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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The highly competitive aluminum industry is constantly looking for economic, environmentally sound ways of melting scrap to produce high quality aluminum. Linde, a leading supplier of industrial gases to the aluminum industry, has just what they are looking for: Low-temperature Oxygen-enhanced combustion processes that increase productivity and reduce emissions. Linde, a member of The Linde Group, a world-leading gases and engineering company, will be highlighting the effectiveness of its arsenal of technologies and services for the secondary aluminum industry at the TMS 2012 Annual Meeting and Exhibition, in Orlando, Florida, March 11-15. TMS (The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society) is a professional organization that encompasses the entire range of materials and engineering. Tony...
Your church or school can make good money taking recyclables to "Mr. Murph" out in the parking lot. American Waste Control, aka Tulsa Recycling and Transfer, operates the Trash to Cash project -- home of "Mr. Murph," its Materials Recovery Facility (MRF). Mr. Murph takes paper of all types, cardboard, metals (including aluminum) and plastics, CEO Tom Hill says. The firm places recycling bins at many types of facilities where paper and beverage trash is generated and has 46 bins at area businesses, schools, hospitals, restaurants, credit unions and even group meeting places. It takes recyclables and helps its participants "earn extra cash in the process." "These containers provide an easy and convenient way for you to drop off your cardboard, aluminum, paper and plastic for delivery to Mr....
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...
The green initiative is fast gaining ground. On Thursday, thousands of environment — friendly residents coming from various government departments, educational institutions, hotels, private companies, labour camps, social organisations and families responded to the call of the Emirates Environmental Group (EEG) to drop off their aluminium cans at eight drop-off points across the country. “These people collected aluminium cans from their homes, neighbourhoods, offices, schools and some even visited restaurants and hotels. We highly appreciate their strong commitment to work for a cleaner and ‘greener’ environment,” said EEG Chairperson Habiba Al Marashi. The EEG-initiated activity resulted in the collection of 5,000kg of aluminium cans redirected from being dumped in landfills and sent for...
Gulf News reported that a campaign to collect aluminum cans and send them for recycling has saved a huge amount of carbon emissions and reduced energy consumption over the past 15 years. The Emirates Environmental Group's annual can collection campaign since 1997 has resulted in the mitigation of around 2,231.611 tonnes of carbon dioxide and has saved an estimated energy of 33,836.27 billion MTU. Ms Habiba Al Marashi EEG chairperson said that emptied beverage cans are not waste materials but valuable raw materials. Recycling aluminum needs only five per cent of the energy required to derive it from its raw material bauxite ore. However an estimated half a billion cans are sold annually in the UAE but only 5% of these are sent for recycling as against the average 63 per cent recycled...
Chinese major secondary alloyed aluminum maker, Delta Aluminum Industry in Which Daiki Aluminum has 20% interest completes Phase III of expansion in March. The output capacity increases from monthly 8,000 tonnes to 12,000 tonnes. The firm tries to expand sales in Chinese market and to Japan through the expansion along with better productivity. The Guangdong based maker started the expansion late last year to add 32 tonnes melting furnace, 25 tonnes alloy furnace and a 25 tonnes holding furnace. After the expansion, the firm conducts maintenance for the existing furnace. The production level is monthly 8,000 tonnes to 9,000 tonnes for months but the firm targets full capacity operation in H2 of 2012. The firm made record 82,000 tonnes in 2011. The export was 75,500 tonnes while he sales...
An environmental group is holding a nationwide drive to collect and recycle drinks cans Thursday. The annual event, organised by the Emirates Environmental Group (EEG), has been held since 1997 and has recycled 148.7 tonnes of aluminium cans. Instilling a "culture of recycling is the ultimate goal of this exercise", said Habiba Al Marashi, the chairwoman of EEG. "We want to create a society with a sense of responsibility and amity to save our Mother Earth's natural resources. "As we believe that raising awareness is foremost in bringing about change, we are happy to see that the spirit of environmental awareness and volunteerism is on the rise, and that our people are becoming more conscious of the detriments of throwing away aluminium cans." Aluminium is one of the easiest materials to...
Evesham, Worcestershire / UK -- An unintended consequence of the proposed ban on cash transactions for scrap metal would be to make "cash for cans" recycling activity illegal. Around the world "cash for cans" programmes have played, and continue to play, a key role in the aluminium recycling "loop", and have helped to establish the aluminium drinks can as the world"s most recycled drinks package, says Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation (Alupro). In the UK, estimated 10 percent of the aluminium drinks cans collected for recycling come through cash for can systems, operated by around 300 scrap metal dealers and community businesses. This equates to around 300 million cans. Collecting aluminium drinks cans provides a valuable income stream for individuals and thousands of charities,...
Aluminium professionals will meet at the V Aluminum International Congress and the XI International Seminar on Aluminum Recycling They will analyse recent technological innovations in the aluminium chain, metal applications in the main consumer markets and to discuss the challenges for the sector both at national and global levels. A simultaneous ExpoAluminio 2012 fair will highlight products, services and solutions for the industry. The meeting takes place in São Paulo, Brazil, between April 24 and April 26. Registration and full programme at www.expoaluminio.com.br
Daiki Aluminum Industry, Japanese largest secondary aluminum alloy maker carries out JPY 610 million of CAPEX to raise secondary aluminum alloy output capacity or to install new facilities for metal scrap and substantial material processing at its three subsidiaries in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Thai subsidiary, Daiki Aluminum Industry (Thailand) will introduce a pre process facility for shredder mix metal and a processing facility for dross with total 280 million yen CAPEX. The pre-processing machine will treat shredder mix metal, the main material for secondary aluminum alloy, at 1,000 tonnes per month. The dross processing machine will be utilized to recycle dross for in house consumption and sales to third parties as deoxidizing agent for steel making. Indonesian subsidiary...
Aluminum scrap market price is peaking around Tokyo. The dealers and secondary alloyed aluminum makers will start the price negotiation for second half of February in late this week. But the dealer and maker sources see they would keep the price due to flat offshore aluminum ingot market price. The scrap supply remains tight while the dealers expected the supply would increase under higher market price in first half of February. The demand is still slow for higher grade scrap when the users increased low-priced primary aluminum ingot purchase. The demand is also slow for lower grade scrap including turning scrap and scrap from industrial machine. One secondary alloyed aluminum maker source sees the users would need no scrap purchase when the users hold enough material inventories...
BHP Billiton has shelved plans to build an aluminium smelter that would have underpinned a hydropower plant known as Inga III in the Democratic Republic of Congo. “Following a review of the project’s economics, BHP Billiton has decided not to continue with its smelter project in the DRC, which was still at a very early stage,” Ruban Yogarajah, a London-based BHP spokesman, said overnight. The Inga plant was to provide about 5000 megawatts of energy at an estimated cost of $US5.2 billion. Between 3500 and 4200 megawatts would have been used for Congo’s internal demand, prioritizing BHP’s proposed aluminum smelter, according to the Energy Ministry. Aluminium producers such as BHP and Rio Tinto, the world’s third-largest mining company, have reined in projects as the price of the metal has...
Russia: Russian aluminium giant UC RUSAL is aiming to launch a Euro 15 million alumina production waste recycling facility at its Urals Aluminium Smelter in October 2014. With only 10% of this waste currently recycled and the remainder stored in special disposal areas, this represents a major global problem, says the company. The new facility will be able to process around 200 000 tonnes of ‘red mud’ per year. Annual production capacity of the Urals Aluminium Smelter is 75 000 tonnes of aluminium and 740 000 tonnes of alumina, its main customers being the packaging and automotive industries.
The state of California has surpassed its goal of 75 percent for the recycling and redemption of aluminum cans by a huge margin. During the period of Jan. - June 2011, a total of 4,021,390,132 aluminum cans were recycled out of 4,023,599,419 cans sold. That equals an all-time high of 100 percent recycled and redeemed. However, most southern California residents doubt the data is correct. Many Californians are skeptical because they have seen cans alongside the freeway and have witnessed others simply throwing them in the garbage. The CRV or California Refund Value is a fee paid on purchases of certain recyclable beverage containers in California. It is automatically added to the purchase price of beverages with aluminum, plastic, glass, and bimetal containers. The CRV can be reimbursed if...
Coalition proposals that aim to exclude composite packaging from data used to calculate obligations on aluminium packaging recycling could encourage much more to be used, stakeholders have warned. Last December, Defra launched its consultation on targets for new packaging recycling from 2013 to 2017. This includes no longer counting composite packaging that contains aluminium - including tetra-pak or toothpaste tubes, from which it can be incredibly hard to extract any aluminium for recycling – when putting together aluminium’s overall waste arising figure. The idea is to bring Britain in line with other countries around Europe while making the EU’s recycling targets on aluminium considerably easier to meet. Defra defines composite packaging as containing more than one material while not...
BUSINESSES including embattled aluminium giant Alcoa are pushing Ted Baillieu to scrap Victoria's pollution reduction target, saying it could undermine the federal carbon scheme and lead to higher costs. Less than two years after the former Brumby government introduced a statewide target to cut emissions by 20 per cent by 2020, the Coalition is under pressure to abandon the policy in the wake of Julia Gillard's carbon tax. The ambitious target is the centrepiece of the Victorian Climate Change Act, which has to be automatically reviewed by the government once the federal legislation passed. Advertisement: Story continues below Big business has used the review to warn that having two carbon reduction schemes would lead to duplication, higher costs, and unwanted red tape for global...
China's General Administration of Customs released preliminary trade data for January on Friday. According to the data, China’s aluminum scrap imports reached 140,000 tons in January, down by 49.64% compared with last month. This decrease was mainly caused by the Lunar New Year holiday. In 2011, China’s aluminium scrap imports decreased by 5.9% compared with last year. This was because there was a increase in the domestic aluminium scrap suppliers.
International market price is surging for shredder mix metal which is majorly used by Chinese secondary aluminum alloy makers as one of the main materials. North American exporters currently offer CIF USD 1,830 per tonne to USD 1,860 per tonne against major importer of Chinese users which was around USD 100 than the offer price at the end of 2011. Chinese secondary aluminum alloy makers mostly procure shredder mix metal from North America. The offer price increased along upsurge of primary aluminum and electrolytic copper market prices since the beginning of the year. North American exporters' offer price against Japanese customers is CIF USD 1,820 per tonne to USD 1,840 per tonne for Tense and CIF USD 1,780 per tonne to USD 1,820 per tonne for Taint Tabor both of those which increased by...
