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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Coal output for domestic use urged to support aluminium big plans
Vietnam Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai has asked the country's coal sector to prioritise coal production for domestic use, thereby ensuring the stability of the national energy reserve. In order to extract 55 million tonnes (mt) of coal by 2020, the sector, according to the industry sources,...
"Adoption of carbon tax has to be a global response," says Rusal’s Deripaska
Oleg Deripaska, president of the world’s biggest aluminium manufacturing group Rusal, says the outcome of the Paris Climate Summit late last year was nothing more than an agreement for 196 countries to “kick the can down the road a few decades’’. He writes that for a summit notionally about...
Noranda Aluminum idles two of three production lines due to electric outage
Following an electric supply circuit failure which occurred Thursday last week, Noranda Aluminum idled two of three aluminium smelting potlines at its New Madrid smelter. No serious injuries were reported. Noranda, the largest buyer of Ameren Missouri electricity, had bought around 10 percent of...
Santee Cooper board authorizes new Century Aluminum contract
The board of directors of Santee Cooper authorized management to execute a new power supply contract for Century Aluminum's Mt. Holly plant. The three-year contract, which takes effect on Friday, January 1st, specifies Santee Cooper will deliver 100 percent of the plant's electric needs, according...
Novelis achieves 49% recycled aluminium inputs, makes progress on GHG targets
Aluminium rolling and recycling leader Novelis released its sustainability report for Fiscal Year 2015 (FY15) on December 22. The company doubled its recycling capacity over the past five years, among other achievements. Recycled aluminium produces 95 percent fewer greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions...
Century Aluminum finds a saviour in CEO Michael Bless before inevitable closure
Century Aluminum’s Mount Holly smelter was due to shut down, probably for good; but just a couple days before the inevitable closure, president and CEO Michael Bless stepped in to try one last time to save several jobs from being lost. The aluminium smelter and its workers saw Bless working till...
Chinese aluminum smelters to benefit from power tariff cuts
China’s State Council announced Wednesday to cut coal-fired on-grid power tariffs from January 1, 2016. This move comes as a welcome rain to domestic aluminum smelters, since power cost takes up almost 40% of their total costs. The power tariff cut is about 0.03 yuan (¢0.4632)/Kwh nationwide on...
Novelis sustainability report highlights progress in recycling and water conservation
Novelis, the world leader in aluminium rolling and recycling, published its 2015 sustainability report today, detailing significant progress toward increasing the use of recycled aluminium and using natural resources more efficiently. At the end of Fiscal Year 2015, Novelis achieved an average of...
GCC power cable industry charts growth driving demand for aluminium conductors
The Dh6.3 billion worth utility cable industry in Gulf Corporation Council (GCC) is in the midst of a historic transformation. A paradigm shift in conventional business drivers is stirring up new trends as vertically integrated utility cable manufacturers size-up a fitting approach to swim with the...
Century reaches power agreement for Mt. Holly smelter
Century Aluminum of South Carolina, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Century Aluminum Company, announced on Saturday, last week, that it has reached an agreement in principle with Santee Cooper that will allow the Goose Creek, SC plant to operate at half capacity while the state legislature...
Vedanta's Jharsuguda aluminium smelter wins National Energy Conservation Award
Vedanta owned aluminium smelter plant in Jharsuguda has received the second prize in the National Energy Conservation Awards in aluminium sector. General Manager of the Vedanta Smelter Plant, Bijneswar Mohanty received the award in New Delhi recently. Various companies were audited by the Ministry...
Century Aluminum to operate Mt. Holly smelter at 50% capacity
Chicago-based Century Aluminum has announced its decision to operate the Mt. Holly, South Carolina smelter at 50% capacity. The company had earlier threatened to close the smelter on disputes with state-owned power supplier Santee Cooper over power rates at the smelter. Meantime, the company has...
Brazil aluminium can recycling rate grew 12.5% in 2014
The recent report published jointly by the Brazilian Aluminium Association (ABAL) and the Brazilian Association of Highly Recyclable Cans Manufacturers (Abralatas) suggests significant rise in aluminium can recycling rates in the country during 2014. According to the report, Brazil recycled 289,500...
Berkeley County lawmakers meet with Santee Cooper CEO over aluminum plant jobs
Berkeley County lawmakers are scheduled to meet Monday afternoon with Santee Cooper’s chief executive officer over the fate of the Century Aluminum plant in Mount Holly. The informational meeting between the legislative delegation and CEO Lonnie Carter starts at 5 p.m. at the state-owned utility...
Chalco makes substantial progress in energy use reduction
Chalco has made substantial progress in its energy use reduction efforts, hexun.com reported. The Chinese aluminum giant has saved 3.65 million tonnes of coal equivalent (TCE) since 2011, the media added. So far, Chalco has reported a 28.35% decline in total energy consumption per tonne of alumina...
Aluminium MMI falls, battered by the almighty dollar
The December Aluminium MMI index fell 3% to 70 points, yet another all-time low. Aluminium prices fell in November, although they held much better than other base metals. Still, three-month alumiinum on the London Metal Exchange hit a new low at $1,432/mt. As with the rest of the base metals...
Alba key participant and sponsor of 2nd Energy Management Conference & Exhibition 2015
Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C (Alba), one of the leading companies in Bahrain, is a key participant and sponsor of the 2nd Energy Management Conference & Exhibition 2015 being held from December 6 to 8, 2015, at Gulf Hotel, Manama, Bahrain. Organised under the patronage of His Excellency Dr. Abdul...
Ford develops new technology to recycle old engines
Ford Motor Company is using an innovative new process to give a new lease of life to old engines that would otherwise be scrapped. The process involves the use of a special Ford-patented plasma coating technology. The process delivers a 50 percent reduction in CO2 emissions compared with producing...
