Since the makers of electrical components are switching to aluminium wire over other materials, aluminium is expected to replace 30 per cent to 40 percent of copper wire in the coming years. According to a latest market report, the aluminium wire rods market in Europe is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 1.4% during the years 2017-2021.
Molten aluminium is being unceasingly cast to form aluminium wire. Today, it is most preferred materials due to its weight ratio over copper. It is widely used in applications in cables and conductors. It offers an excellent blend of high electrical conductivity, lightweight, and resistance to corrosion.
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Here’s a list of top five aluminium wire rod manufacturers in Europe. Note: the following list is based on the latest market report available through open source and hence can change under different market condition.
Alcoa
Alcoa, the world’s fifth largest producer of aluminium, has a global network of primary aluminium casthouses which produce a complete portfolio of aluminium billets, foundry ingots, rolling slabs, rods, etc. through its constant research, testing, and technological expertise.
The company exports aluminium rod from its Fjardaal smelter in Iceland. The plant is equipped with state-of-the-art, fully-automated systems to produce the highest-quality rod. Alcoa also produces soft and hard alloy rod for electrical, mechanical and welding applications.
General Cable
General Cable is a manufacturer of high quality aluminium, copper and fiber optic wire and cable products and system solutions. The company is the largest supplier of aluminium strip products and electrical and mechanical rod alloy in the world.
General Cable's mill in Jonquiere, Quebec, produces aluminium redraw rod to exacting standards. It gets 99.7 per cent pure molten aluminium from nearby smelters which is then alloyed and cast into high-grade rod for both electrical and mechanical applications.
Norsk Hydro
Hydro is a global aluminium company with production and sales throughout the value chain of aluminium. The company’s wire rod casthouse supplies about 70.000 tons of aluminium EC grade wire rod to the European market from Karmøy metal plant in Norway. The aluminium wire rod comes in diameters ranging from 9.5 mm to 25 mm. They are used in middle and high voltage cables, and wire and cables for electrical applications.
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RUSAL
RUSAL’s smelters produce EC grade wire rod for cable industry in diameters of 9, 9.5, 12, 15, 19 mm and EC grade alloyed wire rod in diameter of 9.5 mm.
Recently, the company launched a “Properzi” rolling mill into operation at Kandalaksha Aluminium Smelter (KAZ) as part of the casthouse modernization project at the smelter. The new rolling mill will produce wire rods of 7 typical sizes with diameters of 9.5, 12, 14, 15, 19, 23 and 25 mm. The smelter will also start to produce wire rod from the alloys of 1xxx, 6xxx and 8xxx series.
Vimetco
Vimetco, a globally integrated aluminium Group, has aluminium production and processing facilities and electricity plant in China and alumina refinery and aluminium smelter in Romania. The Group produces slabs, billets and wire rod of 100,000 tpa each in China. The company’s primary aluminium is used to manufacture cast house products, including wire rod, billets and slabs. Aluminium wire rod is used for high-voltage electric cables and wires in general, which are further processed into end-products such as power cables and conductors.
Apart from the above mentioned manufacturers of aluminium wire rod, there are other key players of aluminium wire rod which include Hindalco, Hongfan Holdings, INOTAL, Lamifil, National Aluminium Company (NALCO), NPA Skawina, Oman Aluminium Processing Industries (OAPIL), Southwire, TRIMET Aluminium, Vedanta.
Mahitha Mallishetty, a lead analyst at Technavio for metals and minerals research, said: “Therefore, to stay competitive across both wire rods and its downstream markets, vendors should focus on investing in R&D, customer-centric product development, and optimized supply chain network to ensure lead times.”
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