Coal-heavy Australian aluminium vs renewables-led New Zealand: How Oceania is balancing decarbonisation
Oceania’s primary aluminium industry is facing a fragmented energy transition. While Australia, the leading aluminium producer of the continent, has abundant renewable resources and a well-established aluminium value chain, its smelters remain significantly more dependent on fossil-fuel-based...
Can the US afford to cut Canada off? 75% aluminium and $100b energy tell the story
The US aluminium industry’s dependence on Canada extends far beyond primary aluminium imports. While Canada supplies around 75 per cent of US imported primary aluminium, covering roughly 60 per cent of the country’s annual aluminium usage, it is also a major supplier of crude oil, natural gas and...
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Rio Tinto extends sustainable development partnership with Tsinghua University
Rio Tinto has further strengthened its partnership with China’s Tsinghua University, extending the tenure of the Tsinghua-Rio Tinto Joint Research Centre for Resources, Energy and Sustainable Development. Rio Tinto and Tsinghua University established the Joint Research Centre in 2012 to bring...
Vedanta resumes remaining two power plants after SPCB revokes closure notice
Vedanta today announced that the State Pollution Control Board, Odisha ('SPCB') has revoked the closure order on the remaining two power units, which were closed following a breach in the Ash Pond dyke wall at Jharsuguda, on November 10, 2017, and hence restarted these units of power plant. SPCB...
Hydro signs energy contract for Norwegian aluminium portfolio
Norsk Hydro ASA announced on Tuesday that its fully owned subsidiary Hydro Energi AS entered into a long-term contract with Markbygden Ett AB to supply power to company's aluminium plants. Markbygden Ett AB, a Swedish wind power company, will provide an annual baseload supply of 1.65 TWh in the...
‘No aluminium smelter production cut happened as yet, not due to coal crisis,’ Nalco clarifies
A day after India’s coal ministry rejected Nalco’s claim of fuel shortage related CPP unit closure claiming that the PSU had ample supply of coal to the amount of 4.7 million tonnes per annum (MTPA), the aluminium producer said it has “not” yet cut any production at its aluminium smelter due to...
Battery power: Aluminum ion outperforms lithium in Clemson Nanomaterials Institute study
While cell phones, laptops and cars become more energy efficient, the development of one important ingredient common in all these devices, and many more, has lagged: the batteries used to power them. “In any given battery, something is either very rare or it’s toxic or it’s expensive. Those are the...
Production cuts affect Rio Tinto’s Q3 2017 aluminium production
Rio Tinto released the production results of alumina and aluminium for the quarter third quarter of 2017. The company’s aluminium production dropped due to production curtailment at the Boyne smelter and lower production at the Sohar smelter. The quarterly aluminium production was three per cent...
Romanian aluminium company to invest $100 million to increase energy efficiency
Alro S.A., the largest aluminium producer in continental Europe (excluding Russia and the Scandinavian Peninsula), announced that the company will invest $100 million to increase the energy efficiency and specific consumption. The plan is a part of the "Green Factory" program.The "Green Factory"...
Alcoa reaches early termination agreement for power contract tied to curtailed Rockdale smelter in Texas
Alcoa Corporation, a global leader in bauxite, alumina and aluminum products, today announced that the Company and power provider Luminant Generation Company LLC have terminated the electricity contract tied to Alcoa’s Rockdale Operations in Texas. The smelter at Rockdale has been fully curtailed...
Rio Tinto plans sale of Dunkerque aluminium smelter in France
Rio Tinto, the third largest aluminium producing company in the world, is mulling the sale of its biggest aluminium smelter in Europe after the prices for the metal surged in the last few months. LME aluminium has risen by about 30 per cent this year, and this has lent momentum to Rio’s plan of...
Deripaska to list Russia’s largest power and aluminium producer En+ on London Stock Exchange
Billionaire Russian industrialist Oleg Deripaska is set to list Russia’s largest independent power and aluminium producer En+ on the London Stock Exchange and in Moscow. The industrialist hopes to raise $1.5bn through the dual listing of the power and aluminium producer En+ to help to lower its...
Visitors to Astana invited to engage with striking new aluminium
An eye-catching, 43ft-tall installation has been unveiled in the Kazakhstan capital of Astana. Designed by Marc Fornes of New York-based art and architecture firm THEVERYMANY, ‘Minima | Maxima’ was commissioned for the World Expo, which takes place this year in the city. The striking, angular...
UAE’s petcoke import to log double digit growth reaching 819,318 tonnes in 2017
Petcoke requirement of the UAE has been surging riding humongous demand growth from the end user industries namely, energy, steel and aluminium. According to the global export-import data, the country’s petcoke imports will grow 12.2 per cent on a yearly basis reach 819,318 tonnes in 2017. In 2016,...
CECB slaps closure notice on BALCO power plant
Vedanta- controlled Bharat Aluminium Company Limited (BALCO) has received notice for the closure of its 1,200 Mw power plant from the Chhattisgarh Environment Control Board (CECB). The closure notice has been issued over alleged green norms violation. CECB has asked the company to file a response...
SPCB revokes closure notice on Vedanta’s three power plants
Vedanta today announced that the State Pollution Control Board, Odisha ('SPCB') has revoked order for closure of three units (two units of 135 MW each and one unit of 600 MW) on September 20, 2017, and hence restarted these units of power plant. The company will not need to buy the 200 MW power...
Henan aluminium processors notified for winter production cuts
Aluminium processors based in Gongyi of Henan in China have got notices for production cut during the winter heating season (Nov. 15, 2017-Mar. 15, 2018), according to Shanghai Metals Market. Local aluminium processors ordered to cut production by 30 per cent, 50 per cent, 80 per cent and 100 per...
Vedanta gets power plant closure notice
Following a breach in the Ash Pond dyke wall at Jharsuguda at the end of August, the State Pollution Control Board, Odisha ('SPCB') on September 13, 2017 served a direction resulting in a temporary closure of three units of 135 MW each of the 1215 MW power plant, and two units of 600 MW each of the...
NanoAl LLC awarded contract to develop lightweight aluminium conductors
Energy loss, due to the resistance of electrical conductors, in transmission and distribution systems currently costs U.S. economy around $20 billion annually. This amount of energy can power 24 million homes per year, and it provides considerable motivation to improve the transmission and...
Russia's Rushydro may join hands with Rusal in its Siberian aluminium smelter project
Russia's public sector power company Rushydro may join Rusal’s new aluminium smelter project in Siberia, as shared by the board chairman of the company to Reuters. Rusal, the world's No.2 aluminium producer is resuming work on the Taishet project now which was on halt due to low aluminium prices....
