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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Mexico’s exports of aluminium scrap, a significant resource to be used as raw material to produce secondary aluminium, represent 1.4% of the total exports. Following an increase in 2016, exports of aluminium scrap from Mexico decreased in 2017. The country is estimated to witness a decrease in exports of aluminium scraps this year. The top destinations of Mexico aluminium scrap exports are Hong Kong, Brazil, the USA, and Taiwan among others. China, importer of Mexican aluminium scrap, imported 4892 tonnes of this product in 2017, up 32 per cent YoY. Data shows the total aluminium scrap export by Mexico stood at about 38300 tonne in 2017. The total revenue from the export stood at US$ 52.7 million. The country exported an estimated 164945 tonnes of aluminium scrap and the revenue from the...
The Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organization, Alupro-organized Every Can Counts programme has once again come forward to support a cause, which has values similar to its own. The programme has partnered with the female UK-based Trek-Drops professional women’s cycling team for the ongoing 2018 session. Support for the women cyclers has also come from other industry bodies like European Aluminium and Metals Packaging Europe (MPE). Source: www.letsrecycle.com Every Can Counts will now be seen as supporting Team Trek-Drops when they hit the tracks in the UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and France. Trek-Drops team director Tom Varney said, “We’re delighted to continue our partnership with Alupro and welcome the increased support from both the MPE (Metal Packaging Europe) and European...
India transport ministry is close to finalizing the policy to scrap 15 plus-year old vehicles. The policy aimed to curb vehicular pollution in the country will make raw materials for vehicles like aluminium, copper, plastic, and rubber cheaper as secondary aluminium and other materials generated from the scrap will be used for auto parts manufacturing, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said yesterday in New Delhi. "We have almost finalised the scrapping policy for vehicles with NITI Aayog," the minister said. The proposal once accepted will result in an INR 10,000 crore boost in tax revenues that will eventually benefit India’s automobile sector. Mr. Gadkari said that India is on the verge of becoming the hub for automobile and ancillary industry in Asia, and a vehicular scrapping policy as...
Aluminum and magnesium recycling company and secondary aluminium producer Real Alloy closes its Wisconsin facility as part of continuing efforts to improve efficiencies and a follow up of its bankruptcy filing in November 2017. On November 17, 2017, Real Industry and its U.S. subsidiaries have filed for voluntary bankruptcy under Chapter 11. The secondary aluminium producer said they continue with its operations with grants from the Court on an interim basis. The company cited a lack of cash in absence of borrowing and refinancing debt as a key reason for bankruptcy. According to a company press release in January, the third-party aluminium recycling company ceased operations at its Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin facility, which it had acquired from Beck Aluminum about a year ago. According to...
Aluminium dross going to landfills or salt cake formed as a byproduct of aluminium recovery from dross and discarded thereafter continues to pose a serious threat to the environment. Although sealed to prevent leaching, potential for salt cake leaching still exists and can harm the environment in several ways. Energy consumption in aluminium dross recovery too remains an area of active research. At a time when environmental concerns are driving the entire manufacturing sector towards sustainable development and business process remodelling, aluminium industry cannot afford to overlook the importance of proper aluminium dross processing. AlCircle in its special sector focus report Aluminium Dross Processing: A Global Review has tried to present a deep insight into this area of research. A...
Derbyshire-based waste management company Ward announced £1 million investment in environmental improvements at its recycling facility in Chesterfield. The company recycles ferrous and non-ferrous metals such as steel, cast iron, cars, stainless steel, aluminium, copper, zinc and lead. The new building, which was officially opened by Chesterfield MP Toby Perkins earlier this month, includes a 15 metre high wall which acts as a sound barrier that significantly reduces noise levels from the site. The company said that the investment is intended to bring more sustainable jobs to the area. Donald Ward, Head of Technical & Recycling at Ward, said: “Over 50,000 tonnes of waste material is recycled at our Chesterfield site each year and we employ 40 people locally. We wanted to bring the old...
Industrial Magnetics Inc. (IMI), Boyne City, Michigan that designs, engineers and manufactures industrial magnets has published a new tool on its website which is designed to help plant managers calculate potential revenue loss from their existing used beverage can (UBC) recovery lines. The user has to upload information like cost of aluminium per pound, cans missed per minute, hours worked per day, days worked per week and weeks worked per year and the tool calculates the total income gains. “Reclaiming aluminium cans typically involves the use of an eddy current magnetic separator, which repels the can as it passes through the magnetic field. In this way, the aluminium is ‘thrown’ and separated from the rest of the waste stream for recycling,” the press release from IMI says. The...
According to aluminium recycling statistics published by the U.S. Geological Survey, Department of Interior; the U.S. aluminium industry purchased an estimated 315,000 tonnes of aluminium scrap during November 2017. This registers a drop of 3.9% from the November 2016 total of 328,000 tonnes. USGS estimates that recovery of aluminium and aluminium alloys totalled 287,000 tonnes, a decrease of 4% year-over-year and 5% less than that in October 2017. Of this, 163,000 tonnes of aluminium were recovered from new scrap and 123,000 tonne were recovered from old scrap. For the period of January to November 2017, preliminary data indicate that recovery of aluminium from scrap totalled an estimated 3.3 million tonnes, up 1.4% over the 2016 YTD total of 3.2 million tonnes. U.S. exports of scrap,...
India is set to witness a surge in aluminium scrap recovery as Delhi prepares to scrap all old vehicles by the end of 2018. Delhi became the fifth largest passenger vehicle market in 2016, and since then PV sales in the state has been rising sharply. After the recent pollution alert in the capital, Delhi government decided to move urgently with the scrapping policy. Aluminium scrap recovery, although less significant in quantity than other global economies, largely remains undocumented in India. Implementation of a policy such as this one would provide a boost to the overall volume, industry insiders feel. Under the ‘Delhi Scrapping of Vehicles Rules, 2018’ all old vehicles, including two-wheelers, will be sent for dismantling to empanelled scrap dealers. Owners of the vehicles will be...
Aluminium dross, a byproduct of the aluminium smelting process and an unavowed mixture of metallic aluminium, aluminium-oxide and oxides of numerous alloying elements, have been finding its way to landfills for years. It is only recently that the aluminium industry came to realize its significance as a secondary source of the metal. Industry estimates suggest that an increase of 10 tonnes of aluminium dross recovery can augment production of the metal by about 3.2 tonnes. And that is not all! Aluminium dross recycling has immense environmental benefits and the processed dross can be used to produce a number of other commercially valuable products too. Aluminium dross recycling addresses sustainability concerns of the industry Today, rising pollution, too much of energy loss and natural...
European Aluminium, the voice of the entire aluminium value chain, welcomed two new members this month after adding five new members to its ranks in 2017. In total, the Brussels-based industry association now represents over 85 companies and associations covering more than 600 plants across 30 European countries. The two new member companies are Alumetal S.A ., one of Europe’s largest aluminium refiners and producers of aluminium master alloys, aluminium for steel deoxidation, fluxes and salts, and ALTEK , a technology-based company focusing on the design, manufacturing and installation of aluminium dross, salt slag and scrap processing systems. Alumetal S.A. joins European Aluminium as a full member of the Recycling Division and ALTEK joins the same division as an associated member. “We...
China imported 2.17 million tonnes of aluminium scrap in 2017, an increase of 13.27 per cent YoY. The country’s import of aluminium scrap rose 13.73 per cent YoY to 202,374 tonnes in December. Last month, the USA and Thailand were the top exporters of aluminium scrap to China. The USA and Thailand exported 64, 419 tonnes and 34,034 tonnes respectively. The shipments of aluminium scrap by the USA, the world’s largest aluminium scrap exporter, rose 8.56 per cent to 618,287 tonnes in 2017. Thailand exported 259,349 tonnes of aluminium scrap to China in 2017, up 2085 per cent YoY. Other top countries which supplied aluminium scraps are Hong Kong, Australia, the UK, the Philippines and Malaysia.
According to a HuffPost UK a number of major coffee capsule brands in UK have set up their green agenda to recycle the plastic and aluminium coffee capsules. If not recycled, aluminium coffee pods reportedly take between 150 to 500 years to decompose. That is the reason the major coffee capsule brands in UK are creating awareness about recycling coffee capsules. Plastic and aluminium, the two materials that the majority of coffee capsules are made from must be separated before recycling, and this needs special recycling plants and specialist recycling schemes. Leading capsule coffee company Nespresso told HuffPost UK that they facilitate recycling of about 21% of their pods, with the remainder going to landfill or being incinerated. Nespresso allows its members to recycle their capsules...
Resource recovery firm Axion announced that it is undertaking further research into increasing recycled aluminium content in new vehicles as part of REALITY project led by Jaguar Land Rover. The company will develop techniques for sorting and separating specialist alloys from aluminium derived from end-of-life vehicles. Last September, Jaguar Land Rover announced a new aluminium recycling programme- REALITY. The programme will enable JLR to recycle aluminium waste from end-of-life cars and then reuse it in new vehicles. The £2m REALITY project builds on the REALCAR programme set up in 2008 to reuse aluminium waste from the manufacturing process. Axion’s Head of Circular Economy, Richard McKinlay said: “These extracted aluminium alloys will also be extensively tested to assess their...
AlCircle’s new sector focus report- “Aluminium Dross Processing: A global Review” is generating overwhelming response. From leading aluminium smelters, rolled aluminium product manufacturers and recycling companies to market research firms and technical infrastructure providers- everyone is showing keen interest in the report. Some of the biggest names in the industry have already even purchased it. With broadly researched information and case studies, the report promises to be an important strategic buy for any company that has dross processing operations or intends to explore opportunities in the field. Aluminium recycling from scrap has come under focus lately driven by sustainability issues worldwide. Consequently, the once insignificant material aluminium dross has too gained...
According to an SMM analysis, aluminium scrap supply will be tight in China in 2018, as the domestic aluminium scrap market continues to be plagued by tight supplies since December 2017. As updated by SMM, average prices for aluminium Zorba scrap stands unchanged at USD 1550 per tonne today. The prices saw last gain in November 2017 from USD 1450 per tonne and since then it remains flat on a higher level. With the supply expected to remain tight, the prices would stay high in the short and medium term. The price trend in last one year can be seen in the following graph. Supply has been limited because of the new scrap policies and the restrictions imposed upon the import of aluminium scrap in China. Prerequisites on the level of impurity in imported scrap aluminium are also affecting...
Leading non-alcoholic beverage brand Coca Cola has pledged to recycle all used bottles and aluminium cans the company sells and will be selling by 2030. As a part of their new packaging vision, the fizzy-drink maker will also shift to recyclable packaging globally. The “massive global ambition” is aimed at undoing the littering of environment that the firm has been committing and responsibly tackling the problem at the micro-level. At the launch of its “World Without Waste” campaign, Coca Cola acknowledged the fact that like many other food and beverage companies, their firm too has been contributing to the rise of landfills. "The world has a packaging problem - and, like all companies, we have a responsibility to help solve it," Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey said. To the question- how it...
The Aluminium Association of India has sought an increase in import duty on aluminium scrap. The industry body approached the Centre seeking a hike from 2.5 per cent to 10 per cent. It has also demanded a hike in import duty on primary aluminium from 7.5 per cent to 10 per cent. Before Budget 2017, import duty on aluminium scrap was at 2.5 per cent and that on primary aluminium was 5 per cent. The Government raised the import duty on primary aluminium to 7.5 per cent in the last budget. As a result, the difference between customs duty on primary aluminium and aluminium scrap got widened from 2.5 per cent to 5 per cent. The Association claims, this widening of the import duty gap has resulted in increased aluminium scrap imports up to 56 per cent, which is not only dampening the...
