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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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...
Russian aluminum giant UC RUSAL plans to launch a 600 million ruble alumina production waste recycling facility at its Urals Aluminum Smelter in October 2014, RUSAL said Thursday. The facility is expected to process up to 200,000 tonnes of red mud annually. The recycling of alumina production waste is a global problem with only 10% of it recycled, while the remainder is stored in special disposal areas, the company said. The annual production capacity of the Urals Aluminum Smelter stands at 75,000 tonnes of aluminum and 740,000 tonnes of alumina. The major consumers of the plant are packaging and automobile industries. (29.6930 rubles - U.S. $1)
Low metals prices, high costs and the strong Australian dollar are doing to the country's aluminum-smelting industry what a frat boy does to his empty beer can: crushing it. Australia is the world's fourth-largest producer of refined aluminum and the third-largest exporter, according to Deutsche Bank. The latest sign of the sector's woes comes from Alcoa. The company said Wednesday it is reviewing the viability of its unprofitable Port Henry smelter, one of two Alcoa smelters in the country that together produce 30% of Australia's total aluminum. A sale or closure could be on the cards. Alcoa isn't alone. Rio Tinto said in October that it would package up and sell refining and smelting assets in Australia and New Zealand. But who would buy them? Deutsche Bank cut its estimate for the...
Contract negotiations Sunday between Teamsters Local 371 and Nichols Aluminum in Davenport again failed to reach agreement. Negotiations got under way Saturday morning for the first time since a strike began Jan. 20. The 254 members of Local 371 went on strike last month after negotiations with Nichols -- which operates plants at 1725 Rockingham Road and 2101 J.M. Morris Blvd. in Davenport -- reached an impasse. Tom Brackmann, Nichols' president, said Sunday that talks broke off before noon Sunday and that the union rejected the company's last offer, though it previously accepted parts of a new health insurance plan. "This is not just about insurance. There are multiple issues," he said, noting he could not get into details about the company's rejected offer. Other issues of contention...
Norco residents once again have a place to recycle aluminum cans while helping a good cause, after someone bought the Norco Lions Club a new trailer to replace one that was stolen in December. Proceeds from the recycling are dedicated to the Lions Club's "Cans for Sight" program, which provides eye care and glasses to the needy. "We're very grateful. It's tremendous that they did that," said club President Ronald St. Pierre, of the donor, Big River Enterprises, which had the trailer built to the club's specifications and had it delivered last week. Aaron Holmes, whose family owns a string of gas stations and convenience stores in St. Charles and St. John the Baptist parishes, said the company felt it could help the organization. "Our company started in Norco. The community has given us a...
Secondary alloyed aluminum makers around Tokyo agreed with aluminum scrap suppliers to increase the scrap purchase price for H1 of February which is the first increase in around a year. The price increases by averaged JPY 5 per kilogram for high grade scrap and by JPY 3 for lower grade scrap. The alloy makers around Osaka increased the scrap purchase price by JPY 2 to JPY 5 which is the first increase since H1 of March 2011. The makers around Tokyo allowed JPY 6 to JPY 7 per kilogram higher price for used beverage can scrap for H1 of February. The price increases for the first time since H2 of August 2011. The makers accepted higher scrap price but slow domestic demand impacted on the talk. The new high grade scrap price is JPY 150 per kilogram to JPY 155 per kilogram for new cutting and...
A Filipino in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) raises funds by recycling aluminum cans to send children in the Philippines to school. A report of the news site Gulf News on Friday said after work, Michael Del Moro Manlogon collects around 300 aluminum cans a day from a food court near his workplace. He then flattens the cans with his feet and sells them to a city scrap dealer who pays him Dh4 (P46.55) per kilo. In a day, Manlogon, who works for the Abu Dhabi Cooperative Society, gets around Dh20 (P232.76) for the aluminum cans that the food court janitors help him collect. In 2011, Manlogon raised enough funds to send two 12-year-old children to school and give 150 bags of school supplies for schoolchildren in his hometown of Perez in Quezon province. He told Gulf News: "One of...
According to Japan Aluminum Refiners Association, Japanese secondary aluminum and aluminum alloy production decreased by 7% to 759,491 tonnes in 2011 from 2010. The shipment decreased by 7.1% to 765,771 tonnes. The production and shipment decreased for the first time in 2 years when major users reduced the operation rate due to impact of the major earthquake and Thai flood. The shipment decreased for all applications excluding for steel additive in 2011 from 2010. The shipment for steel additive decreased to 75% of a year earlier level in April due to aftermath of the quake but the shipment represented increase for 5 months in a row since August. The shipment for die casting represented YoY decrease for 4 months in a row since April due to output reduction by automobile makers after the...
BIR: The following article is based on the latest Non-Ferrous Metals World Mirror produced by the BIR world recycling organisation for the benefit of its members. Despite on-going concerns over the outcome of the debt crisis in the Euro-zone and over the potential for any new economic setback to upset the business equilibrium, many markets have reported a reasonably brisk start to 2012 in terms of trading activity levels. However, the major consuming market of China has been somewhat lower key than normal because of the New Year holidays; trading resumed on January 30 but production among smelters and consumers is not expected to return to normal until nearer the middle of February. As a result, the physical market is expected remain quieter in the interim. In South East Asia, buyers have...
Alcoa AA +2.16% will be at Super Bowl XLVI this Sunday in Indianapolis, Ind., in more ways than one. The award-winning Lucas Oil Stadium, host site of the Super Bowl football game, features several products made by Alcoa's Kawneer architectural aluminum products business. Alcoa Foundation is also contributing to the big game by helping the City of Indianapolis "go-green" by encouraging football fans to recycle their aluminum beverage cans. Every visitor--including the lucky 67,000 fans with Super Bowl tickets--will pass through Kawneer's 500 Tuffline(R) brand entrances as they go into the stadium. The Kawneer brand of frames, doors and hardware is designed to withstand high-traffic areas. In addition, more than 225,000 square feet of Kawneer's curtain wall, which uses glass extensively,...
According to Japan Aluminum Alloy Refiners Association, Japanese secondary aluminum and aluminum alloy production decreased by 0.3% to 64,910 tonnes in December from a year earlier. The shipment increased by 0.6% to 66,717 tonnes. The production decreased for 2 months in a row but the shipment increased for the first time in 2 months. The shipment represented year-on-year increase for die casting and steel additive for 5 months in a row through December. The shipment increased for 4 months in a row for extrusion. However, the shipment decreased for 2 months in a row while the shipment increased from November. The shipment for flat product decreased for 3 months in a row due to seasonal slower demand. The raw material supply decreased by 6.1% from domestic supply source in December from a...
"Father Pete" is a familiar face around Ripley, coming as he does two Sundays a month from his home in Pontotoc to lead Spanish and English church services. As much as he's known for his religious service, however, the Glenmary Mission priest -- The Rev. Gerald "Pete" Peterson -- is known as a friend to the environment and a friend to Habitat for Humanity. Through 40 years it's fair to say that Father Pete has probably collected hundreds of thousands of cans to recycle, with proceeds of those sales going to Habitat chapters in whatever location he was serving. Currently his efforts benefit the Pontotoc County Habitat, but he has three can recycling collection sites around Ripley. "I started running when I was 40," the 82-year-old semi-retired priest said. "I started picking up cans back...
Aluminum scrap market price shows sign to increase around Tokyo. The dealers will offer higher price to the users at talk to set the price for H1 of February when primary aluminum ingot price increases at London Metal Exchange. The local demand is still slow and the users' appetite is low around Tokyo. A source said aluminum scrap could be oversupply in spring if the demand would keep slow. The scrap dealers start the talk next week. A dealer said with the upward trend in aluminum market, the scrap could increase by JPY 5 per kilogram for all grades. Japanese primary aluminum ingot price increased by JPY 10 from the end of December to reflect higher LME price. However, other scrap dealer said that the talk would result in same price level due to the slow demand. The high grade scrap...
After you finish that can of beer or soda, if you toss it in the recycling bin, odds are good that it’ll end up as one bit of Atlanta-based Novelis’ campaign to turn itself into one of the world’s greenest — and most profitable — aluminum processors. Only a few years ago, after it was acquired in 2007 by an Indian conglomerate, Novelis was racking up losses that eventually totaled more than $2 billion. But since then, the world’s largest maker of aluminum sheet metal, with nearly ?$11 billion in revenue, says it has largely retooled itself into a profitable company. Now it wants to grow, and it’s investing heavily to double the percentage of recycled aluminum in the sheet metal it sells to makers of drink cans, autos, cellphones, televisions, appliances and other products. Those efforts...
ALCOA, which operates Australia’s largest aluminium recycling plant at Yennora, says it is not planning to increase hydrogen chloride emissions, only its emissions limit. It is presently limited to releasing an average of 50mg/cm of the gas each hour from its rotary furnace - a limit imposed by the Land and Environment Court in 2006 - but the company has asked Holroyd Council to double that limit. It says that because emissions from the furnace are unpredictable, it needs the higher limit to avoid breaching the 50mg/cm average, which the Office of Environment and Heritage records show it did twice in 2010. “When averaged over one hour, rather than over the four-hour cycle, there will occasionally be spikes above 50mg per cubic metre, depending on the contaminants in the scrap aluminium...
The environmental campaign Tea Light Hunt is a big hit. Over 23,000 school children from all over Norway have collected more than four million used tea light cups for recycling - and they are not finished yet! Tea Light Hunt hopes to raise awareness about the recycling of aluminium. COLLECTION: All over Norway children are gathering used tea lights for recycling. (Photo: Kåre Foss) "The campaign has exceeded our expectations and it's great to see so much effort spent on an environment initiative like this," says Yngvill Ofstad from IKEA Norway, project manager of the Tea Light Hunt. "The number of participants is growing steadily. We now have over 23,000 pupils from 1,212 classes in all 19 counties in Norway participating," she says
Free-market secondary aluminum alloy tags rose for a second time this past week, sparked by a four-day run in the London Metal Exchange’s North American special aluminum alloy contract (Nasaac), market sources said. Producers were quoting A380.1 at $1.12 to $1.13 per pound by early Friday. However, they conceded that the alloy had traded between $1.10 and $1.11 per pound since the start of the week, when transacted prices stood between $1.09 and $1.10 per pound. The market could start booking sales at the quoted numbers if Nasaac maintains its upward trend, sources said.
Aluminum Association announced addition of its newest member, Chadwick Engineering Ltd. As Associate member, Chadwick Engineering will provide direct services to firms that produce or recycle aluminum. According to Aluminum Association President Heidi Brock, "Chadwick Engineering is especially positioned to help the Association better understand new technical innovations shaping the industry and provide a vital voice in future Association endeavors."
