Europe’s recycled aluminium industry is an important component of the global secondary aluminium supply chain, with Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom (UK) representing key national markets. Production across the European region stood at nearly 6 million tonnes in 2023, supported by established scrap recovery systems, industrial recycling capacity and demand for recycled metal. Russia also contributes to the regional landscape through secondary aluminium production units concentrated in several industrial centres. According to AL Circle’s analysis in its report, “ World Recycled ALuminium Market Analysis Industry Forecast ”, the four countries present different market structures, from Germany’s substantial recycling capacity and Italy’s scrap-based production to the UK’s organised...
According to SMM survey statistics, the operating rate of the secondary aluminium alloy industry in September was 35.0 per cent, up 3.1 percentage points M-o-M but down 6.7 percentage points Y-o-Y. Industry production continued its recovery trend, but the overall operating level remained below the same period last year. On the demand side, September marked the traditional peak consumption season, with downstream orders recovering from August. End-use demand from automobiles and other sectors improved marginally, but the peak season effect has yet to fully materialise. According to CAAM data, automobile production in September was 2.99 million units, up 11.4 per cent M-o-M but down 8.7 per cent Y-o-Y. NEV production was 1.814 million units, up 12.2 per cent Y-o-Y. CAAM noted that China's...
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National Environment Agency (NEA), together with drinks manufacturer Fraser and Neave (F&N), reportedly launched reverse vending machines at Our Tampines Hub in Singapore on Thursday, October 31, as part of 'The Recycle N Save' initiative. The machines will accept empty drink cans and plastic bottles, and for every four drink receptacles will issue a discount voucher worth 20 cents, which can be used at any FairPrice, Cheers, or FairPrice Xpress outlet. As per the report, the vending machines are capable of holding up to 600 aluminium cans and plastic bottles at a time, featured with a compactor that flattens the drink cans and bottles to save space. The initiative followed favourable response from the public to the pilot initiative at Waterway Point in Punggol in January last year. The...
Novelis Inc., the world leader in aluminium rolling and recycling broke ground on a US$36 million expansion to upgrade recycling capacity at its Greensboro facility. The investment will fund state-of-the-art equipment for aluminium scrap recycling along with other technical and construction upgrades. It will also enhance the facility's safety systems. The expansion is likely to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2021. The investment will expand Novelis' automotive closed-loop recycling capability, which procures aluminium scrap created during stamping and recycle it for new vehicle production. The process preserves the value of the alloy, reduces cost, cuts energy consumption and establishes a secure supply chain. The facility will continue with used beverage can recycling operations....
TES, the global electronic waste recycler, will reportedly open a new facility for recycling lithium-ion batteries in Singapore, said Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry Koh Poh Koon on Wednesday, October 30. "This is an exciting development as the use of batteries for grid-related energy storage is projected to grow globally, to manage the increasing adoption of intermittent renewable energy such as solar," said Dr Koh at the Clean Energy Summit held at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre. The new facility, named TES B, is expected to cost about $20 million. This investment is seen as a company investment to exemplify green growth opportunities. Dr Koh added that this new recycling facility would allow precious metals from the lithium-ion batteries to be reused to...
Sebright Products, a leading "industrial" waste handling equipment manufacturer and JWR Inc., a waste & recycling solutions & technology provider, have collaborated to launch the BaleWulf, the next generation closed-door baler. “We never rush to market with a piece of equipment that has not been thoroughly vetted and field-tested,” says Tony Sebright, sales and marketing representative at Sebright. “Every piece of equipment is solutions-driven.” The plan for manufacturing a robust baler started about two years back when JWR noticed a variety of operation issues with balers coming from some of its customers. Dave Wolf, president of JWR, added that customers wanted an efficient and robust closed-door baler. “We were looking to create a baler that could bale all commodities,” he says. JWR...
Aluminium product manufacturer Constellium is focusing on expanding its recycling capability, in order to leverage on aluminium’s recyclability and to cut down its carbon footprint, Chief Executive Jean-Marc Germain said in an interview during LME Week. However, he expressed concern over EU emissions rules which are hard on local industries. “We’re investing to increase our recycling capacity and we see this as a big opportunity for us in the future,” he said. “In Europe we are looking at different scenarios.” Recycling can reduce aluminium’s carbon footprint, which is linked to its energy intensive smelting process. Aluminium’s recyclability has made it a preferred choice for beverage packaging, prompting many beverage firms to shift to aluminium from plastic. Constellium, a leading...
Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation (Alupro) has reportedly joined the list of guarantors to the On-Pack Recycling Label (OPRL) scheme. The scheme is to reduce consumer confusion by providing consistent visual cues on whether or not packaging can be recycled. OPRL has over 400 members at the present. Existing guarantors to the OPRL are INCPEN (the Industry Council for Packaging and the Environment), ACE UK (the Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment), CPI (the Confederation of Paper Industries), LARAC (the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee) and plastic recycling charity RECOUP. They together will work alongside representatives from different sectors like cartons, paper and card, plastic packaging and so on to develop the label that will advise people how to...
Environment Agency UK reports that a little less than 30,000 tonnes of aluminium packaging was recycled in Q3 2019. Packaging recycling rate was up 6% in the full year 2018. These numbers indicate that aluminium will hit its annual target of 108,919 tonnes of recycling in UK. Rick Hindley, executive director, of the Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation (Alupro) said: “We are optimistic, following a disappointing Q2, that this year’s target will be met and anticipate that there should be more than enough evidence to allow producers to meet their obligations. As a result, we expect the unjustifiably high PRN price will start to fall to more realistic levels. Historically, aluminium PRN prices have been below £30 per tonne, yet currently aluminium PRN’s are trading, on the spot market,...
Beijing, in the late last week, reportedly issued the second set of metal scrap import quotas for the fourth quarter of 2019, sharply reducing the permissible quantity. As per the report, China’s Solid Waste and Chemical Management Centre will allow 44,935 tonnes more of 7602000090 aluminium scrap into its ports during the fourth quarter, bringing the total allowable imports to 77,875 tonnes. This amount is significantly below the 274,955 tonnes of imported aluminium scrap allowed into the Middle Kingdom in the previous quarter. These quotas are for delivery to the ports of Ningbo, Nanhai and Nansha. The decline in import quotas is estimated to continue to affect the country’s aluminium scrap market, especially thanks to weak inventories and stable orders by secondary aluminium producers....
The US export of aluminium scrap in July was 11% higher year-on-year, according to the latest report from the US Geological Survey. The US shipped 152,000 tonnes of aluminium scrap in July 2019, from 137,000 tonnes in July 2018. But the export volume was down by 4.4% from June and 6.17% from May. {newsStudioGallery} The US exported 1.1 million tonnes of aluminium scrap in the first seven months of 2019, from 965,000 tonnes exported in the first seven months of 2018. This records an increase of 13.99%. China, India, and Malaysia were the top three aluminium scrap importers from the US in July. The three countries together imported 72,500 tonnes of scrap from the US. The US exported 31,300 tonnes of aluminium scrap to China in July 2019, up 14.65% from 27,300 tonnes exported in July 2018....
Japan does not produce primary aluminium but is a key producer of aluminium semi-finished products. For the aluminium raw material it is dependent on imports and secondary recovery. As shown by the data from Japan Aluminium Association, Japan produced 472,000 tonnes of secondary aluminium in the first seven months of 2019. The production dropped 2% from 481,500 tonnes produced in the same period of 2018. For the whole year 2018, Japan produced 827,000 tonnes of secondary aluminium, which was about three per cent more from 2017. Based on the current rate of production, total secondary or recycled aluminium production in Japan is likely to stand at about 810,000 tonnes in 2019. The major part of recycled aluminium is produced from domestically procured scraps coming from its growing...
Latem Aluminium has reportedly received a tilting rotary furnace of 30-tonnes from GHI Smart Furnaces that will recycle aluminium for its new facility in Villadangos, Spain. This new furnace will replace the existing one of 12 tonnes to produce 30,000 of secondary aluminium in a year. It will recover aluminium from low quality scrap and produce a waste of contaminants significantly lower than the traditional models. By 2022, Latem Aluminium is expected to reach an annual production of 45,000 tonnes. Initially, the facility will produce ingots for automotive and other industrial processes but later on, will likely source the raw material used in the lamination process, once the aluminium lamination plant built by Latem in Zamora, Spain enters into service.
According to the latest report from United States Geological Survey for aluminium total aluminium recovered from scrap (recovery from purchased, tolled, or imported scrap) in July 2019 was 275,000 tonne, 4% less than the June volume of 286,000 tonnes. The volume is 16% less than the amount in July 2018, and 9% less than that in July 2017. Of this, 145,000 tonnes of aluminium were recovered from new scrap and 129,000 tonnes were recovered from old scrap. For the first seven months of 2019, total aluminium recovery from scrap stood at about 2 million tonnes, down slightly from 2.17 million tonnes in the same period of 2018. Of this, 1.1 million tonnes of aluminium were recovered from new scrap and 880,000 tonnes were recovered from old scrap. Inventories of primary aluminium in LME-approved...
Shanghai Metals Market found that Chinese secondary aluminium producers, primarily in northern Chinese provinces, such as Hebei, Shandong and Henan, continued to ramp up operation in September for fulfilling orders in advance as they were required to close for up to 10 days around the National Day in early October. SMM survey data shows the operating rates rose to 60.69 per cent in September, up 2.44 percentage points from August 2019 and 4.23 percentage points from the September 2018. A rebound in downstream demand also helped drive the operating rates amidst overall low inventories of raw materials and finished products at secondary aluminium producers. Also increasing orders at secondary aluminium producers in Chongqing in September triggered the rise in operation. Orders increased as...
The European Aluminium and Metal Packaging Europe have published the latest European recycling statistics for aluminium beverage cans today, October 14. The report shows the recycling rate for aluminium beverage cans in the EU, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland in 2017 rose 2.3% from 2016 (72.8%), to reach an all-time record high of 74.5% in 2017, boosting its contribution towards European Circular Economy. By weight, EU and EFTA countries recycled 420,000 tonnes of aluminium and by number; the countries recycled almost 31 billion cans in 2017. Aluminium can recycling saves about 3 million tons of GHG emissions annually - or the annual emissions of a mid-sized European town like Belfast, Malmö or Thessaloniki. According to Metal Packaging Europe members, European can recycling rate is...
Hong Kong-based drinks giant Vitasoy has reportedly launched a pilot scheme on Tuesday, October 8, to recycle Tetra Pak cartons that need specialist recycling for having aluminium, polythene and paper layers. The pilot scheme includes recycling bins, workshops, and a mobile education centre, in partnership with Secure Information Disposal Services (SSID), which operates a waste management plant in the city’s Yuen Long district. Recycling bins along with education centre will be placed in more than 75 schools, while learning resources to be circulated in schools as well as housing estates. As part of the programme, the 79 year old company will collaborate with Hong Kong Polytechnic University to organise environmental workshops and work with students in its School of Design to make...
BlackRock (BLK.N), the world’s largest asset manager, is actively investing in companies including Adidas (ADSGn.DE), Tomra (TOM.OL) and Ball Corp (BLL.N) through a new circular economy fund that bets on sustainable business. BlackRock, which has $6.84 trillion in assets under management, is the biggest investor in fossil fuels and has faced criticism particularly for its continued exposure to coal. It says much of that is through passive, index-linked investment, which accounts for roughly 90% of its equity assets, and that it is also the biggest investor in renewable energy. Sumana Manohar, a manager of the new fund which has been launched with charity the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, told reporters in London on Tuesday it was focused on exposure to scrap, recycling and reducing plastic...
The oversupplied primary aluminium and aluminium scrap market was the topic of discussion among the speakers at the 2019 Commodities Roundtable Forum, hosted by the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) on Sept. 11-13 in Chicago. Doug Hilderhoff, a principal analyst of London-based CRU Group said an oversupply of primary aluminium is pushing the price down. As for the scrap market is concerned; the condition is similar in the North American market struggling with excess scrap. Becky Proler, the president of Southern Core Recycling, Houston, said an excess of 6000 and 5000 series automotive aluminium scrap has dragged down the market. Hilderhoff said, though importance of recycling is growing because of the increased focus on sustainably produced aluminium, the domestic market...
The international export-import data shows the aluminium scrap export from France to Italy is on a steady rise since a sweeping growth of around 139 per cent from 43,822 tonnes in 2016 to 104,718 tonnes in 2017. In 2018, the country’s export amount to Italy was at 111,456 tonnes after growing by around 6.43 per cent from 2017. This year, the export volume is expected to increase further to 127,101 tonnes, up 14 per cent year on year. {newsStudioGallery} Backed on the increasing export volume, the value has also been rising over the years and this year is expected to be no exception. In 2017, along with the sweeping growth in France’s aluminium scrap export volume to Italy, the export value recorded a growth of 155 per cent from US$42 million in 2016 to US$107 million. In 2018, the value...
