aluminium on the Londom Metal Exchange, which shrank by US$49.50...
The largest manufacturer of aluminium in India, Vedanta Aluminium, has implemented Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in its commercial function to hyperautomate the whole process. Vedanta Aluminium's commercial function is a key function with substantial potential to create value for the firm, thanks to its large-scale plant operations, huge customer presence, and extensive supplier network. This project was carried out in conjunction with Crave Infotech, a rapidly expanding worldwide technology business with strong expertise in Industry 4.0, Digital Supply Chain, Quick-to-Deploy Intelligent Asset Management, Supply Chain Management, and Warehouse Management solutions. The implementation of RPA in the commercial function of the company will increase Vedanta Aluminium's Commercial Maturity...
According to a report on February 16, South32 is in talks with Eskom, a South African electricity public utility, to source nuclear power for its Hillside Aluminium. Graham Kerr, CEO of South32, said the company had been seeking nuclear power for its smelter to make the production sustainable because, in his view, Europe would only consume green aluminium in the future. He also said bringing Eskom to an agreement was critical. As per the report, South32 is mulling sourcing half of the total power produced by the 1800MW koeberg nuclear facilities in the Western Cape. Kerr stated South32 was willing to pay a premium price for nuclear energy supply because it noticed European customers were paying $10 per tonne premium for green aluminium and were likely to spend as much as $40 per tonne in...
Three-month LME aluminium opened at US$2,389 per tonne on Thursday, February 16, and closed at US$2,418 per tonne, an increase of US$33.50 per tonne or 1.4 per cent. On Thursday, February 16, both LME aluminium cash bid price and LME aluminium official settlement price extended fall for the second day by US$25.50 per tonne or 1.07 per cent from the previous day to total US$2,341 per tonne and US$2,341.50 per tonne, respectively. 3-month bid price and 3-month offer price shrank by US$11 per tonne or 0.46 per cent to peg at US$2,381 per tonne and US$2,382 per tonne. December 24 bid price and December 24 offer price dropped by US$5 per tonne to close at US$2,555 per tonne and US$2,560 per tonne, respectively. LME aluminium opening stock decreased 4,325 tonnes to settle at 597,825 tonnes....
