Aluminium’s trade map is no longer drawn by smelters alone. Scrap flows, power contracts, industrial policy and specialist grades now shape who secures metal, at what cost and under whose rules. Ten recent developments across Europe, the US, Australia, Japan and Mexico show how recycling, energy and regulation are becoming the new levers of aluminium competitiveness. They also show where traders, exporters and policymakers may need to adjust. Scrap tug-of-war: the US pull, Europe’s leak and the recycling base at stake The pull starts with price. The US UBC scrap benchmark averaged USD 2,322.89 a tonne in July, USD 2,491.22 in August and USD 2,602.51 in September. That is a 12 per cent climb, and it came after a July that opened at USD 2,464.98 and fell to USD 2,270.76 within two days....
Nespresso is expanding its aluminium coffee capsule recycling network across New Zealand, adding 25 JB Hi-Fi stores as collection points and bringing the total number of participating retail locations to 138. The move gives coffee drinkers more places to return used capsules, helping make recycling a little easier after that final, satisfying sip. The new collection points join existing locations at Briscoes and Noel Leeming stores. The expansion also complements other return options available through Nespresso, including its boutiques, public collection points, NZ Post drop-off locations and courier collections from customers’ homes. The aim is to make returning used capsules more convenient, recognising that a single collection method will not work for everyone. For those who enjoy...
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Numerous projects across the globe have attempted to recycle and refine impure aluminium but have not been very successful. For over a decade, scientists at SINTEF have been working on their new apparatus to recycle and refine impure aluminium. They will however know the results by this May 2012. A 4 m-long machine dominates the laboratory hall of SINTEF Materials and Chemistry on Gløshaugen in Trondheim. Cables and pipework will be installed around this spring. On the top of the machine, molten contaminated aluminium will be poured, which will go through a refining procedure and come out as impure metal and pure aluminium via two outlets. The machine’s left-hand side includes the purification system, wherein molten aluminium heated at 660oC is poured via an insulated pipe, which then...
RESOURCES giant Rio Tinto's decision to scrap plans for a $US2 billion ($A1.92 billion) aluminium smelter in Malaysia has been blamed in part on China over-supplying the market. While Rio blamed the move on problems with agreeing on power supply terms, analysts also cited China's policy of over-producing aluminium to drive down the alumina price and get cheaper input costs. Cahya Mata Sarawak (CMS), which owns 40 per cent of the Sarawak Aluminium Company (SALCO) smelter development in Sarawak state, announced the termination to the Malaysian stock exchange. Morningstar Equities Research analyst Mark Taylor said it suited China's centrally controlled economy to control the price as the government was not concerned about the profitability of individual companies. Aluminium has been a thorn...
Rio Tinto , the world's largest miner and Cahya Mata Sarawak have scrapped plans for a $2 billion aluminium smelter project in Malaysia's Borneo island as power supply terms could not be finalised, CMS said in on Tuesday. CMS, a financial and construction conglomerate based in Malaysia's Borneo state of Sarawak, said both companies had worked to set up an aluminium smelter for years but could not agree on the commercial power supply terms with Sarawak Energy Berhad. "As a result, Rio Tinto Aluminium (Malaysia) and CMS have agreed that they would cease to pursue plans to jointly develop an aluminium smelter at Samalaju in Sarawak but remain open to other future possible collaborations," CMS Group Managing Director Richard Curtis said in a statement. The aluminium smelter was supposed to...
Downtown Akron is getting a new recycling program, and an Akron youth group will be collecting aluminum cans in a national contest in the month of April. Those were the two green or environmentally friendly announcements made by Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic on Monday. The city is working with the Downtown Akron Partnership to expand and boost recycling for businesses in a pilot program that will begin in April. The city has invested in 224 recycling containers: 154 30-?gallon pop bottle-shaped containers, 50 50-gallon dome-shaped recycling bins and 30 300-gallon containers. The bins were acquired with an $18,000 grant from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Six of the largest containers will be at Maiden Lane Alley, Paul Williams Street, Canal Square Apartments, Crave-?Musica, Canal...
UC RUSAL announced that the development of a new red mud recycling prototype facility is included to the Russian Ministry of Education and Science's Russian Science and Technology Complex Priority Research and Development Areas 2007 to 2013 program. The Ministry will invest RUB 150 million for the research and pilot launch of the project including RUR 50 million in 2012 and RUB 100 million in 2013. The main partners in the research project are the Institute of Metallurgy of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the National University of Science and Technology. The decision on the financing was made at the meeting of the Technical council of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science. Once the R&D stage is completed, the Company will begin the construction of a production unit at the...
When it opened officially in June 2008, Molten Aluminum Producer Canada (MAPCAN) was to be on the environmental vanguard, a "state-of-the-art, energy efficient 'Green' molten aluminum facility" utilizing "100 per cent recycled aluminum." At the time it was described as "the first Honda supplier in North America to deliver molten aluminum directly to die cast machines. In the process, there will be significant energy savings eliminating the need for one re-melt step of the product which will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 1,600 tonnes annually." MAPCAN was a $16 million investment, inside a 97,000 sq. ft facility on the south side of Industrial Parkway, with capacity to produce 50,000 metric tonnes of aluminum annually for Honda's North American operations. It was to employ...
Lexington is participating in the 2012 Cans for Cash City Recycling Challenge, a nationwide contest that challenges U.S. cities to recycle the most aluminum beverage cans through March 31. To participate, recycle cans by: using the blue residential Rosie recycling carts (to request a Rosie if city collection is available, call LexCall at 311 or enter a service request); use household recycling cart for private trash collection; drop off cans at the LFUCG Recycling Center at 360 Thompson Road or another drop-off location; take cans to scrap metal buyback centers; or take cans to schools, workplaces, apartments or churches that participate in Lexington's recycling program. The number of aluminum cans collected and recycled will be counted and compared to the number of cans recycled by other...
When you drink a cold beverage from an aluminum can, you don't just satisfy your thirst. You also hold the potential and the challenge of recycling right there in your hand. Nearly 60 percent of aluminum beverage cans get recycled, more than double the recycling rate for any other beverage container. Because aluminum cans are so perfectly suited for recycling, many aluminum-industry leaders and environmental advocates believe the recycling rate should be even higher. Q: What makes aluminum cans so recyclable? A: When many materials are recycled, they actually get "down-cycled," or turned into a product or packaging of less value than the original item. Aluminum cans, however, can be recycled an infinite number of times into new cans. By using beverage cans and other recycled aluminum as a...
Garmco plans to triple output and build region’s largest recycling plant Bahrain-based aluminium producer Gulf Aluminium Rolling Company (Garmco) plans to triple its production capacity over the next 10 years and build the Middle East’s largest aluminium recycling plant. Garmco is targeting a capacity of 600,000 tonnes a year (t/y) by 2022, up from 200,000 t/y today, Adel Hamad, the company’s chief executive officer, told MEED’s Aluminium 2012 conference in Dubai on 6 March. The expansion will be executed in stages, with capacity due to be expanded to 480,000 t/y by 2017. Hamad said the company was investing more than $10m a year in adding new equipment. Garmco sells aluminium products to more than 45 countries. It is now planning to open sales offices in the major markets where it does...
Aluminum has long been the poster child of recycling. About half of all aluminum used in the United States is now recycled, and this recycling has clear and dramatic benefits: Pound for pound, it takes anywhere from nine to 18 times as much energy to produce aluminum from raw ore as from recycled material. Because it works so well, aluminum recycling continues to expand. But this expansion could run into problems, a new MIT analysis shows, unless measures are put in place to reduce impurities that can build up as aluminum is recycled over and over again — everything from paint and labels on cans to other metals that are accidentally mixed in. Such impurities will continue to add up, the MIT researchers say, unless extra measures are taking during sorting of the recycled goods, or during...
Japan's rolling mills are considering the possibility of using non-Good Western grade aluminum to cut purchase costs, local market sources said Tuesday. The suggestion to diversify aluminum supply sources to non-Good Western grades, including brands not registered on the London Metal Exchange, came from two overseas producers who were proposing to hike second quarter premiums by 18% from the first quarter, sources said. "Japanese end-users have experimented with various grades so they may be ready for a shift, including [to] non-LME registered brands," a trader said. Even high-grade aluminum scrap from domestic plants have been reused in the past as a substitute for primary aluminum, he added.
Wise Metals has officially dedicated its newest aluminum recycling facility in Muscle Shoals, Ala., which is also where the company is based. Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley and other government officials attended the dedication ceremony, held March 2, 2012, at the facility’s 74-acre recycling complex According to Wise Metals, the $25 million facility, named Element 13, is the largest single used beverage can (UBC) melting facility in the world. According to David D’Addario, Wise Metal chairman, the facility contains a furnace that is capable of processing 250,000 pounds of aluminum per hour, a delaquering kiln and a can shredding system with a production capacity of 80,000 pounds of aluminum per hour. Wise says that the new plant will increase the company’s overall melting capacity by 27...
This equates to 774 tonnes of aluminium and steel collected and around 5,800 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions saved as a result of the programme. Every Can Counts - which is funded by a partnership comprising of UK and European drinks can manufacturers, the aluminium and steel packaging and recycling industries, and energy drinks brand Red Bull - announced the results to mark the third anniversary of the programme’s launch. On average each employee at workplaces registered with the programme recycled five cans per month, which represents a year-on-year increase in workplace recycling performance of 25%. The programme has also developed a model for drinks can recycling at outdoor events. Around one million drinks cans, which equates to nearly 15 tonnes of aluminium and steel, were...
European secondary aluminium ingot prices remained stable on Friday March 2, but rising scrap prices piled yet more pressure of producers struggling with tight margins. "Ingot prices are still within last week's ranges, but scrap is going up," an ingot producer said. "Scrap merchants have reacted very quickly to higher London Metal Exchange prices. Every day we have to put some more euros onto the scrap prices." DIN226 pressure diecasting ingot stayed at 1,800-1,860 ($2,399-2,479) per tonne, with business booked across the range. "We're trying to book at the top of the range, but there are still some suppliers selling at 1,800," the producer said. "Ingot prices are not where they should be if you look at the LME and at scrap prices," a second producer said. "Scrap is just really, really...
On-the-go drink can recycling programme, Every Can Counts has helped to collect some 51 million used beverage containers from workplaces and on-the-go locations in 2011. According to the programme, this equates to 774 tonnes of aluminium and steel collected and around 5800 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions saved. The not-for-profit organisation said that on average each employee at workplaces registered with the programme recycled five cans per month, which represents a year on year increase in workplace recycling performance of 25%. According to Every Can Counts, around 30% of the 9.5 billion cans sold every year are consumed outside the home; mainly in workplaces and whilst 'on the go', so they do not get picked up for recycling through local authority collections for domestic waste....
Metal Bulletin is changing its published UK aluminium scrap prices, to better serve an evolving market. Metal Bulletin continually evaluates its pricing coverage of all markets and is proposing the following changes to its UK aluminium scrap prices
The 2012 (7th) Shanghai Copper & Aluminum Summit co-organized by SMM and Shanghai Nonferrous Metals Industry Association will be held from March 21-23 this year. The event brings together industry elites to share their views on development of China’s aluminum market. Speeches on development of China’s secondary aluminum industry and challenges facing direct liquid aluminum supply will be delivered by industry experts during this grand event. China’s secondary aluminum industry has seen rapid development during recent years as auto sales and scrap aluminum supply continually expand. Its secondary aluminum output has maintained over 10% annual growth following the 2008 financial crisis. Despite high growth, the industry also has to face raw material supply shortage (the majority of Chinese...
Handling auto waste is emerging as a big issue and the automotive industry should create a ‘disposal chain', similar to supply chain, so that vehicles that ultimately turn into scrap bundles can be effectively disposed of, Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India, R. Chidambaram, said on Monday. Delivering the inaugural address at the fourth edition of ‘Automotive R&D trends 2015: automotive technology – mobility as a system', organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), he said that the issue could not be ignored any longer. The latest generation vehicles could be described as computer on wheels as they were coming out with more embedded systems and hence their disposal required greater attention as was being done in advanced countries. Semi-skilled labourers...
