Aluminium International Today May June 2022

INDUSTRY NEWS

ROLLING

RECYCLING

AUTOMOTIVE ALUMINIUM

www.aluminiumtoday.com May/June 2022—Vol.35 No.3

THE JOURNAL OF ALUMINIUM PRODUCTION AND PROCESSING

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ALUMINUM STRONGER THAN EVER As your leading partner in the world of metals, we offer the full range of plants and machinery for melting, casting, rolling and refining high-quality and high-tech aluminum products. With this strong footprint and 150 years of experience, we’re here to add value now and in the future.

Find out more at www.sms-group.com/plants/the-world-of-aluminum

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CONTENTS 1

www.aluminiumtoday.com

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LEADER

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NEWS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

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Volume 35 No. 3 – May/June 2022 Editorial Editor: Nadine Bloxsome Tel: +44 (0) 1737 855115 nadinebloxsome@quartzltd.com

new Director General

COVER

IAI ANNIVERSARY 11

Editorial Assistant: Zahra Awan Tel: +44 (0) 1737 855038 zahraawan@quartzltd.com

Reliable data - The building block of a model aluminium industry

Production Editor: Annie Baker

FOCUS ON CHINA

Sales

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Commercial Sales Director: Nathan Jupp nathanjupp@quartzltd.com Tel: +44 (0)1737 855027

Green aluminium in Yunnan, China

COMPANY PROFILE

Sales Director: Ken Clark kenclark@quartzltd.com Tel: +44 (0)1737 855117

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Visiting Sherwood Aluminium and the people behind the products

Advertisement Production Production Executive: Martin Lawrence

ROLLING

Managing Director: Tony Crinion CEO: Steve Diprose

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Circulation/subscriptions Jack Homewood Tel +44 (0) 1737 855028 Fax +44 (0) 1737 855034 email subscriptions@quartzltd.com Annual subscription: UK £257, all other countries £278. For two year subscription: UK £485, all other countries £501. Airmail prices on request.

Single copies £47

European Aluminium welcomes

of aluminium foil in packaging

Cover picture courtesy of GRANCO CLARK

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Technology advances boost recycling rates

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Aluminium foil quality: Final anneal

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From solid form to wire

THE ALUMINA CHRONICLES

Supporters of Aluminium International Today

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Aluminium recycling technology and enhancements in The United States of America

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46

WASTE TREATMENT 46

Providing technologies to help aluminium smelters meet their sustainability goals

ALUMINIUM INTERNATIONAL TODAY is published six times a year by Quartz Business Media Ltd, Quartz House, 20 Clarendon Road, Redhill, Surrey, RH1 1QX, UK. Tel: +44 (0) 1737 855000 Fax: +44 (0) 1737 855034 Email: aluminium@quartzltd.com Aluminium International Today (USO No; 022-344) is published bi-monthly

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EXTRUSION 48

AUTOMOTIVE 52

Aluminium International Today

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Hydro: The past, present, and future of automotive

SEARCH FOR ALUMINIUM INTERNATIONAL TODAY

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Aluminium’s role in the race to embrace EV

TALSAD 57

ISSN1475-455X

Focus on the US extrusion market

Aluminium Symposium and ALUEXPO welcome the world May/June 2022

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2 COMMENT

TOP STORIES

Alcoa completes energy project Alcoa Corporation has announced it has officially marked the completion of a capital project that is expected to improve stability, increase efficiency, and boost production at its Deschambault aluminium smelter in Quebec, Canada.

The smelter has finished the installation of upgraded electrical infrastructure, the result of a $47 million capital project to help the site continue to improve opera-

This time of year has always been renowned for industry events getting underway and it is great to see a buzz around these kind of events again. It’s been a while since I have had to balance my diary and make sure I am not double-booking myself...!

While there will now be the option to visit a lot of these events virtually, it is evident that there is nothing quite like inperson meeting and networking, but it is great to have the option and perhaps not travel to such extremes as we have been used to in the past!

On this note, we will be hosting the second Greener Aluminium Online Summit on 24th May. By keeping this as an online event for the second year running, the idea is to ensure that all delegates, speakers, sponsors and exhibitors can still attend or participate, before live events take the limelight later in the year!

We will also be teaming up with RX Global to host a number of sessions at the Innovation Plaza: Additive & Digital Manufacturing at the ALUMINIUM Show in September, to make the most of the industry being in one place and cover all areas of digital manufacturing with a live audience.

If you’d like to know about any other upcoming events, please visit the website!

Back to this issue and we have an exclusive interview with European Aluminium’s new Director General, the second in the series of the IAI Anniversary Celebration articles, a profile on Sherwood Aluminium, a dedicated rolling feature and much more! nadinebloxsome@quartzltd.com

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tions. The work included the addition of a third electrical transformer to provide more amperage to the smelting pots and enable increased metal production. In addition, upgraded environmental equipment will allow the plant to maintain environmental compliance as it works to increase aluminium production in the coming years.

In 2019, the Canadian government, through its Strategic Innovation Fund, announced a CA$10

million contribution toward the project at Deschambault.

“Through continuous improvement, we have been able to economically increase the capabilities of many of our assets, and this capital project at Deschambault should help us meet the strong demand we’re seeing for sustainably produced aluminium,” said John Slaven, Alcoa’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer.

Novelis to build recycling and casting centre in South Korea Novelis Inc. has announced that it will invest approximately $50 million to build a recycling centre at its Ulsan Aluminium joint venture in South Korea. Fully funded

by Novelis, the Ulsan Recycling Centre will have an annual casting capacity of 100 kilo tonnes of low-carbon sheet ingot. Once online, we expect the recycling centre to reduce the company’s carbon emissions by more than 420,000 tons each year.

“This latest capital investment

in recycling is another example of our company purpose of ‘Shaping a Sustainable World Together’ in action,’” said Pierre Labat, Senior Vice President, Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer, Novelis Inc. “I am excited by the actions Novelis is taking to increase aluminium recycling worldwide and the benefits this will have for our customers and in making aluminium the preferred material for all the markets Novelis serves.”

Novelis, which already operates

Asia’s largest aluminium recycling center in Yeongju, South Korea, as well as the world’s largest aluminium recycling centre in Nachterstedt, Germany, is making this investment in additional recycling capacity to meet the growing global demand for sustainable aluminium products.

Construction of the Ulsan Recycling Centre is expected to begin in October, with commissioning expected in early 2024.

Major solar initiative in the Gulf Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), Abu Dhabi National Energy Company PJSC (TAQA), Dubal Holding and Emirates Water and Electricity Company (EWEC) have announced a major initiative that would unlock significant further development of solar power generation capacity in Abu Dhabi, progress power asset and generation optimisation, and decarbonise EGA’s aluminium production in the United Arab Emirates.

The initiative, now subject to further negotiation and regulatory approvals in both Abu Dhabi and

Dubai, would advance TAQA and Dubal Holding’s growth strategies, see EGA become a leader in the global aluminium industry’s

drive towards net zero by 2050, and support EWEC’s continued development of strategic renewable energy initiatives to reduce the carbon intensity of the energy sector.

TAQA and Dubal Holding envisage acquiring EGA’s electricity generation assets in the UAE, holding a 50 per cent share each.

The power generated from the assets would be supplied to the grid under a long-term power purchase agreement with despatch of the assets through EWEC’s load despatch centre.

Aluminium International Today

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NEWS 3

HAI invests in digital manufacturing Hammerer Aluminum Industries (HAI) has announced that it is fully committed to digitisation. Under the motto “Digital HAIway”, 20 million euros will be invested in the digital transformation of the HAI Group’s processes over the next four years.

In the last 15 years, the Upper Austrian HAI Group has invested around 300 million euros in high technology and is now one of the largest medium-sized companies in the aluminium processing

industry in Europe. In order to ensure optimal structures for future growth and innovations, HAI relies on a digitisation offensive.

With 20 million euros, all processes along the value chain will be strengthened and optimised over the next four years.

“We see digitisation as an opportunity to keep product quality and processes at an excellent level.

On the other hand, we focus on relieving our employees – digital processes offer great potential

NEWS IN BRIEF MQP wins award

when designing attractive workplaces. At the centre of all digital projects is the human being, who is to be served by digitisation”, explains CEO Rob van Gils the motives at HAI.

EGA and Ma’aden extend technology cooperation MoU Emirates Global Aluminium and Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma’aden) have signed an agreement to extend their exploration of potential collaboration on technology in the aluminium value chain.

His Excellency Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, EGA’s Vice Chairman and Musabbeh Al Kaabi, EGA

Board member, witnessed the signing in Dubai by Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, EGA’s Chief Executive Officer and Riyadh Al Nassar, Senior Vice President of Ma’aden’s Aluminium business.

The agreement extends a Memorandum of Understanding originally signed in 2018. The companies will explore cooperation on

aluminium smelting technology development, including novel technologies with lower greenhouse gas emissions. EGA and Ma’aden will also consider cooperation on the management of by-products from processes in the aluminium value chain, and aluminium recycling.

Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, EGA’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “We are pleased to extend our agreement with Ma’aden on potential cooperation in technology and other development to support further the sustainability of our two companies. The successful tackling of big challenges can only be accelerated by companies working together.”

Rio Tinto commissions new aluminium remelt furnace Rio Tinto has announced it has commissioned a new remelt furnace at its Laterrière Plant, adding 22,000 metric tons of recycling capacity to its aluminium operations in the Saguenay – Lac-Saint-Jean

region of Quebec.

The $8.4-million project has been completed over two years to offer rolled product customers in the North American automotive and packaging industries a new sustainable supply solution combining low-carbon and recycled aluminium.

The remelt furnace is equipped with highly efficient burners to minimise its carbon footprint. The project has created seven new jobs.

Rio Tinto Aluminium manag-

ing director Atlantic Operations Sébastien Ross said: “Aluminium is 100% recyclable and the demand for recycled metal is continually growing. With the commissioning of our new remelt furnace, we are now offering our customers an additional solution to recycle scrap from their manufacturing processes and turn it into high quality, low carbon aluminium alloys. Rio Tinto will continue working closely with our customers and partners to support the transition to a circular economy.”

Aluminium grain refiner specialist wins international business award for innovation to benefit electric car market.

MQP was recognised for the development of its new Optifine 5:1 125, which is 40% more efficient than the closest competitor on the market and means casthouses need 85% less product to consistently achieve high quality results.

Hydro joins Polestar to create a climate-neutral car Swedish electric car maker Polestar has vowed to create a truly climate-neutral car by 2030. Hydro joins Polestar as a materials partner to explore how aluminium can contribute to the Polestar 0 project.

“Polestar has embarked on an inspiring, tough and important journey, and we are proud to contribute with our expertise and explore how aluminium can play a key part in realising a truly carbon-neutral car,” says Head of Hydro Aluminium Metal Eivind Kallevik.

Alunorte alumina plant fires up first electric boiler The new electric boiler, with more modern technology and greater capacity, is starting to operate at Alunorte, Pará State Hydro announces. The nominal generation capacity is about 95 tonnes of steam per hour, consuming 60 megawatts and with the potential to reduce around 100,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year.

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4 NEWS

www.aluminiumtoday.com

Capral and Tomago aluminium local remelting agreement Australia’s Tomago Aluminium has recently signed an agreement with Capral Aluminium. The agreement is for Capral to supply approximately 550 tonnes of production scrap to Tomago Aluminium annually for remelting. This industry leading arrangement is the first of its kind within Australia, paving the way toward access to low carbon aluminium for Austral-

ian manufacturers.

Luke Hawkins, General Manager Supply and Industrial Solutions at Capral Aluminium comments, “As far as we are aware this is the first commercial scrap arrangement for post-production scrap aluminium to be remelted in Australia and we are very excited to be working on this with the team at Tomago Aluminium.”

2022 DIARY May 24th Greener Aluminium Online Summit This Online Summit will bring together aluminium manufacturers and environmental solutions providers to discuss how the industry must continue to adapt, minimising the impacts associated with production of the metal today, while also developing technological pathways for the future. www.aluminiumtoday.com/ greener-aluminium

June

Apple and ELYSIS partner for new iPhone Apple, an early partner of ELYSIS alongside Alcoa and Rio Tinto, announced it will use ELYSIS aluminium in its new iPhone SE. This announcement is exciting news for the industry.

“This is the first time aluminium has been produced at this commercial purity, without any greenhouse gas emission and at industrial scale. The sale to Apple confirms the market’s interest in aluminium produced using our

breakthrough ELYSIS carbon-free smelting technology. Today’s announcement proves that ELYSIS, a joint venture between Alcoa and Rio Tinto, was able to turn an idea into reality,” said Vincent Christ, ELYSIS’s CEO. “We are excited to be working alongside Apple on this advancement, which has the potential to make lasting changes in how aluminium is produced.”

Investments from Apple’s $4.7 billion in Green Bonds have helped

jump-start the development of new low-carbon manufacturing and recycling technologies, the company announced today. Apple has issued three Green Bonds since 2016, with projects showcasing how the investments can reduce global emissions and bring clean power to communities around the world.

As part of this work, Apple is purchasing direct carbon-free aluminium following a major advancement in smelting technology to reduce emissions. The aluminium is the first to be manufactured at industrial scale outside of a laboratory without creating any direct carbon emissions during the smelting process. The company intends for the material to be introduced in the iPhone SE.

Report reveals high global aluminium demand after Covid A new report has revealed that global aluminium demand will increase by almost 40 per cent by 2030 and that the aluminium sector will need to produce an additional 33.3 Mt to meet demand growth in all industrial sectors – from 86.2 Mt in 2020 to119.5 Mt in 2030.

The study, Opportunities For Aluminium In A Post-Covid Economy, conducted by business intelligence analysts CRU International on behalf of the International Aluminium Institute (IAI), details demand across key industrial sectors May/June 2022

Nadine News.indd 3

and regions in a post-Covid economy. Transportation, construction, packaging and the electrical sectors are the four key sectors that will drive demand, accounting for 75% of the total metal required.

Two-thirds of this growth is expected to come from China, which will require 12.3 Mt, and the rest of Asia adding a further 8.6Mt, North America 5.1Mt and Europe 4.8Mt. Together, these four regions alone will account for more than 90 per cent of the additional aluminium required globally.

Commenting on the report

findings, IAI Secretary General, Miles Prosser said: The IAI commissioned this report to better understand the drivers of future aluminium demand and to ascertain what we need to do as an industry to meet consumer expectations on both demand and sustainability.

The figures in today’s report show that as society increasingly focuses on efficiency and sustainability, so are the market opportunities for aluminium. Within each of the sectors, key drivers of demand are linked to sustainability and climate change issues.”

7th - 9th Harbor’s 14th Aluminium Summit The event offers the opportunity of networking with +700 metal suppliers, clients, brokers & industry players and connecting with decision makers from +360 companies across the value chain.

Held in Chicago, USA. www.harboraluminumsummit. com 9 - 11th METEF Since 1997, Metef has been the global gathering of purchase, marketing and sales managers as well as engineers, designers and R&D managers, all interested in the new solutions offered by the entire industrial production chain.

Held in Bologna, Italy www.metef.com/en/ 28th - 29th Sustainable Industrial Manufacturing (SIM) Europe Hosting leaders from the worlds of science, innovation, government, industry, and investment, SIM Europe will provide an opportunity for those at the frontier of energy intensive industrial manufacturing to collaborate and deliver real change. Held in Brussels, Belgium www.sustai nableindustrial manufacturing.com

July 6 - 8th ALUMINIUM China Hybrid event and held in Shanghai. www.aluminiumchina.com/ en-gb.html For a full listing visit www.aluminiumtoday.com/ events Aluminium International Today

25/04/2022 14:14:06

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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW 7

European Aluminium welcomes new Director General Nadine Bloxsome* spoke to Paul Voss about how his experience in the energy sector will play a part in his new role as Director General of European Aluminium, following the retirement of Gerd Götz at the end of March 2022, after nearly a decade at the helm of the Association.

Q. CONGRATULATIONS ON THE NEW ROLE! WHAT’S FIRST ON YOUR AGENDA? A. We’ve got a great big package of legislation making its way through the decision-making process in Brussels right now, pretty much all of which will have implications for the aluminium business.

So, the job over the next month is to try and get that right as much as possible and secure a regulatory environment that works for the industry, in particular the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM).

We’re very supportive of trying to level the global playing field for carbon emissions but have some concerns about the design of the mechanism and so we’ll need to spend the next months

with EU policy makers, trying to iron out any of those issues to get a mechanism that does what it’s meant to do.

Beyond that, there’s the wider question of trade defence as Europe is struggling to cope with a great deal of illegally subsidised aluminium, particularly from China and we are busy with the European Commission trying to get in place a rules-based system that allows for healthy competition, genuine competition on a level playing field.

I think those are the two big things that we need, and then the third part is what we need to do as an industry because it’s all very well to ask for things,

but we’ve also got responsibilities like our pathway to climate-neutrality and increasing recycling rates.

Basically, just doing better with this idea of doing more with less and having a more circular economy and a more circular approach to it with within the aluminium industry.

Then, finally, I have a peoples’ job to do here: getting to know the people in the team, the wider community that we serve, the membership. I think, this is going to keep me busy for the next few months!

“I hope the experience and the network contacts that I have in the energy sector will be useful here and will see us working more closely, particularly with the electricity industry in the renewable power sector.” *Editor, Aluminium International Today Aluminium International Today

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8 EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Q. WHAT ASPECTS OF YOUR PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE WILL YOU BE DRAWING ON MOST AS YOU POSITION YOURSELF WITHIN THE ALUMINIUM SECTOR? A. Yes, I suspect that is one of the reasons I was asked to take on the role, was because my background is in the energy business.

I’ve worked on energy and climate for the best part of 15 years, and I hadn’t really expected to leave it and when I was first approached about doing this job, I had to think long and hard about that.

I’ve spent a lot of time in one field of policy, and I’ve loved it and the reason I was able to make this decision is

because I realised that I wouldn’t be leaving the energy industry. Aluminium needs energy and aluminium plays a role in the future energy infrastructure, as a user, an enabling material, as a potential storage and grid-balancing solution, as an industrial catalyst for green power deployment.

I hope the experience and the network contacts that I have in the energy sector will be useful here and will see us working more closely, particularly with

the electricity industry in the renewable power sector.

The other point was, I was running a trade association, so I learned a lot about managing not just teams, but also communities. The most important thing is the feeling of a sense of community and shared purpose within the industry.

It’s something that helped me a lot in my last role, and I hope it’s something I’ll be able to contribute to in this industry as well.

Q. YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH RENEWABLE ENERGY WILL CERTAINLY HELP EUROPEAN ALUMINIUM STRENGTHEN ITS ROLE IN ADDRESSING THE SUSTAINABILITY AND INDUSTRIAL CHALLENGES. WHERE DO YOU THINK NEEDS MOST ATTENTION AND WHAT IS YOUR FIRST IMPRESSION OF HOW THE ALUMINIUM SECTOR IS WORKING TO INCORPORATE MORE RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES? A. Up until I started looking at this job, I hadn’t thought much at all about aluminium as an area of policy and one of the things that I really hadn’t realised was that part of the production process is highly electrified.

A lot of other sectors are striving to electrify, whereas with aluminium, it’s a real opportunity.

But, if we want to decarbonise this

sector, then we need to meet price mechanisms that encourage that development. The challenge is that we pay much higher prices for electricity here in Europe than our competitors do, so there is a need to balance cost to maintain competitive industry in Europe.

No good can come of simply shifting to overseas markets where emissions are higher. Making sure Europe remains

industrially competitive is a major challenge, and it must be at the core of EU stakeholders.

We cannot have a European economy that operates without a concern for the climate and sustainability; cost and sustainability are two things that need to be reconciled.

Q. WHAT MOST EXCITES YOU ABOUT A MOVE INTO THE ALUMINIUM INDUSTRY? A. A couple of things! As I said, I really didn’t realise how energy-related aluminium is. When I was at university, we were taught to think about aluminium as frozen power, and I think that’s really interesting.

The second thing is, I had no idea how many products contain aluminium and how important it is not only for our daily

life now, but for this energy transition that we keep talking about.

For example, lighter automotive vehicles, the cables that we’re going to need for the more robust power grid of the future and frames for solar panels; there’s quietly aluminium everywhere!

So, when I thought about taking this new role, I asked myself ‘is it going to

be interesting and is it important’ and it really ticks both boxes.

It’s very difficult for me to see how we get to a decarbonised European economy and global economy without a really important role for aluminium and that makes it worth doing, so I probably hadn’t realised how important it is until I got started.

Q. WHAT ARE YOUR PRIORITIES FOR THE ASSOCIATION AND WHAT IS YOUR VISION FOR THE SHORT AND LONG TERM? A. Well, I’m really looking forward to when I can just engage with people in a more normal way and talk to them.

Hopefully, I will get the chance to meet many of our members in April when we have our big annual spring meetings; that’s where all our member representatives from across the value chain gather, so I think that will be a great opportunity for myself and the

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team.

With regards to a short-term view, there’s our immediate regulatory agenda: CBAM, trade defence, strategic autonomy and building a circular economy are probably at the top of that.

But then in parallel to that, there’s the longer question of an industrial strategy for Europe and our own decarbonisation and circular economy.

In order to secure some of the conditions that we need in the short term, it’s really important to present policymakers with a credible, long term vision. If we can offer serious commitments about our contribution in the long term, policymakers tend to understand what is needed in the short term.

Aluminium International Today

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TOGETHER TOWARDS PERFORMANCE

NOW IS THE TIME TO ACT REEL is on a journey contributing towards a net-zero Aluminium Industry.

reelinternational.com

REEL Aluminium is a major solution provider dedicated to reduce the carbon footprint in the Aluminium industry.

Both internal and external par tnership, new ways of understanding and innovative technological investments in the development of net-zero solutions for the Aluminium industry are the best conditions for REEL‘s goals to work together on its path to decarbonization and to green Aluminium future.

IAI ANNIVERSARY 11

Reliable data – The building block of a model aluminium industry In the second of a series of articles celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the International Aluminium Institute (IAI), Nadine Bloxsome* speaks to industry representatives who regularly use the IAI’s robust, comprehensive, energy and environment data, analysis and material flow modelling.

When it was established in 1972, data was always at the heart of and key to the International Aluminium Institute (IAI). Throughout the last 50 years, IAI member companies have been engaged across the supply chain, and it is through this engagement that the aluminium industry aims to promote a wider understanding of its activities and demonstrate both its responsibility in producing the metal and the potential benefits to be realised through its use in sustainable applications.

Through the development of detailed datasets and modelling, the IAI very much adheres to its purpose of promoting the sustainable development of the aluminium industry and increasing demand for aluminium products by raising awareness of their unique and valuable properties.

Creating GHG Pathways While modelling and reporting is not a new concept for the IAI, one of the more recent models, the Aluminium Sector Greenhouse Gas Pathways to 20501, which was launched in March 2021 and updated in September 2021, is possibly one that gained and continues to gain a significant amount of recognition.

The report sets out three credible and realistic approaches to emissions reductions for the aluminium industry, in line with the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Beyond 2 Degree Scenario.

The pathways are based on the IAI’s unrivalled data and leading analysis of the global aluminium industry.

While the industry works to reduce its emissions by about 80%, demand for aluminium products is also predicted to grow. Over the coming decades, *Editor, Aluminium International Today Aluminium International Today

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global demand for primary aluminium will increase by up to 40% and recycled aluminium from postconsumer scrap will more than triple through to 2050, as economies grow, urbanise, and build up their infrastructure.

The three pathways were broken down into: Electricity Decarbonisation More than sixty per cent of the aluminium sector’s 1.1 billion tonnes of CO2e emissions (2018) are from the production of electricity consumed during the smelting process.

Decarbonised power generation and the deployment of carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) offer the most significant opportunity to reduce emissions to near zero by 2050.

Direct Emissions – Emissions from fuel combustion make up 15% of the industry’s emissions.

Here, electrification, fuel switching to green hydrogen and CCUS offer the most credible pathways.

Process emissions make up a further 15% and require new technologies, such as inert anodes. These emissions and those in transport and raw materials will need to be reduced by 50-60% from a Business as Usual (BAU) baseline scenario by 2050.

reduce the need for primary aluminium by 20% compared to BAU, which in turn will cut the sector’s emissions by an additional 300 million tonnes of CO2e per year – a figure second in magnitude only to the first pathway, electricity decarbonisation.

Collaboration is key Among several positive responses to this model was the collaboration between the IAI and the Mission Possible Partnership in developing a global aluminium Sector Transition Strategy (STS), announced last year at COP26.

The industry-backed sector transition strategies unite industry leaders, customers, financial institutions and governments behind a strategic vision and plan to reach net-zero emissions in seven critical sectors.

Jason Martins, Associate at the Energy Transitions Commission, explains: “The STS will be an industry-backed first-ofa-kind 1.5°C decarbonisation strategy for the aluminium industry, outlining the detailed techno-economics and showcasing a set of scenarios to achieve net-zero emissions by mid-century.

“The IAI’s GHG Pathways Model has been an excellent resource and starting point for supporting the STS exercise and more specifically, we are looking closely at integrating the IAI’s

Recycling and Resource Efficiency – Increasing collection rates to near 100% as well as other resource efficiency progress by 2050 would May/June 2022

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12 IAI ANNIVERSARY

1.5-degree scenario into our modelling approach and the associated results of this scenario from the IAI’s material flow model (Alucycle2).”

In the previous article in this series, we touched on the MoU between the IAI and the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative, which was announced back in 2016, with the aim to collaborate and support continuous improvement in the performance of the global aluminium industry and the sustainable use and recycling of its products.

Chris Bayliss, Director of Standards at the ASI, and previously the Deputy Secretary General at the IAI, was keen to highlight that the ASI is looking to build results from the GHG Pathways report into the new ASI standards, which will be released in May 2022.

“In the latest draft of the ASI Standards we have referenced the 1.5-degree pathway because what we’re trying to do is map out those scenarios, or what the future might look like, or what it needs to look like in order to protect the climate.”

“What we do is we then build it into the standard to encourage members to follow these measures,” he continues.

“The IAI is mapping out a global scenario and what we can do is we can then take that and say this is what needs to happen in order to be certified.

“Historically, we had a threshold value for greenhouse gases which looked at how the industry is performing today, but what we have in this new version of the Standard isn’t just about how you’re performing today, it’s also what your plans are for the next 20 years and how you’re measured against that.”

By working with IAI data and models like the GHG Pathways, the ASI has access to life cycle assessment (LCA) knowledge and scope one and two emissions information. Within the ASI Performance Standard, there is also a criteria for LCA and details surrounding the life cycle impacts of members products.

“When the ASI was first being developed, it was those hot issues that we were dealing with on the environmental side that were key to initial discussions with civil society,” continues Chris.

“It was issues such as spent pot lining, bauxite residue and GHG emissions that May/June 2022

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were key to building the Standard criteria and the IAI was able to provide this technical knowledge.

“The main message is that the ASI uses the IAI data statistics and models because the models are based on the kind of reality we need to present and we use this in a global context, so we can then pick out points for our subset of the industry who is certified.”

As the world continues to face challenging times, there will likely be a heightened interest in data surrounding the latest industry developments.

“It is going to be more of a challenge to get hold of data in a post globalised world,” Chris comments.

“The IAI was born of globalisation and the energy crisis in the early 1970’s and it responded to the end of the Soviet Unition in the late 80s by truly being global, but it’s how it responds to the latest developments and a move away from globalisation that is a critical challenge.”

commodities, at least on the data side, we feel like aluminium can give a much more comprehensive picture of the industry,” continues Linlin.

“All commodities are doing a life cycle analysis now but aluminium is one of the first commodities with comprehensive data and can look back at a very successful story here. We published the GHG pathways last year (2021) based on regular IAI surveys to give scientific numbers about how the industry is performing. This is adopted by our members, but other associations like the ASI need threshold numbers to create their standards and certifications.

“You hear of other sectors creating analysis, but the IAI’s Pathways are among the first officially published by an industry association and we have seen a lot of requests from different regions to use them as a kind of reference to investigate their own regional activities or even for the corporate side.

“I received a request from the nonFerrous Metal Association in China for example, who are making their own pathways and they wanted to use the IAI’s publication as a reference before creating a more regional-based focus.

“It is interesting because the IAI information is global, so for some regions, it will depend on local conditions and the potential here. We’ve got a theoretical curve, but the curve can look differently based on your regional condition.”

Supporting sectors Linlin Wu is Manager, Statistical Analysis at the IAI and is responsible for statistical analysis and environmental impact information. Her role places her at the forefront of the data and she’s seen a recent shift in how this is used.

“When I started in 2009 my role in statistical analysis was focused on energy,” Linlin explains.

“The attention is always initially on energy, because it’s linked to the cost for producers and how much energy is consumed, but now it seems to be much more about sustainability.

“Whenever we talk with other

Consulting on a transition It’s clear that the strength of IAI data makes it an invaluable resource for organisations within the aluminium industry, but it is also highly regarded by others working across sectors to build a shared environmental vision.

One company working in this way is I Care, a leading consultancy company in the environmental field, which assists companies, financial institutions, and public organisations in their transition towards a low environmental impact society.

One project where the IAI’s GHG Pathways model and data was used is the

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14

Assessing Carbon Transitions (ACT), which is a methodology to assess the climate strategies of companies.

“We work with IAI and also the International Energy Agency (IEA),” says Eliott Rabin, Energy and Climate Senior Consultant at I Care.

“The methodology to assess climate strategies for ACT was different per sector; it’s not the same when it comes to assessing companies in aluminium, retail or in gas for example and some of the main parts of assessing the low carbon strategy of the company is to assess the low carbon trajectory,” continues Eliott.

“Most of the time we use data or methodologies from science-based targets, which is the domain methodology to set low carbon trajectories at company level and they use data from the IEA, but the data for aluminium was not very precise and we only had one line for aluminium with limited scope, so we needed a much more granular and complete dataset.

That’s why we worked with the IAI, as they provided very granular data showing each step of the value chain and types of GHG emissions.

“We worked together to understand the data and it was agreed that we could use their data within our project. The other way we worked with the IAI was through a list providing the main low carbon emission reduction levels for the aluminium sector.

“We were inspired by the low carbon emission reduction levels and the bulk of the information came from the IAI because it is clear they have the bigger picture. For us and the companies we work with, it is important to know if their carbon trajectory is compliant with the Paris Agreement and thanks to the IAI data, we can offer this advice.”

Marlène Dresch, from ADEME – Lowcarbon trajectories unit has also worked closely with the IAI on the ACT project.

“The ACT initiative develops sectoral methodologies to assess the readiness of companies to transition to a low-carbon economy aligned with the Paris Agreement mitigation goal,”Marlène confirms.

“We are currently developing a methodology for the aluminium sector, and we use the GHG pathways developed

by IAI as a benchmark for some quantitative indicators about alignment of targets, trend in past and future GHG emissions of the companies. The granularity of these May/June 2022

IAI anniversary.indd 3

pathways allows us to assess all kinds of aluminium actors, whatever the step of the value chain they are acting in. That is a great work done by IAI, that will foster companies to take actions, because the pathway is drawn.”

As with the comments from the ASI, it is clear that sectors other than the aluminium industry are benefitting from such clear and concise data, but it is also interesting to see how knowledge channels are constantly changing.

“Maybe one of the other areas of data that might be interesting is data on the cost for decarbonisation,” adds Eliott.

“When you want to engage in a transition, one of the thing companies want to know is what would be the price? What would be the cost? But then if you simulate a carbon tax for example, you can say OK, maybe the cost will be higher, but it’s better to invest in low carbon assets because in the end I will pay

fewer low carbon tax and I will lose less.

So, maybe that’s something that could be very interesting, not within ACT, but when working with companies directly.”

Good Practice Guidance As well as looking at the methodologies and projects that develop around and as a result of such data, it is also interesting to consider the applications that offer a more digitalised platform within the sector.

The LMEpassport is one such example and is a new electronic certificates of analysis (CoA) and digital credentials register from the London Metal Exchange.

It was designed specifically as a digital store for electronic CoAs of metal physically delivered into and out of the LME ecosystem, replacing the current paper-based model.

“The IAI’s August 2021 ‘Good Practice Guidance for the Calculation of Primary Aluminium and Precursor Product Carbon Footprints’ (which we understand was created using extensive industry input) has been particularly useful in the development of the LMEpassport,” explains Hugo Brodie, Vice President, Sustainability, LME. “Through the LMEpassport platform, producers of LME aluminium registered brands can now (on a voluntary basis) append carbon related metrics to specific batches of aluminium (or to the asset that produces the aluminium) in line with emissions calculations using IAI’s methodology. We configured this type of disclosure to our platform because we know the IAI formulated this guidance with extensive industry collaboration,” Hugo continues.

“Throughout my time in the LME Sustainability team, the IAI have helped facilitate conversations with global aluminium industry, enabling us to gain insight from across a globally dispersed aluminium community. I also keep up to date with IAI publicly available research in order to understand the latest trends impacting the aluminium industry, particularly related to the accurate recording of GHG emissions.

“Pragmatic and rigorously gathered industry input is crucial to enabling the sustainable transition – and the IAI is at the forefront of this work within the aluminium industry. The IAI’s work in aligning carbon calculation methodologies has been key to addressing the changing landscape of the industry.”

Material Flow Model The IAI also presented its annual Material Flow Model3 update last year (2021), which is based on 70 years of historical data from mining to product, recycling and trade for nine regions and globally.

The data reveals a record 20 million tonnes of post-consumer scrap intake in 2019. This avoids 300 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions as recycled metal reduces demand for primary aluminium.

This new high, published in the latest annual IAI Material Flow Model update, represents nearly 60 per cent of total scrap intake as post-consumer continues to outstrip pre-consumer scrap levels.

The post-consumer scrap intake came from three main sources – packaging, vehicles and building and construction.

Marlen Bertram is Director of Scenarios and Forecasts at the IAI and is responsible Aluminium International Today

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16 IAI ANNIVERSARY

for IAI’s material flow analysis, greenhouse gas scenarios and recycling, including the Alucycle visualisation.

“The most valuable information from this Mass Flow Model details what scrap is available, the qualities and where and how members and manufacturers can recycle in the best way possible,” Marlen explains. A key output of the material flow model was the knowledge that 75% of all aluminium ever made is still in productive use today, either due to long lifetimes or recycling.

Norsk Hydro is among one of these members who regularly cites its use of the Mass Flow Model and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Georg Rombach, R&D Coordinator, Recycling Center of Excellence at Hydro was happy to support this statement: “I joined the Global Aluminium Recycling Committee (GARC) 20 years ago and during this time the Mass Flow Model developed from a simple global model to today´s advanced regional tool for forecasting and scenario calculation,” says Georg.

“For Hydro, as a strongly primary based Aluminium producer, it was of big interest how the supply of secondary raw materials develops parallel to the increasing primary capacity, especially in China. When it became clear that the annual growth rate of scrap availability is in the order of 1 Mil tonnes per year with its major supply in Europe and North America, investments in Remelting and Recycling capacities were seriously considered. I am sure that the IAI Mass Flow Model has significantly supported the recent recycling strategy of Hydro and specific investment decisions, too.”

Association action The working relationships between the IAI and other industry associations were previously touched upon in the last article, with a mention of the IAI data responding to specific sector challenges.

René Djibril is Senior Manager Sustainability & Economic Data at European Aluminium and over the last 10 years has been personally in contact with the IAI for various projects (e.g., Life Cycle Inventory data, Material Flow Models).

“Thanks to IAI, I had the possibility to exchange more often with counterparts working on Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) data and on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) generally speaking,” says René. “These exchanges are very useful to grasp quickly what’s going on in outside of Europe.

Moreover, IAI forum offers good networking and dialogues opportunities within regions.”

“European Aluminium relies on IAI to have a better understanding of the picture at global level,” René continues.

“For instance, in our European Aluminium Environmental Profile Report, we refer to IAI data when it comes to the environmental data (e.g., bauxite) coming from other regions or to have a better analysis of the European picture versus other regions worldwide. At the end, the quality of the data provided by European Aluminium and IAI in this report was recognised by the external reviewers. The outcomes of this project and the related data are still used by LCA practitioners.

Investing in recycling results Another manufacturer competing to be a leading provider of low-carbon, sustainable aluminium solutions is Novelis.

The company recently announced that it will invest $365 million to build a highly advanced recycling centre for automotive in North America4. The plan is for it to be built adjacent to the existing automotive finishing plant in Gunthrie, Ky. Through closed-loop recycling, Novelis will take back aluminium scrap after automotive parts are stamped from sheets and remake it into the same product for new vehicle production.

The company highlights that end-oflife vehicle recycling is essential in order to reach its goal of carbon neutrality and refers to research carried out by the company in its announcement: “According to the International Aluminium Institute, the amount of rolled aluminium available at the end of a vehicle’s life will increase more than 5x by 2050 due to the growth in average aluminium content per vehicle.”

“Moreover, when it comes to GHG pathways, the work conducted by IAI especially for the upstream part of the aluminium value chain is very helpful and creates synergies with the role that we can play as an European Association covering the whole aluminium value chain in Europe (e.g. for rolling and extrusions).

“Finally, European Aluminium works also on collaborative projects or research with IAI. It was the case for instance on the Automotive LCA model and the research project on sustainable cities.

As an example, some case studies from

May/June 2022

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the sustainable cities project were used recently in some of our campaigns (e.g., LinkedIn, Twitter).”

Building Sustainable Cities René’s closing comment provides the perfect introduction to the Towards Sustainable Cities5 research programme, which quantifies the in-use benefits of aluminium in architecture and the built environment.

The works, which include five reports and were published between 2014 – 2017, present over 100 years of the use of aluminium in architecture and the built environment using 50 built works from 1895 to 1986, with four historic exemplars being inspected and presented in-depth.

Twelve twentiethcentury award-winning and historically significant aluminium-based buildings were inspected, leading to the successful nondestructive testing of aluminium finishes on three of these projects.

The research was undertaken by Michael Stacey Architects with KieranTimberlake and the Architecture and Tectonics Research Group (ARTG) of The University of Nottingham, UK, and funded by the IAI. Other publications in the series include, Aluminium & Durability, Aluminium Recyclability and Recycling, Aluminium Life Cycle Thinking, Aluminium: Flexible and Light and Aluminium: Sympathetic & Powerful.

“There are five books in the series, and I think it is quite simply the greatest sustained, focused on the aluminium industry by a group of architects,” says Professor Michael Stacey.

“We had a great response to the books and before the pandemic, I referenced the work at several international conferences from Madrid to Montreal.

“Recently, I’m getting the most enquiries about what really is the embodied impact of aluminium, and my simple conclusion is that producers should be including the power mix in their project specifications.

“One thing that’s still radical with aluminium life cycle thinking is that it includes the in-use phase and that that’s the interesting thing about buildings; mostly they are very long lasting.

“Could I say that that someone has totally changed what they’re doing on the project because of that research? Well, I think in one sense it would be hard to evidence, but I can give you an example that surprised me…

“I wrote about the MADDI group in in Montreal who make aluminium bridges Aluminium International Today

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IAI ANNIVERSARY 17

and I went to visit them because I wanted to learn more about what they do. Interestingly, they make a deployable military bridge for the Canadian Army and their latest version spans 24 metres. It was in their reception area that I spotted mounted pages from the Towards Sustainable Cities book that covers their bridges! I don’t think you can get a better compliment!”

The durability of aluminium is probably one of the most important qualities of this metal when used to form architecture and infrastructure and the Towards Sustainable Cities research identifies that aluminium-based projects dating back to 1950 that have been disassembled have all been recycled.

1950 is the first year of entries in IAI’s global material flow model. The research

reviews the reasons why buildings are demolished and rates of material recovery at the end of use. Key examples of short life and relocatable architecture are set out, alongside the future role of Design for Disassembly [DfD]. This research also identifies that there is a much wider up take of cast aluminium components in architecture than may have been expected.

“Part of the reason we started the Towards Sustainable Cities project was because people were using out of date information, which was quite significantly behind what you’ll find on the IAI website.

You know that the information there can be taken as close to the present as data collection and verification allows,” continues Michael.

“Aluminium has been recycled since

before the IAI was founded and should be considered as a cornerstone of the circular economy. The study showed collection rates from buildings as about 92% and that included the old 1963 aluminium roof from Wembley Stadium!”

“From when we first started this research, I think there’s now a much greater desire in the construction industry to be literate about the carbon impact of materials. Transparency and honesty are going to have to be part of the marketplace as we progress to net zero, combined with literacy so that people understand the whole thing. Maybe that will be the long-term contribution of the Sustainable Cities project.” �

1. https://international-aluminium.org/resource/aluminium-sector-greenhouse-gas-pathways-to-2050-2021/ 2. https://alucycle.international-aluminium.org/ 3. https://international-aluminium.org/resource/iai-material-flow-model-2021-update/ 4. https://www.novelis.com/guthrie/ 5. https://international-aluminium.org/resource/towards-sustainable-cities-series/

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FOCUS ON: CHINA 19

Green aluminium in Yunnan, China

By Monte Zhang* China’s primary aluminium companies have finally had the shackles removed, allowing them to add new capacity and resume idled capacity.

In the second half of last year, China’s aluminium industry suffered a double blow – controls imposed by central authorities in the chase to achieve better energy efficiency and lower overall energy consumption, plus the cuts on electricity in Yunnan province. Yunnan province is the virtual home of Chinese “green aluminium”, with extensive hydroelectricity supply in a country which is dominated by coal. The hiccups in the province’s ambitious plans led many to question whether there would be enough hydroelectricity in the province to support the primary aluminium smelters present and planned for the region.

This year both restrictions have been eased. The controls on energy consumption have been relaxed, and Yunnan province has released energy permits for the regions idled and underconstruction smelters.

The profitability of Chinese electrolytic aluminium enterprises has remained strong this year, and currently exceeds RMB 5,000/metric ton (about US$780/t).

As of the end of March 2022, China’s cumulative net increase in production capacity was 2.1 million tons, of which the gross number of 2.6 million tons was offset by a small number of reductions.

Yunnan itself has added 1.675 million tons, accounting for 65.1% of the increase.

It took little time for the local smelters to

respond to the release of energy permits - Yunnan Hongtai, Yunnan Qiya, Yunnan Aluminum Haixin, and Yunnan Shenhuo all released capacity within weeks of the issuing of the new permits. See Table 1.

In recent years, with its superior hydropower resources and early preferential special policies, Yunnan region has increased investment promotion, attracting industries to accelerate transfers to Yunnan Province. China has a “capacity cap” rule that says new capacity can only replace old capacity, and the preferential policies in Yunnan province have led to any remaining capacity permits being mopped up to support the growth in that area.

Yunnan started the drive to attract smelting capacity with a highly competitive electricity price. It started out more than 50% below the price of electricity in the traditional homes of aluminium smelting, such as Henan province. That pricing policy has now stopped, but the

new pricing structure still puts Yunnan province at the low end of provincial energy pricing policies.

Shandong Weiqiao, also known as Hongqiao, transferred 1.93 million tons of capacity from Shandong province down to Yunnan in 2021, following its transfer of 2.03 million tons previously, taking the company to a total of almost 4 million tons, mainly in the Luxi county area of the province. It’s indicative of how important the province is to the future of green aluminium. Weiqiao is the world’s largest producer of primary aluminium, and is probably the largest

Unit of measure: ‘000 tons Province

Jan

Feb

Mar

Summary

Yunnan

150

615

910

1675

Shanxi

140

35

20

195

Liaoning

20

-

-

20

Guangxi

90

-470

175

-205

Henan

30

-

-

30

Qinghai

52

20

60

132

Chongqing

20

-

-

20

Guizhou

30

60

36

126

Inner Mongolia Summary

-

70

40

110

532

330

1241

2103

*Director AZ Global Consulting and China Business Manager Aluminium International Today

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20 FOCUS ON: CHINA

Nujiang River

single producer of “green aluminium” – metal with 4 tons or less of CO2 emissions per ton of aluminium produced.

The fact that Chinese aluminium companies are moving to Yunnan province doesn’t necessarily mean that they are committed to a “green aluminium” strategy, although in the case of Hongqiao, that was exactly their motivation. Other companies were enticed by the huge cost advantages. But now that they are operating on hydroelectricity the benefits flow to them regardless.

According to AZ Global statistics, by the end of March 2022, Yunnan Province had built production capacity of 5.03 million tons, an operating capacity of 4.26 million tons, for an operating rate of 84.69%.

We expect that by the end of the second quarter, the operating capacity in Yunnan will reach 4.94 million tons, and the utilisation rate will be as high as 98.21%.

AZ Global estimates that the peak capacity in Yunnan Province may reach 8.4 million tons. The future situation will be a balance of supply and demand. There are still plenty of aluminium companies ready to move to the province, and the Chinese government has a very ambitious plan to add multiple hydro power stations in the river systems high in the mountains at the back of the province. There are six major water systems: Jinsha River, Lancang River, Nujiang River, Pearl River, Red River and Ayeyarwady River. The reserves of hydropower resources are 104 million kilowatts, and the developable installed capacity is about 98 million kilowatts, second only to Sichuan, ranking second in the country. Baihetan, Xiluodu, Wudongde and Xiangjiaba hydropower stations are among the top ten largescale hydropower stations in the world.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the total power generation in Yunnan Province in 2021 was 343.43 billion KwH. AZ Global’s calculations indicate that the supply of power will be enough to support the demand for electricity from primary aluminium.

A key question for the region is the ability to deliver metal efficiently to downstream customers. A hallmark of May/June 2022

AtoZ.indd 2

China’s aluminium industry is the heavy reliance on transfers of liquid metal. By trucking liquid metal straight from the smelter to the customer, it saves on cast house costs for the smelter and re-heat costs for the customer At present, about 57% of Yunnan aluminium is sold in liquid form. Yunnan Aluminum Group has a production line of 470,000 tons of aluminium rods and a production line of 900,000 tons of aluminium alloy ingots. In addition, there are several aluminium rod manufacturers in the surrounding area with a cumulative production capacity of 335,000 tons.

Yunnan Hongtai’s downstream facilities, Yunnan Innovation, uses the liquid metal produced by Hongtai, and cast rods on the spot. The local government is also actively attracting investment in downstream facilities.

Significantly, the Yunnan authorities are not relying solely on hydro power. The province has extensive plans to build solar and wind farms in the region.

Using the capacity cap of 45 million tons as the denominator, it means that almost 20% of China’s future aluminium output will come from Yunnan province and will be “green”. Green metal from other provinces will bump the number up to slightly over 20% of 45 million tons.

Measured globally, it means that China will be the largest single source of so-called green aluminium in the world. Its output will exceed that of Canada and Russia, the other two major centres of low-carbon aluminium. Given China is already an exporter of semi-finished metal, having so much green aluminium available is likely to create an environment where premium pricing for low-carbon metal is supported.

The arbitrage will work in China’s favour, bringing additional RMB profits, while still competing on price for higher-end business.

The biggest single threat to China’s position in the world of green aluminium is if the other two sources of pollution are eliminated elsewhere. Presently, China and most of the other metal in the low-carbon category are still running at about 4 tons of CO2 per ton of aluminium produced. The

barriers to getting to zero or near-zero are the process of refining alumina and the carbon anode. While some international companies are developing an inert anode, it’s highly unlikely any successful inventor would ever sell their technology to China.

The Chinese themselves are working on an inert anode but based on the decades of development in the west, it’s unlikely China will have a solution any time soon.

Similarly, China’s alumina industry is founded on coal-powered energy, and despite several million tons of new refining capacity planned, nobody is building a refinery based on hydro power or other renewable energy sources.

Still, China has shown remarkable adaptability in its primary aluminium capacity. About 18 years ago, it shifted from Soderberg to Pre-bake in the space of about 18-24 months. In 2010, it shifted from traditional bases such as Henan province to Xinjiang province, despite the latter not having sufficient water to cool the power stations – they deployed air-based cooling instead. In 2017, when the government first signaled its intention to get serious on environmental controls, the industry added fume extraction and control systems in dozens of smelters. And since 2019, the industry has been rushing to make use of Yunnan’s hydroelectricity, making China the only place where capacity has been physically relocated to make use of green energy. It is not beyond the realms of possibility that China could similarly move alumina capacity to a clean energy basis.

The last piece of the puzzle – the inert anode - may not fall into place for China for many years, but it is still not a reality in any other part of the world. Even if a commercial inert anode is introduced to the world by 2024, nobody knows what sort of supply chain challenges will be introduced – which rare earths will it use, and from where will they be sourced?

On top of that, nobody has ever run a smelter using an inert anode before, so it is going to be many years before anyone can take the lead on truly-green aluminium.

In the meantime, China remains at the forefront. � Aluminium International Today

25/04/2022 15:09:23

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COMPANY PROFILE 23

By Zahra Awan*

Visiting Sherwood Aluminium and the people behind the products Due to Covid-19 and the pandemic, I started my career in the aluminium industry using social media and YouTube to teach myself about the process used to create an aluminium product. However, there is only so far that a video can take you.

If you have followed my previous articles, you may have noticed that I was surprised by one specific characteristic of the industry.

Despite the infinite uses of the material, its sustainable qualities, innovative nature and so on, the biggest bonus to the industry is the people behind it.

Paul Thurston** invited me to Wolverhampton to see the Sherwood Aluminium factory. The company has three sites located in close proximity, two of which are storage facilities to manage their supply and products. The head office, processing and distribution centre sits on a combined 60,000 square foot service centre. Walking into the main site, I found myself standing in an office, about to walk through a normal office door which would open to the factory. Like Narnia, I suppose I was transported.

“We don’t make our own products, and we don’t produce any metal. We do the bit in the middle” Paul Thurston

The roll of extrusion manufacturing is vital; located in the middle of the production line, the company faces high demand and tight deadlines alongside their reputation for high-quality production. Currently the company has 11 VMC’s, along with nine saws consisting of either fully automatic, manual, single or double headed. Sherwood also has three long length machines plus power processes as well as the full assembly of aluminium extruded components.

“When we started Sherwood Aluminium, we had a blanking line, a polisher and a circling machine, and that’s all we had.” – Paul Thurston Sherwood Aluminium a history: Talking with Paul Thurston “Sherwood Aluminium was set up by four people in 1990, myself included. We began just a mile away from where we are sat now in a small unit. After three years we moved into a bigger unit around 500 yards from here and then in 2000, we moved the place we are today, and we have grown beyond this, we now have another two storage facilities.

Out of the four, two of us continue with the business to set the objectives and

define what the business will be. We both aim to grow the business further because that is what we have always done.

In the last two years we have acquired two other businesses. One in Manchester, Inal, and another in Nottingham, Neville Precision Manufacturing. Both of these companies add to our capacity and skills, and we use our sales team to grow all three of the companies.”

He continued to discuss the structure of the business and his view on manufacturing explaining that “I maintain the communication between those on the production line and myself, we cannot be detached because we are working on the same things.

Paul went onto talk about the importance of the workforce and progression for manufacturing in the future: “I do have this view that this this country needs to pull back some of its manufacturing capability. We have to be self-sufficient as a country.

I also believe that we need to fall in love with manufacturing again. Our government is promising large factories and power plants, but we need the work force to do this. Therefore, at Sherwood aluminium we support apprenticeships.”

*Editorial Assistant, Aluminium International Today **Director, Sherwood Aluminium *** Account Manager for Sherwood Aluminium Aluminium International Today

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24 COMPANY PROFILE SHERWOOD ALUMINIUM: PROGRESSION AND CHANGE I went onto interview Rob Admitt***, who works on accounts for Sherwood Aluminium. Working at the company for four and a half years, but analysing the data from across the 30 years, Rob gave an insight into how the company functions, how it has tackled challenges such as Covid-19 and what it strived to become.

excellent service. At the moment, customers are very mindful of the rising prices, whether that’s energy prices, whether it’s at the aluminium, billet prices. What we try and do here is be transparent. We try and pre-empt issues. Or as I say, we’re forward thinking enough to say, we’ve got to deal with this, or this is how we’re going to do it.

Of course, there are certain things we cannot foresee, like the conflict between Russia and the Ukraine, so this obviously can be difficult. But overall, I’d like to think our customers are satisfied with the service that we give, because we can keep up with their demands.

Q. HOW HAS THE PRODUCTION OF ALUMINIUM CHANGED AT SHERWOOD ALUMINIUM? A. Sherwood aluminium started off by specialising in Stainless Steel. Even when I joined, over four years ago, aluminium was a lot more predominant than the steel. Now we probably produce around 80% aluminium and 20% stainless steel, whereas it originally would’ve been the other way around.

Q. WHAT INDUSTRIES DO SHERWOOD ALUMINIUM SUPPLY TO? A. At Sherwood, we deal with several companies in the automotive industry. So, there will be cars that you will get into and the plates on the cars will be Sherwood aluminium. This is the same for microwaves, or for doors in supermarkets. ‘You are rarely more than 10 metres from something our group has been involved in the supply chain of at some time.’

Q. WHAT DOES SHERWOOD ALUMINIUM STRIVE TO ACHIEVE WITH REGARDS TO THEIR CUSTOMER RELATIONS? A. We strive for good service, well,

Q. COULD YOU PAINT A PICTURE OF YOUR CUSTOMERS AND WHO YOU DO BUSINESS WITH? A. In the 30 years that we’ve been trading, our costumer number has increased every single year. Last year was tough because of Covid-19, and I think this year is tough because people are still recovering from that.

But we work with over 200 customers on average, but these customers constantly change. With some customers, the demand will drop off, whilst other orders will suddenly increase overnight because of a new project that they’ve got.

WALKING THROUGH THE FACTORY DOORS As I walked around the factory, I was able to speak to those on the factory floor. There was a great emphasis on Sherwood being shaped by those who work for the company, this was clearly visible when speaking with the workforce:

Paul Andrews 27 years at Sherwood Aluminium, has always been in the metals industry.

Overlooking production and Quality Control “Through the years technology has improved, supply has improved and become more reliable, we have fewer quality issues.

“Being one of the employees who

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has been in the industry all their lives, and at Sherwood for several years, I have seen changes in the technology we have access to. However, there is an emphasis in the industry that you ‘can replace people, but you can’t replace experience.’ A lot of what we do is not just pushing a button and letting the machine do the work, there are tweaks and subtleties that experienced employees know which are essential to the process. There are some things that machines cannot do, you cannot replace a human being 100%, a machine cannot exercise judgement. The technology is only a part of the process.

“The process of extrusion is not black and white, there is a grey area, and this is the area that humans understand.

“We have cases where people look elsewhere to get the products they want, but they almost always come back to us. This is down to the fact that at Sherwood Aluminium, we have the experience, connections and knowledge on the processes.

“On this topic, we also understand that although experience is everything, humans do not live infinitely. At Sherwood we aim to educate and pass down the skills to keep the skills of our workforce living. We want to encourage workers to stay and help them strive toward their own goals.”

This insight into the reality of Industry 4.0 on the shop floor raised the question of ‘where does the industry want to go next?’ With product quality being so reliant on the people, rather than machines, the aim of Industry 4.0 at Sherwood Aluminium is not to replace those who work in the heavy metals industry, but to compliment the skilled workers in the industry. As Paul Thurston later comments: “It is the people that make the business work.”

A second issue raised by the company is the lack of workers being introduced to the manufacturing industry. Around 20% of the workforce here at Sherwood have been at the company for over 20 years” – PAUL … with this skilled workforce, Sherwood aluminium aims to keep skills alive and pass them down. The company has implemented apprenticeship schemes to encourage younger generations to enter the industry.

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26 COMPANY PROFILE

Frankie Brooks At the company for 3 years (started at 17) Programming and setting up Entered an apprenticeship with Sherwood Aluminium and now works full time “Essentially my job role is receiving the jobs from the companies and set the jobs up onto the different machines, programming what the company wants onto the correct machines. Sometimes we will get a block of metal and I will translate to the machine what we want for the customer. I branch the gap between the machines and people, talking to them to get what we need from them.

In the three years I have been working here, the technology we have access to has grown, many of the machines we now have are more precise and smarter. But we still need human assessment.”

Working in heavy industries, a very male dominated industry, there is an assumption that women are not as accepted. I spoke with Zane and May on their experiences of their role in the industry:

Zane 10 years My role is constantly changing “I have never had the same role at the company, sometimes I am here sometimes I am there I am everywhere.

And that’s fantastic, there are multiple jobs and skills to be learnt and implemented.

The company has changed a lot, it has been so much busier, there are more people, more machines and more orders.

In a day we can make 6,000 parts, and this is just an estimate, it is probably a lot more.

As a woman in the manufacturing industry, I feel no judgment or injustice. I have the skills and I have the drive to continue, and Sherwood encourages that.”

May My role is constantly changing 27 years “The industry is a male dominated industry, but we cannot discriminate on gender, age, colour. I’m 68, past retirement, and I’m a woman who has been working here for 27 years. I love it here and that’s why I’m still working here.

In 32 years, Sherwood has never made anyone redundant. This is what we have at Sherwood.”

Closing off the trip to Wolverhampton with a four-hour train journey left me thinking of the opportunities that could be available to those open to exploring the manufacturing industry if they had been shown it, and encouraged to delve into it.

Like most things created by human hands, the art of manufacturing is a skill which demonstrates that there is beauty in all materials. It is vision that pushes things to greater successes. And it is the drive of people which ties all things together. �

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Technology advances boost recycling rates of aluminium foil in packaging A combination of new technologies, as well as advances in existing processes, is adding momentum to the circular economy outlook for aluminium foil. While current shortages of primary aluminium make investment in recycling capacity an imperative.

It is well understood that aluminium is fully recyclable. But the many formats in which it enters the waste stream means that recovery is not always straightforward, particularly so with foil products. Some new technologies are helping to boost both sorting and recycling, while improvements to some of the tried and tested methods are also helping recovery rates to increase. During the current supply chain disruptions, it is vital to maximise the potential to recycle and reuse.

Here we take a look at what is happening around Europe with the industry’s efforts to meet calls to increase the recycling of aluminium foil in packaging.

Pyrolysis PreZeroPyral, a German based company, is recovering between 60-65% of all the light aluminium packaging in Germany. It uses a unique pyrolysis technology which reprocesses aluminium-bearing waste by thermal and mechanical means in an efficient and environmentally friendly manner, says the company. Organic substances can be separated from aluminium without the use of oxygen.

Using relatively low temperatures (500550°C) all of the aluminium present May/June 2022

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is preserved, while it is cleaned from substances such as ink, paper and plastic labels or food residues.

A really special feature of this pyrolysis is that it makes use of the gases created in the process, reusing the thermal energy produced. The organic material burned onto the aluminium is converted into a synthetic combustible gas which, after purification, is returned back to the process circuit as a source of energy. So the pyrolysis process can be defined as a prime example of resource and energyefficient aluminium recycling.

Microwave energy Another good example of new recycling potential is the work being done by ENVAL in the UK. Previously it has been challenging to recycle both the aluminium and the polymer materials which make up a foil laminate. But this is now achievable using a new, proprietary pyrolysis solution capable of handling low-density packaging waste. Known as Microwave Induced Pyrolysis, this patented process uses energy provided by microwave rather than gases to heat up the material and separate the aluminium from the plastic.

A major advantage of this technology is that it can be operated on a smaller,

decentralised scale, claims ENVAL. It is capable of recycling plastic aluminium laminates by recovering them into aluminium material, to be used again in a wide range of new aluminium applications and high-value oil which can be used for producing plastic materials again. This has the potential to transform the packaging recycling sector from within by changing the perception of aluminium plastic laminates and unlocking a strong and profitable circular economy, the company believes.

The use of carbon as a highly efficient microwave absorber is the ‘secret ingredient’ says the company. It absorbs the energy and then transfers it by conduction to the plastic, providing a very efficient heat exchange. As the process permits the construction of compact, modular units, these can be economically viable at relatively modest throughputs. This allows the ideal recycling scenario: installing plants to treat locally generated waste.

Some ENVAL units are being finalised in UK with further ones commissioned in Mexico.

Delamination The Advanced Mechanical solution, from German

Recycling recycling

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ROLLING 29

The available quantity of end-of-life aluminium scrap today is limited

Aluminium is fully recyclable and the benefits of its recycling are clear -95% 95% %

The energy required to recycle aluminium is about 5% of that needed for primary production and the amount of energy saved (95 %) corresponds with an equivalent saving of greenhouse gases.

Aluminium is fully recyclable without loss of quality, it keeps the same properties after recycling and cannot be distinguished from virgin material.

llife i fe e ccycle ycle The benefits are not only environmental, they are also economic.

The value of aluminium material pays for its recycling.

Calling for high recycled content in specific aluminium applications will not change that situation.

For materials which are losing properties after recycling, stimulating demand for recycled material provides an incentive to recycle.

This does not work for aluminium as the limiting factor of recycling is above all the availability of scraps.

EAFA does not support the communication of recycled content figures at product level

With the availability of recycled aluminium being limited, increasing the recycled content of an aluminium product is highly likely to result in decreasing the recycled content of another.

The overall environmental benefit is therefore nil.

But this cannot serve as an indicator of the environmental performance of the product, even less as an argument for environmental claim.

75 % of all aluminium ever produced since the start of its industrial production is still in use.

50% 5 0%

aluminium demand Because of continuous market growth, the current aluminium material demand cannot be filled by the available recycled aluminium from end-of-life scrap. The missing quantity has to be supplied by the primary aluminium industry.

In Europe, about half of the aluminium produced originates from recycled materials.

Encouraging end-of-life recycling is the right thing to do

The benefit can even be negative in case of less optimized material flows resulting in increases in overall transportation distances and in the related burden on the environment.

To help aluminium remain in the loop and be available for further applications, it is critical to support proper collection, sorting and recycling of used products.

The circularity performances of aluminium products are determined to a great extent by end of life recycling rates.

Keep aluminium foil in the material loop

Additional clarifications: LCA

Manufacturing a given aluminium foil product entirely or partially from recycled aluminium is technically possible.

Due to the long lifespan of volume-wise dominant aluminium applications such as buildings and transport vehicles, the available quantity of end-of-life aluminium scrap today is limited.

When available for recycling, aluminium scraps are recycled into new aluminium applications.

Calling for high aluminium recycled content in specific applications will not result in a more circular economy

75%

A recycled content figure alone is not suited in the context of life-cycle assessments (LCA) of aluminium parts. For that purpose, a full LCA including end-oflife recycling credits is the most appropriate approach.

Aluminium in products (not foil) Aluminium foil in products

ISO ISO 14021 definition of recycled content includes only pre-consumer and post-consumer recycled content. This means that recycled aluminium issued from process scraps generated during foil rolling and slitting do not fall within this definition.

Primary aluminium

Manufacturing of aluminium (foil) products

Production waste Waste after use Pre-consumer recyclate: from industrial processes

Recycling

Production of semi-finished aluminium products (rolling, extrusion, ...)

Sorting and pre-treatment Post-consumer recyclate (PCR): from end-of-life recycling

Recycling Internal scrap www.alufoil.org

According to ISO 14021 recycled content (RC) should derive from pre- or post-consumer recyclate. Internal scrap from the foil production value chain is not applicable for RC calculation and does not carry intrinsic environmental benefits.

technology company saperatec, is another technique used to delaminate polymer and metal films in flexible packaging materials and saving both for recovery. The process separates these materials into secondary raw materials without substantially changing the material properties. As aluminium is still regarded as one of the best performing barrier materials in polyolefin flexible packaging, offering many advantages to the consumer, it is important to find a method to extract it and the associated polymers for a circular economy.

With saperatec’s process, specifically designed separation fluids are used to de-bond the metal and polymer layers.

These separation fluids are waterfriendly chemical formulations circulating Aluminium International Today

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in the process to minimise chemicals consumption. The aluminium is sent for recycling, while the polyolefins are mechanically treated to produce filmgrade recycled plastic pellets.

Solvent Germany’s Fraunhofer IVV, the Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging, is working in cooperation with Creacycle and together have developed the CreaSolv process. This is a solvent-based technology, also referred to as dissolution or solventbased purification. It is capable of separating multi-layer-composites (MLC) and may serve a tailor-made solution to the MLC and aluminium laminates recycling issue.

In 2020 Fraunhofer started a co-

funded research project with the Global Aluminium Foil Roller Initiative (GLAFRI) and other partners in the foil value chain to investigate the benefit of solvent-based recycling for the recovery in the form of material of polymers and aluminium from sorted aluminium packaging fractions in detail. Following extensive trials, the recycling study clearly demonstrated both the technical and economic feasibility of the CreaSolv system to recover both aluminium and polymer materials from post-consumer non-ferrous metal fractions. Further upscale activities are in progress.

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Dried Al-residue of KR1915 (Al-flexibles) after extracting every polymer using CreaSolv® Process and removing paper by density separation

12.2 kg Al-residue from KR2072 (NF-metal mix)

aluminium post-consumer scraps exist, the sector, working with the equipment manufacturers, has focused its efforts on developing improved aluminium sorting techniques. Eddy current separators (ECS) using powerful rotating magnetic fields to separate non-ferrous metals from the waste stream and detectionejection systems – including the latest, advanced multi-sensor and robot sorting technologies – are now able to extract more aluminium-containing scraps from mixed materials flows than previously.

According to a study by HTP, a typical European sorting centre equipped with one ECS system, which focuses on aluminium packaging of medium grain sizes (80-300mm), can achieve an overall aluminium recovery rate of 60%. By adding another ECS system, focusing on smaller fractions of aluminium packaging (20 and 80mm), this leads to an increase in recovery of the material to as much as 90%. The addition of an Induced Sorting Separator, for super fine grain sizes smaller

than 20 mm, then increases the recovery rate to 94%.

Shredded input pc-sample 1 (KR1915) representing Al-flexibles

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Bright Future for aluminium foil recycling With so many aluminium foil packaging recycling processes offering promise and with proven economic viability, as well as sound technology, there are plenty of opportunities to improve recovery rates in a relatively short time. Effective collection and sorting are still the key factors, but across Europe there are clear signs of improvement in this area too. The sector is certainly hungry for recycled aluminium, particularly with the current high price of energy making primary production increasingly expensive and continued disruption of material supply chains.

This also makes investment in recycling technologies more attractive. So the nearterm prospects for more investment in recycling and better recovery look highly promising. �

Shredded input material of KR2073 (Al/pol.-flexibles) with a moisture content of 8%

Aluminium foil can help reduce packaging waste too! Resource efficiency goes hand in hand with recycling While the aluminium foil rolling sector, quite correctly, focuses much of its work on improving collection and recycling, the use of foil as part of a sustainable packaging format can have any equally beneficial impact on the environment. A recent life cycle assessment (LCA) study shows flexible pouches containing foil as part of the laminate can be better options, when compared to other packaging formats, for some products.

The study, commissioned by Flexible Packaging Europe and carried out by the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (ifeu) based in Heidelberg, Germany, looked at the environmental performance for pasta sauce in flexible pouches, compared to alternative packaging formats which, in this case, were glass jars and steel cans, both commonly used for these products in Europe.

The research was based on the market situation in Europe in 2020 and considered the entire packaging system, including primary, secondary and tertiary packaging. It was designed as a ‘cradle-to-grave’ LCA without the use phase, in other words it includes the extraction and production of packaging raw materials, converting processes, all transportation and the final disposal or recycling of the packaging system; production and processing of the food products themselves were excluded from the scope.

Weight of materials Unsurprisingly the weight of material per unit used for primary packaging of the pasta sauce was dramatically different. For 400g of sauce the

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pouch weighed just 10g, compared to 216g for glass and 54g for metal cans.

Broadly speaking the weight of secondary packaging for pouches was higher due to the need for a cardboard tray, being 16.6g, while bottles and cans needed only 30% of that amount. As all used Europallets and stretch film the values per unit for tertiary packaging was more or less equal across all formats of the product, at around 20g.

Impact categories A wide range of environmental impact categories were covered: Climate Change, Acidification, Photochemical Ozone Formation, Terrestrial Eutrophication, Aquatic Eutrophication and Particulate Matter. On an inventory level, accumulated primary energy demands were also reported.

The advantages of pouches were underlined in almost all impact categories of the LCA. In the category for Climate Change (carbon footprint) the flexible pouches showed a more than 60% lower impact than the rigid alternatives. The only exception was aquatic eutrophication, where the impacts stem from the heavier corrugated cardboard used in secondary packaging for the pouches, which is necessary to achieve enough stability for transportation.

ranking order between them.

Findings These findings show clearly that this flexible packaging containing aluminium foil is an effective way to minimise environmental impacts. Clearly there must be more understanding of the implications of switching to what appear to be more sustainable packaging solutions when clearly they are not.

As aluminium foil has been at the forefront of packaging innovation and development for over a century it will continue to play a leading role in the next generation of sustainable and recyclable packaging which is also fit for purpose.

Further information: Patrick Altenstrasser, Manager, Communications communications@alufoil.org

The European Aluminium Foil Association (EAFA) is the main trade association, specifically representing companies engaged in the rolling and rewinding of aluminium foil and the manufacturing of semi-rigid alufoil containers and household foil in Europe. With its more than 40 members, the organisation represents the total aluminium foil rolling market in Europe. www.alufoil.org

Environmental performance Despite the focus on recycling as the main sustainability indicator for packaging, the study found that the end-of-life of the packaging does not always play a major role in the overall environmental performance. The hypothetical application of a 100% collection as a recycling rate, to some extent, reduced the impact for all packaging systems, without changing the

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ROLLING 33

Aluminium foil quality: Final anneal

By Vicente Martin* Aluminium foil is a key material for the packaging industries. It is ubiquitous in many packaged product forms, such as milk or juice cartons and the blisters dispensing pharmaceutical tablets. No competing material has been able to match its combination of formability, printability and excellent barrier properties, making aluminium foil unsurpassed when it comes to protecting and preserving our complex food supply chains.

Even though aluminium foil has been manufactured for well over a century, the production of top quality foil for converting applications still has elements that are not universally understood or which are without a clear, common scientific understanding.

Manufacturers rely on maintaining the stability of processes developed through trial and error long ago. However, small changes in the supply chain or process can cause defects that are difficult to troubleshoot.

Final batch annealing of thin foil is an example of a poorly understood process with a large number of different factors which can interact to produce good or bad results. It is one of the most critical operations in foil manufacturing with a direct impact on customer performance. It’s also a limiting factor in the availability of wider foils. After annealing, there is a fine balance between incomplete degreasing which leads to adhesion problems during the conversion process, and poor unwinding quality which causes tears or holes in the material when unwound by an end user. Both instances result in coils being returned to the supplier.

About the coil To appreciate the critical nature of the final annealing stage, we first need to understand a little about the coil and what happens to residual rolling oil during the annealing process.

A coil of the 6-micron thick converter foil is far from being solid; there is a gap between layers of less than 1 µm, which makes the effective density of the coil lower than the aluminium.

Right after coiling this gap will be mainly filled with residual oil from the mill, while after annealing it should be mainly air. In the process of the final anneal, oil needs to vaporise and flow through the width of the coil to the edges through this small gap. This distance is up to 800 mm

from the centre of the coil to the edge of the coil. The physics of the oil diffusion through these gaps is a long way from normal fluid dynamics, and the pathway resembles more a porous structure than a tunnel. Because the metal roughness is of the same order of magnitude as the gap, this convolutes the path the oil has to percolate through, Fig 1.

The air gap between laps, the coil geometry, oil characteristics, temperatures and vapour pressure exert a strong influence on oil removal. Additionally, the chemistry of the oils and the additives used during the rolling of aluminium foil products means the dynamics and energies relating to the adsorption to the surfaces needs to be fully considered.

Factors affecting annealing performance Batch annealing is recognised as a crude, imperfect nonhomogeneous process. To date, alternative chemical or plasma cleaning techniques haven’t been able to provide a workable, costeffective in-line solution to remove the residual rolling oil in thin foil.

The factors affecting annealing performance span the entire rolling process: � Rolling mills always leave some residual oil on the surface that will need to be removed. Bespoke containment systems try to keep this residual oil at a minimum and homogenously distributed, but unless an oil free rolling technique is developed, it will always be a problem. Oil chemistry and heavy oil contamination play a key role in determining oil evaporation kinetics so usually the chemistry and maintenance monitoring system is key to quality.

Understanding the life cycle of the oil through contamination, recycling systems and filtration will allow monitoring to be optimised.

Mill maintenance and flatness control will also be instrumental in keeping problems to a minimum. � Separators will directly affect coiling density and the geometry of the long, thin path the oil needs to follow to exit the coil.

A balance between a stable coil without telescope and a wide interlap space needs to be found in a process involving dimensions of a fraction of a micrometre. � Foil furnace times are often the

*Senior Process Consultant, Innoval Technology Aluminium International Today

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longest in the whole of the aluminium industry with some practices lasting up to a week. Temperature cycles, atmospheric control and purging need to be tuned with the kinetics of lubricant species removal to provide a perfect surface for conversion, while at the same time minimising detrimental changes of the foil oxide layer.

Frequently, problems arise even in the best controlled operation. In these cases surface chemistry techniques (Surface carbon, GC, TGA, FTIR, etc.) and experienced trouble-shooters are invaluable to detect and identify the origins of the problems. The correct mix of plant data analysis, field measurements and laboratory analytical measurements combine to pinpoint weak points in the process and identify the likely origin of defects.

Innoval’s foil experts have a huge amount of process troubleshooting experience and they can help you with faster resolution of incidents and elimination of endemic quality problems. � Fig 1. Schematic showing the path residual oil must travel to exit the coil

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From solid form to wire

By Nidasio Michelangelo*

CCR Line N°1 in Milan Science & Technology Museum

When Ilario PROPERZI began a new company in 1947 to exploit his ideas and patents relative to machinery and methods for continuous casting and rolling of nonferrous metals, he had to decide upon a fitting company name for introduction into the international market. Not being an egotistical person, his own family name of PROPERZI was not even a consideration. As he was greatly influenced by classical literature, he chose the Latin word “CONTINUUS”.

During the years, and especially in the international English speaking market, this new revolutionary metallurgical process, a continuous casting system to produce rod and wire, for “lead, zinc and then aluminium” was called the PROPERZI process. Therefore, the actual name of the company is a combination of the type of process, CONTINUUS and the family name of the inventor, PROPERZI. Today, the company CONTINUUS PROPERZI is synonymous worldwide with who invented the continuous casting into a wheel and direct rolling of the emerging bar through a rolling mill with stands having three (3) rolls. In the early days of the company, the first material processed was lead and subsequently zinc (increasing the temperature of the liquid metal). But the real success and the definitive notoriety regarding this new process for the continuous production of wire rod, and consequent affirmation of the company

and proclamation of the name PROPERZI as PROPERZI TECHNOLOGY or PROPERZI CASTING, took place with aluminium. By the 1950s, all the largest producers of wire rod in the world embraced the PROPERZI technology, enhancing its name. Once the aluminium process was well consolidated, only the noblest COPPER remained. The development with the copper process began in the early 1960s and was consolidated in the 1970s. Practically starting from the very simple Continuous casting line and rolling mill (Line N°1 is on display at the Science & Technology Museum in Milan) we supply complete solutions for melting solids to obtain wire.

During the last 75+ years of CONTINUUS PROPERZI’s history, the market required that the simple but effective CCR Line be upgraded and expanded, from time to time, to better satisfy the additional, and increasingly sophisticated, needs of the market.

To ensure a sound and correct cast bar in terms of chemistry & metallurgy, specific melting systems have been developed for both Copper and Aluminium. � Shaft and holding furnaces for copper cathodes � Refining Furnaces for FRHC (Fire Refined High Conductivity) copper from scrap ≥ 93% Cu content (green copper resurrecting scrap) � Vert-Ref for high quality FRHC copper from scrap ≥ 97% Cu content

(green copper resurrecting scrap) � Vert-Melt for aluminium ingot with the lowest melting cost in energy per ton The design and subsequent improvement of the furnaces was carried out to optimise energy efficiency for maximum exploitation of the CCR lines.

Obviously, who can best achieve these results if not the builder and inventor of this technology?

Today we are in a position to be able to say that our continuous R&D efforts, coupled with our engineering and design, have allowed us to obtain excellent results recognised by all our customers around the world.

As far as the Aluminium CCR line is concerned, it has undergone considerable transformations and improvements from both metallurgical and automation perspectives.

Naturally, all these improvements have been implemented while maintaining the safety of the operators and with the utmost respect for the environment through the reduction of polluting emissions.

During the last five decades, we have progressed from the simple pure Aluminium (EC Grade) to the ability to produce all the alloys in different tempers. At the very beginning it was only necessary to produce EC Grade or AA1050 – AA1350 in rod format, now we can produce AA1370 from H11 up to H16

*Senior Process Engineer, Sales Manager Aluminium International Today

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transportation. The automatic twin reel coiler can be equipped with complete automatic strapping and unloading machine.

Modern CCR Copper Line from Furnace set to automatic coiling system

(H11 – H12 – H14 – H16) and alloys in the following families: 1XXX (1050 – 1090 - 1100 – 1120 – 1350 – 1370 etc.)

2XXX (2014 – 2017 – 2024 etc.)

3XXX (3003 - 3004 – 3103 – 3014 etc.)

4XXX (4032 – 4043 – 4047 etc.)

5XXX (5005 – 5050 – 5051 – 5052 – 5086 – 5087 – 5154 – 5183 - 5754 – 5356 – 5556 etc.)

6XXX (6056 - 6065 – 6061 – 6063 – 6082 – 6101 – 6201 etc.)

7XXX (7003 – 7075 etc.)

8XXX (8030 - 8076 – 8077 – 8176 – 8177 etc.)

The typical Aluminium Line produces 9.53mm wire rod in tight coils.

The CCR Line consists of the following major equipment: Furnace Set: High efficiency burners and furnace designs to minimize gas consumption.

Casting Machine: automatic wheel and belt type, which converts the molten metal into a continuous solid cast bar.

It is supplied complete with tundish set (horizontal pouring), manual and/or

automatic control of the liquid aluminium flow into the mould. Solid and strong bar conveyor to address the bar to downstream machines.

Automatic Rotary Bar Shear: located immediately after the bar supporting roller way of the Casting machine. It is composed by one pinch roll, the shearing heads and the roller way. It is provided to cut the bar in any convenient position between the casting machine and the mill.

Bar Straightener: to straighten the cast bar.

Bar Milling Machine: to remove the corners and top of the bar where the eutectic segregations are concentrated.

Induction Bar Heater and Bar Cooler: designed to re-heat or cool the bar in order to ensure the correct rolling temperature depending on the alloy in production.

Optical Pyrometer(s): To detect bar/ rod temperature in different points of the line.

Rolling Section: generally composed of one Roughing Mill (high reduction) followed by one Finishing Mill for the production of the final diameter of 9.53mm rod (intermediate diameters like 12 – 15 – 19 – 25 – 30 are available).

Different diameters can be satisfied with special round-to-round stands.

Quenching Unit: dedicated for cooling the rod and to facilitate inline heat treatment for some alloys.

Automatic Twin Reel Coiler: to produce tight coils of rod for long

Given the large variety of alloys we have today, with the vast range of required tensile, the market was not completely satisfied by the standard machine used to produce wire. To produce some alloys in the diameter range of 2.0 – 2.5mm, the traditional drawing machine needs to divide the process in one, two or sometimes three drawing steps with intermediate annealing.

Realistically, depending upon the alloy it could require from three days to a week to obtain good intermediate wire with a drawing machine.

Also in this case, Properzi’s technical department, led by its leader Giulio Properzi, worked to create an extremely versatile rolling mill to process ‘hard-todraw’ alloys. Therefore, in the 1990’s the MICROROLLING® MILL began its history.

Compared to the standard breakdown drawing machine with capstans and traditional drawing dies or with roller dies, the Microrolling® mill requires a much smaller space for the break-down phase of the process.

The advantages of a Microrolling® mill over a traditional system include: � Energy savings � Low maintenance � No pointing required � Self-threading (extremely user-friendly) � Increased safety (self-threading eliminates potential pinch points) � Reduced work hardening of the material � Absence of residual lubricant on wire surface � Possibility of hot rolling without loss in output and efficiency � Greater reduction between anneals on hard material …All together: Lower production costs The MICROROLLING® MILL shows all its advantages precisely in those very hard alloys or where the hardening between one capstan and the next does not allow much area reduction (limitation of the drawing machine). Initially developed for welding alloys, today it has proven itself and is used for practically all mechanical alloys.

Lay-out of a Continuous Casting & Rolling Al & Al Alloys Line

May/June 2022

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Aluminium International Today

26/04/2022 06:24:17

ROLLING 37

Two vertical dynamic payoffs

Microrolling mill 12 stands Wire dancer

Wire spooler

approx. 18M

The MICROROLLING® MILL Line equipments

The MICROROLLING® MILL Line is composed of the following equipment: Vertical dynamic rod pay-off: The LINE will be equipped with two (2) vertical dynamic motorized rod pay-offs to uncoil 9.53 mm aluminium rod.

Rod dancer: The rod dancer is positioned between the rod payoffs and the Microrolling® mill. The rod dancer is electrically controlled to create the appropriate tension prior to entry to the Microrolling® mill.

Microfilling® Mill: The Microrolling® mill is the heart of the plant. It is in fact the machinery which processes the raw material (aluminium alloy rod for example) from the inlet diameter down to the final diameters (2.4 – 2.6), through a sequence

Typical stand sketch

of rolling stands.

The stands are located in line on the front side of the machine frame.

Each stand includes two “shells” (semi

housings) containing the primary shaft which is connected to the gear train directly through a toothed coupling and appropriate shear pin. The primary shaft supports one working roll and two bevel gears, which in turn drive the other two working rolls placed at 120°.

Wire dancer The wire dancer is positioned between the Microrolling® mill and the dynamic spooler. It is designed to absorb the differences in speed during ramp up and ramp down and to synchronise the speed during operation of the linked equipment.

Dynamic spooler The dynamic spooler is positioned immediately after the wire dancer. The standard spooler is designed to accept reels with flange diameter of 1000 mm.

The dynamic spooler is designed to collect approximately 700kg of (aluminium) wire.

Therefore, when it comes to innovation and technology for the production of wire rod and for further processing of difficult alloys, our 75+ year history affirms Continuus Properzi’s global leadership in the industry. �

Courtesy photo (c) Fives

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THE ALUMINA CHRONICLES 39

Aluminium recycling technology and enhancements in The United States of America Leaders in a number of sectors in the aluminium industry are working to enhance recycling opportunities in the United States of America (USA). Some of these efforts involve the deployment of new equipment and facilities, whilst other endeavours are using new technologies.

Hundreds of millions of dollars are being invested in these activities.

Recycling is considered by many to be one of the key ways to reduce the need for bauxite mining and alumina production.

The International Aluminium Institute (IAI) issued its “Aluminium Sector Greenhouse Gas Pathways to 2050” in September of 2021. In this report, the IAI identified recycling as one of the three areas that the aluminium industry could use to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“Whilst the industry works to reduce its emissions by about 80%, demand for aluminium products is also predicted to grow,” according to a news statement from the IAI issued in September of 2021. “Over the coming decades, global demand for primary aluminium will increase by up to 40% and recycled aluminium from post-consumer scrap will more than triple through to 2050, as economies grow, urbanise, and build up their infrastructure.”

The three pathways cited by the IAI are electricity decarbonisation, direct

The Milwaukee/Waukesha Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) received a grant from the Aluminium Beverage Can Capture Grant Programme. This MRF is jointly owned by the City of Milwaukee and Waukesha County in Wisconsin. Pictured (from left) are Rick Meyers, Sanitation Services Manager of the City of Milwaukee; Samantha Longshore, Resource Recovery Programme Manager of the City of Milwaukee; Analiese Smith, Recycling and Solid Waste Supervisor of Waukesha County; and Alan Barrows, Land Resources Manager of Waukesha County. (The photograph was provided courtesy of the City of Milwaukee, 8 November 2021.)

Do you have questions about the aluminium industry? Governmental regulations? Company operations?

Your questions may be used in a future news column. Contact Richard McDonough at aluminachronicles@gmail.com. © 2022 Richard McDonough Aluminium International Today

Richard Alumina.indd 1

May/June 2022

25/04/2022 15:40:07

40 THE ALUMINA CHRONICLES

Fig 1. Increased recycling of aluminium could help reduce the need for new primary aluminium production.

(This image was provided courtesy of the International Aluminium Institute, September of 2021.)

emissions, and recycling and resource efficiency. The organisation indicated that these areas are three credible and realistic approaches for emissions reductions for the aluminium industry and are in line with the International Energy Agency’s “Beyond 2 Degree Scenario.”

“Increasing collection rates to near 100% as well as other resource efficiency progress by 2050 would reduce the need for primary aluminium by 20% compared to BAU,” the IAI stated, “which in turn will cut the sector’s emissions by an additional 300 million tonnes of CO2e per year – a figure second in magnitude only to the first pathway, electricity decarbonisation.”

Several businesses, governmental entities, and organisations are actively involved in expanding aluminium recycling activities in the USA. Can Manufacturers Institute and The Recycling Partnership The Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI), the national trade association of the metal can manufacturing industry and its suppliers in the USA, and The Recycling Partnership, a non-profit organisation, have been working together to increase aluminium recycling in the USA. One of their joint efforts has been the Aluminium Beverage Can Capture Grant Programme that provided grants to local recycling programmes for equipment and related facility improvements. According to the two organisations, CMI secured funding from Ardagh Metal Packaging and Crown Holdings and partnered with The Recycling Partnership to have that non-profit organisation “…evaluate and select the grantees, execute the grant programme, and provide technical assistance to ensure successful implementation.”

Five grants to enhance aluminium beverage can recycling were awarded through this programme during 2021.

The total amount of the awards was (US) May/June 2022

Richard Alumina.indd 2

$265,000, according to Rob Taylor, Senior Director of Community Development at The Recycling Partnership.

“Collectively, the equipment installed as a result of these five grants will result in an additional 71 million aluminium cans being recycled each year,” Mr. Taylor continued.

“According to the CMI, the impact of 71 million aluminium beverage cans recycled is more than (US) $1.15 million in revenue for the USA recycling system and the equivalent energy savings of powering more than 28 million USA homes for one hour. The Recycling Partnership continues to support MRF [Materials Recovery Facility] improvements through granting initiatives across a variety of material types and will continue to support solutions to increase the number of aluminium cans recycled and diverted from landfill.”

One of the five grants was awarded to the Milwaukee/Waukesha MRF in Wisconsin. Operated by Republic Services, this single-stream MRF is reported to process 65,000 tonnes of material per year from the City of Milwaukee and 26

communities in Waukesha County.

The grant funds to this MRF, in the amount of (US) $65,000, were designated to be used “…to install equipment that will capture crushed or flattened cans missorted into the material destined for the landfill,” according to a news statement dated 8 November 2021.

“Once installed in the recycling sortation facility, this equipment will result in more than 27 million more aluminium beverage cans captured annually…[This] will generate more than $400,000 in new annual revenue and produce enough energy savings each year to power more than 10 million USA homes for one hour.”

This MRF is jointly owned by the City of Milwaukee and Waukesha County. Both local governmental entities welcomed the support of the CMI and The Recycling Partnership.

“The City of Milwaukee and Waukesha County are honoured that our facility received this generous grant to purchase equipment to capture additional aluminium beverage cans, one of the most valuable commodities in our recycling programme,” said Alan Barrows, Land Resources Manager for Waukesha County.

“Thank you to Ardagh and Crown for investing in recycling facilities to help more aluminium beverage cans complete their circular journey to becoming a new can,” said Rick Meyers, Sanitation Services Manager for the City of Milwaukee Department of Public Works.

“This additional eddy current will help us ensure increased capture of aluminium beverage cans, which will deliver significant revenue to help sustain city Illustration of the planned Hydro aluminium recycling plant in Cassopolis, Michigan.

(The image was provided courtesy of Hydro, 2021.)

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25/04/2022 15:40:13

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The site of a new aluminium recycling plant of Hydro will be located in southwestern Michigan. Pictured here are (at right) Bob Hance, President and Chief Executive Officer of Midwest Energy and Communications, the owner of the land, as well as several officials of Hydro, including (from left) Trond Gjellesvik, Head of Commercial for North America; Duncan Pitchford, Head of Product Supply and Joint Venture Offtake; Hans Bjerkaas, Head of Operations for Recycling: Brian Muirhead, Director of Sales for North America; Trond Olaf Christophersen, Head of Recycling; and Eivind Kallevik, Executive Vice President for Aluminium Metal. (The photograph was provided courtesy of Hydro, 4 November 2021.)

services as well as enable our residents to make a larger environmental impact from recycling.”

Other grant recipients included Curbside Management in Asheville, North Carolina; GEL Recycling in Port Orange, Florida; Independent Texas Recyclers in Houston, Texas; and Rivers Recycling in Kilgore, Texas.

“Can Manufacturers Institute members Ardagh and Crown are catalyzing a significant environmental and economic impact through funding these can capture grants at USA recycling sortation facilities that result in many millions more aluminium beverage cans recycled annually,” said Robert Budway, President of CMI. “These cans will now complete their circular journey, which almost always is into a new can within 60 days, and this circular journey can happen infinitely since metal recycles forever.”

“Aluminium cans enjoy widely recyclable status and industry-leading recycled content rates,” said Keefe Harrison, Chief Executive Officer of The Recycling Partnership. “Yet, there is still a lot of valuable material lost in homes and at MRFs. We are happy to partner with CMI, Crown, and Ardagh on this grant programme delivering swift and impactful solutions that further increase successful can capture. The Recycling Partnership applauds their investment, and we look forward to continuing to partner with the May/June 2022

Richard Alumina.indd 3

aluminium can industry to improve the system and support their circularity goals.”

Hydro A new aluminium recycling plant is planned for operation in the USA by Norsk Hydro ASA (Hydro), a global company headquartered in Norway. The site for this new facility is in Cassopolis, Michigan; the community is located between Kalamazoo, Michigan, and South Bend,

Indiana. According to a statement from a representative of the firm, the “…final build decision was taken 10 March 2022.”

Construction is planned to start this year, according to Hydro, with production expected to begin in 2023. The plant will have approximately 70 direct employees.

“The Cassopolis greenfield development will mark the first large-scale production of Hydro CIRCAL® extrusion ingot in North America,” said Eivind Kallevik, Executive Vice President of Hydro Aluminium Metal.

“We look forward to bringing this highquality, low-carbon product to our most demanding customers.”

Hydro indicated that the expected investment is estimated to be around (US) $140 million, depending on several factors, with this aluminium recycling plant anticipated to produce 120,000 metric tonnes of aluminium extrusion ingot per year.

“Unique to Hydro, Hydro CIRCAL® extrusion ingot contains at least 75% post-consumer scrap certified by thirdparty auditors DNV GL and has a marketleading CO2 footprint of just 2.3 kg CO2e/kg aluminium,” according to a news statement issued by Hydro on 18 November 2021. “With a growing focus on sustainably-produced aluminium, a number of North American customers have expressed interest in Hydro CIRCAL®. Applications will include critical automotive applications and other transportation sectors, consumer applications, and building systems.”

Mr. Kallevik noted that “The Cassopolis project represents a key stepping-stone toward Hydro’s goal of doubling recycling of post-consumer scrap in its production processes...”

According to the November news

Novelis, Inc. plans a new aluminium recycling facility to be built adjacent to its existing automotive finishing plant in Guthrie, Kentucky. (The image was provided courtesy of Novelis, 2021.)

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44 THE ALUMINA CHRONICLES

statement from Hydro, the company’s investment will be supported through grants from the Federal government as well as pending state and local incentives to develop infrastructure at the site in Michigan.

Novelis, Inc. On 11 January 2022, Novelis Inc. announced that the company was building a (US) $365 million recycling centre to support its North American automotive customers. Novelis is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, and is a subsidiary of Hindalco Industries Limited, part of the Aditya Birla Group, a multinational conglomerate based in Mumbai, India.

According to a news statement, the firm indicated that this recycling centre is anticipated to have an annual casting capacity of 240,000 tonnes of sheet ingot and is designed to reduce carbon emissions from the company by more than one million tonnes annually; the recycling centre is expected to employ 140 people and be operational in 2024.

The new recycling facility will be built adjacent to the existing automotive finishing plant of Novelis in Guthrie in Todd County, Kentucky.

“The centre will enable Novelis to grow its closed-loop-recycling programmes with more automotive customers in North America,” according to the news statement from Novelis. “Through closedloop recycling, the company takes back the aluminium remaining after automotive parts are stamped from sheets and remakes it into the same product for new vehicle production. The centre will also have the capability to process aluminium from vehicles at the end of their lifecycle.

Using recycled aluminium as input material requires only 5% of the energy used to make primary aluminium, thus avoiding 95% of the carbon emissions associated with production.”

Steve Fisher, President and Chief Executive Officer of Novelis, Inc. stated that “Novelis aims to be the world’s leading provider of low-carbon, sustainable aluminium solutions that advance our business, industry, and society toward the benefits of a circular economy. Through this investment, we will continue to increase the amount of recycled content in our products, reducing our CO2 emissions and moving us closer to carbon neutrality.”

Among its capabilities, this new recycling centre “...will be equipped with industry-leading processes and capabilities, including advanced shredding and sorting technology, as well as energyefficient innovations to support the company’s sustainability goal to reduce energy intensity by 10 percent by 2026,” according to the news statement from May/June 2022

Richard Alumina.indd 4

Novelis.

“We are excited about this new investment in Kentucky, which will help Novelis achieve its sustainability goals, as well as support the carbon-reduction targets of our automotive customers,” said Tom Boney, Executive Vice President and President of Novelis North America. “The Commonwealth of Kentucky has been a great business partner for many years and has a strong, highly skilled workforce to meet the growing need for high-strength, low-carbon aluminium. We look forward to deepening our relationships with community leaders to ensure our facility has a lasting, beneficial impact in the region.”

A number of governmental officials welcomed the decision of Novelis to expand its sustainability operations.

“As we continue to build back throughout Western Kentucky, companies are committed to creating quality job opportunities for Kentucky families,” stated Andy Beshear, Governor of Kentucky. “Novelis is proving to be a great fit for Todd County and the surrounding area, and I am eager to see the company continue to grow for years to come.”

“On behalf of the citizens of Guthrie and Guthrie City Council, we offer our heartfelt appreciation to Novelis for their investment in our community and the hundreds of job opportunities provided to Todd County families,” noted Jimmy Covington, Mayor of Guthrie. “We look forward to continuing to work with our partners to ensure Novelis enjoys success in our community for generations to come.”

Several entities within the governmental structure of the Commonwealth of Kentucky have agreed to provide financial assistance to Novelis to make this recycling centre a reality.

“To encourage investment and job growth in the community, the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority (KEDFA) today [11 January 2022] preliminarily approved a 15-year incentive agreement with the company under the Kentucky Business Investment Programme,” according to a news statement on the same date from the Office of the Governor of Kentucky.

“The performance-based agreement can provide up to $5 million in tax incentives based on the company’s investment of $364.2 million and annual targets of creation and maintenance of 138 Kentucky-resident, full-time jobs across 15 years and paying an average hourly wage of $38 including benefits across those jobs.”

“Additionally, KEDFA approved Novelis for up to $4 million in tax incentives through the Kentucky Enterprise Initiative

Act (KEIA),” the news statement from the Office of the Governor continued. “KEIA allows approved companies to recoup Kentucky sales and use tax on construction costs, building fixtures, equipment used in research and development, and electronic processing. By meeting its annual targets over the agreement term, the company can be eligible to keep a portion of the new tax revenue it generates. The company may claim eligible incentives against its income tax liability and/or wage assessments. In addition, Novelis can receive resources from Kentucky’s workforce service providers. Those include no-cost recruitment and job placement services, reduced-cost customised training, and job-training incentives.”

CECO Environmental Corp.

One American company announced in late 2021 that it had “...recently delivered an integrated, multi-product line, aluminium chip collection and recycling solution to a leading provider of aluminium plates, sheeting, and extrusions in North America for its new milling system. This system is currently under construction and will be fully operational in early 2022.”

Without disclosing the specific aluminium firm that was its customer, CECO Environmental Corp. indicated that this system is being provided through its CECO Busch brand.

“The integrated solution is designed to efficiently collect tonnes of aluminium scrap that is a standard byproduct of aluminium mill producers,” according to the news statement dated 30 December 2021 from CECO Environmental Corp. “As aluminium producers mill the surface of slabs prior to finish rolling, the scrap material is generated at a rate of up to 25 tonnes per hour. CECO’s custom-engineered solution integrates and leverages the strength of CECO technologies, including CECO FlexKleen dust collection and CECO FisherKlosterman cyclone separation systems, to collect this scrap material and recycle it.”

Todd Gleason, Chief Executive Officer of CECO Environmental stated that “CECO is pleased to provide aluminium manufacturers with advanced solutions to help our customers recover high volumes of aluminium scrap for recycling.

Our solutions deliver an efficient way to recycle excess aluminium that is discarded during the manufacturing process thereby significantly reducing waste, which reduces a manufacturer’s impact on the environment and assists with meeting sustainability initiatives.

Aluminium manufacturing continues to be critically important to a range of industries including food and beverage packaging, automotive, aerospace, and construction.” � Aluminium International Today

25/04/2022 15:40:22

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46 WASTE TREATMENT

Michael Glass

Nigel Seddon

Providing technologies to help aluminium smelters meet their sustainability goals Most of us realise that phrases like carbon net zero, sustainable manufacturing and the circular economy are more than just words; they are real and tangible concepts that must be addressed in a world where climate change and environmental destruction are reaching a tipping point.

The aluminium production industry has certainly embraced these concerns and has set itself some very challenging sustainability targets between now and 2030. This should be seen in the context of the very latest forecasts which see aluminium consumption rising by 40% during the same period. It appears hard to see how both these seemingly opposing outcomes can be achieved at the same time.

Nigel Seddon, CEO of Ultromex gives some insights into the exciting range of new technologies and processes that Ultromex is providing to the industry to help it achieve its demanding sustainability goals, reducing CO2 emissions and environmental impacts in an economically compelling way.

A different approach Ultromex’s focus has been on developing May/June 2022

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innovative new solutions for the full range of wastes that aluminium production creates in both the primary and recycling sectors. “We look at wastes differently”, says Nigel. “What others see as waste we see as useful resources for industrial production, either within the aluminium sector or for other industries. Our people are from the chemicals industry where processing challenging materials to very high standards is commonplace rather than from the metals industry.

We have built a great team of chemists and chemical/ mechanical engineers, together with expertise from the waste industry. Many of the team have extensive production operations and environmental management experience and therefore they bring with them a very broad and valuable perspective. The team’s approach is to first seek to understand the challenges that a customer is facing and then try to eliminate the causes of problems as early on as possible rather than simply try to contain the symptoms. With the right treatment process, we can turn hazardous waste from a financial and environmental liability into useful material which can actually have a value”.

Ultromex believes that this approach helps minimize environmental impacts by, for example, minimising landfill and long distance transportation. But it goes way beyond that. With the right technology approach and judicious management of production and waste processing, the impacts can ripple through the full spectrum of sustainable manufacturing.

Nigel continues “For example, our dross concentration ALTROMEXTM offering is a unique technology we have developed, designed to significantly improve the quality of dross by removing waste from it without destroying metal before it is charged into the furnace. This greatly increases furnace productivity in melting a poor or average yield dross. Not only does this improve yields, but it also saves energy by not heating up waste, and significantly reduces the production of salt slag, all in a dust-free environment. This is a great example of our engineers and chemists looking at the root of the problem. It’s about improving the raw material going into the furnace, rather than simply looking for solutions for dealing with the waste”.

The company’s SALTROMEXTM Aluminium International Today

26/04/2022 08:11:10

WASTE TREATMENT 47

SALTROMEX Plant in France

Ultromex France team

technology processes salt slags without producing toxic gases. This makes operations very simple, clean and safe.

In addition, the plants produce no liquid discharge, and they don’t need much space and so local salt slag processing is now a practical reality. There’s no need for long distance shipping of wastes.

Breadth of the offering – Ultromex treats a full range of wastes Ultromex has developed a range of solutions for aluminium wastes. The team’s initial focus was on salt slag but that led them to dross concentration as a means of reducing the volume of salt slag rather than simply focusing on recovering it. They are working with a number of customers on their Spent Pot Lining (SPL) and have built a multipurpose pilot plant at their headquarters in Bromborough in the UK. More recently, they have been asked to provide solutions to customers’ various Filter Dusts to ensure this waste is being dealt with sustainably. Their lean approach works for any waste and always focuses on solving problems at source and turning waste into a resource.

ALTROMEXTM separation of metal from oxides works on salt slag as well as on dross. Ultromex has found that its ALTROMEXTM metal recovery technology, which breaks up oxides without downsizing metal thereby selectively separating metal from oxide, will improve metal recoveries from salt slag on average by ~3%. 3% of metal from a tonne of slag is a very large number. The process is also extremely energy efficient.

The financial impacts of lower energy consumption and increased furnace productivity are obvious, as is the potential for CO2 reduction but the higher yielding dross in the furnace will need much less flux and consequentially much less salt slag is produced. This means there is much less waste to be processed downstream saving further energy and resources - a positive environmental multiplier in effect.

The combination of ALTROMEXTM and Aluminium International Today

Ultromex.indd 2

SALTROMEXTM technologies offer an holistic approach that not only reduces the production of salt slag, in some cases by half, it also recovers more metal and produces an odourless secondary material.

Because this secondary material doesn’t generate toxic gases when wet, it is safe for downstream industries to handle and can even be stored outside.

Nigel comments “We approached the issue of SPL in a different way too.

We have a range of CARBOMEXTM technologies for SPL, tailored to the needs of our customers and the users of secondary materials. We can produce good quality carbon from first cut or we can simply process mixed SPL for a secondary use, or do anything in between”.

Michael Glass, Ultromex’s Technical Director adds “economics clearly come into play - it is about a commercial balance between value to the end user versus the cost of processing with constant focus on environmental impacts and CO2. We have the expertise to adapt our solutions to local circumstances and that’s what our customers are demanding”.

“In the same vein, Ultromex has now been approached by quite a number of customers about their other wastes, such as various Filter Dusts and has developed processes to deal with these so that they do not have to be landfilled”.

The importance of secondary materials Clearly there is no point in processing wastes to create another waste that cannot be sustainably used. Ultromex has established some solid relationships with users of secondary materials so that they can develop the best economic ‘sweet spot’ for treatment of their customers’ wastes. Ultromex is working closely with interested parties to ensure they properly understand what is required.

Tinto. This is a perfect example of what they can do for their customers. The challenge was to come up with a solution for treating a landfill of salt slag and as one can imagine, there were plenty of challenges! Working with Rio Tinto, partners EJM and Ramboll Environmental Consultants, Ultromex will treat 65,000 tonnes of salt slag over a two-year period.

“I am in awe of what the Ultromex team can do when challenged” adds Nigel.

“We signed the contract with Rio Tinto during the pandemic and were not able to visit the site for the first eight months.

This required a complete re-think on how we were going to deliver a plant when we couldn’t visit and mobilise resources.

Our approach was, therefore, to build the plant in modules in the UK for final assembly in France, when we were eventually permitted to visit. We worked with a specialist in this area, Richard Alan Engineering, to deliver a plant on time despite everything. This was a huge accomplishment by the team, and I am really proud of what we were able to achieve despite continuous setbacks from events outside our control. On a positive spin off, the plant is now in a modular form, perfect for moving to the next project after this one is complete.”

“Bring your sustainability challenges to us” The team at Ultromex always encourages potential customers to come and see what they have to offer. Their headquarters, with laboratory and scale up facilities, are based in the northwest of England, close to Manchester and Liverpool airports in the chemical (and football!) heartland of the UK. Their message is clear, “bring us your challenges and we will work with you to help you meet your sustainability goals and reduce your CO2 footprint and environmental impact”. �

Rio Tinto Ultromex has now built and commissioned a SALTROMEXTM plant in France for Rio

Contact www.ultromex.co

May/June 2022

26/04/2022 08:11:16

48 EXTRUSION

All the pictures are courtesy of Hydro

Focus on the US extrusion market

By Myra Pinkham*

While 2022 has been a very good year for US aluminium extruders – one of its most profitable years in recent times – there are concerns that that there could be some demand destruction later this year into 2023.

However, currently demand isn’t the biggest issue for most US extruders, according to Lynn Brown, managing principal for Longpoint Associates, but rather their ability to deliver product to their customers in a timely fashion, with some extruders already starting to book orders into 2023.

That, Greg Wittbecker, an aluminium adviser for CRU, says is partly because the extrusions market has been experiencing a V-shaped recovery coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic, but he noted that at the same time, extruders are facing production constraints. Not only have some of their raw materials, including billet, been in tight supply, but they are struggling to find enough workers.

“There are also deepening concerns about rising price premiums,” which are being accentuated by import tariffs, Jeffrey Henderson, president of the Aluminum Extruders Council, said, maintaining, “Being in this Section 232 box inflates our aluminium prices while giving us no protection against extrusion imports,” given that starting in December 2020 extrusions were excluded from Section

232 tariffs.

Since then, there has started to be more extrusions imports coming in from a wider variety of countries. Henderson said that currently with the extruders being so busy they aren’t feeling the full impact of those imports, although he said that could change once the business cycle shifts and domestic demand declines, noting that recently the mood of the market has already gone from being one of robust optimism about to people being a more murky and increasingly uncertain about the future.

Mike Stier, Hydro’s vice president of North American strategy and finance, pointed out that while demand has been very solid, its current 3-4% year on year growth rate is not quite as strong as the 4-6% rate that some industry observers had forecast earlier in the year.

This, John Mothersole, a director at S&P Market Intelligence (formerly IHS Markit), observed is on top of an almost 30% year on year rebound from the pandemicrelated 2020 lows. He said that it is possible that such forecasts could be downgraded.

That, he said, is not only because of the shock from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but even more importantly because of the acceleration of inflation, which has recently reached a four decade high, and the more hawkish stance that the Federal Reserve is articulating and starting to

implement, which could increase the risk for either stagflation or even a recession.

“Because of their long lead times, the US extrusions market will likely get through 2022 with strong shipment performance,” Wittbecker said. “The question is whether the new incoming order rates will drop sharply.”

Already there are some signs that after a strong first half, demand could ease later this year, Brown said. While the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index moved upwards in early April after three months of declines, it remained below where it had been early last year, indicating the consumer spending will likely decline this year.

That isn’t to say that there aren’t some bright spots. Even with the semiconductor chip bottleneck and other supply chain issues affecting automotive output, Stephen Williamson, CRU’s aluminium research manager, said that there is strong demand for extrusions in the transportation sector, particularly when it comes to commercial truck trailers, partly due to increased demand for transporting goods, including refrigerated goods, ordered online during the pandemic.

Hydro’s Stier said that, combined with the truck driver shortage which resulted in people needing “ready to go” trailers, has resulted trailer demand to be greater than manufacturers’ production capacity.

*US Correspondent May/June 2022

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Meanwhile, Brown said that even with the chip shortage keeping North American auto production essentially flat, consumption of extrusions by that sector is continuing to rise. Not only has auto extrusion content been growing year over year basis for many years, Abey Abraham, principal of Ducker’s automotive and materials practice, said that, according to the latest study his company did for the Aluminum Association, the average extrusions content was forecast to from 45 lbs. per vehicle in 2020 to about 55 lbs. by 2026.

But based on some initial conversations on an update to that study, Abraham said possibly that forecast might be too conservative, particularly considering the recent accelerated push to electrify vehicles, given that battery electric vehicles (BEVs) use a very high amount of aluminium extrusions in their battery enclosures.

“Aluminium is a good material for those kinds of applications given that BEVS aren’t very high volume platforms,” he said, adding that extrusions are particularly a good fit, given that, due to how they are produced, machined and fabricated, they are easier to work with, especially with variable volumes and with designs that keep changing.

At the same time, with the continued lightweighting trend – especially given stringent fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions standards – extrusions, like other aluminium products such as flat roll and castings, also continue to make inroads in internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles as well, particularly in the structural aspects of the vehicle, including for crash management systems and the passenger compartment.

“The addition of aluminium flat roll and castings usually also pull incremental extrusion applications as well as they work well together,” Hydro’s Stier noted. “I don’t believe that there is just one magic answer,” he said. “It is the combination that the OEMs will look to optimize.” Abraham said that also applies to non-aluminium auto materials, stating, “There isn’t any one material that can do everything perfectly. There is enough room for all materials to coexist happily.”

US demand for extrusions by the construction market, however, is somewhat mixed CRU’s Williamson noted.

While demand for most commercial applications lagging the Covid recovery curve with many people still not returning to offices or retail establishments, there has been very strong demand for residential construction-related profiles.

That, Brown said, has definitely been the case with people spending more on their homes during the pandemic.

May/June 2022

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There, however, is concerns that the US housing market could start to cool, Mothersole said, now that mortgage interest rates have risen sizably, hitting 5% for the first time since 2011. Also, high gasoline, electricity and food prices could dampen consumer spending.

AEC’s Henderson said that at the same time the industry has been seeing a renaissance of investment. “Extruders are going through a period of recapitalizing their plants, mothballing less efficient, older equipment and adding more environmentally friendly, modern equipment that increases efficiencies, productivity and sustainability.” Over 25 extrusion presses are expected to come online between mid-2021 and mid-2023, Brown said, including some that had previously been idled and are now being refurbished, such as those that were sold as part of last year’s Aluminum Shapes bankruptcy.

Henderson termed these investments as not only being “incredibly necessary” but also “extremely timely” as they have been coming at a time when companies are demanding more from their extrusion suppliers, including more precision, higher quality and more sustainable product with a lower rejection rate.

As far as the sustainability, Stier pointed out that typically it is its raw materials – including billet and primary aluminium – that accounts for 90-95% of extrusions’ carbon emissions with the amount of renewable energy sources that extruders use in their manufacturing process accounting for quite a small part of the carbon footprint.

But that doesn’t mean that they aren’t making moves to be more sustainable.

Hydro, for example, has recently signed a solar power contract to supply virtually 100% of the electricity needed for its Cressona, Pa., plant that is coming online later this year, as well as having

other projects in the works to either buy sustainable power or to install rooftop solar solutions at its facilities. The company also broke ground in mid-April on a stateof-the-art recycling plant in Cassopolis, Mich., which when completed in 2023 will be the first large scale producer of its CIRCAL® extrusion ingot that contains at least 75% post-consumer scrap.

CRU’s Wittbecker said that even though traditionally the US extrusions market has taken a high-volume, low-margin approach, he doesn’t expect to see a big influx of that capacity until next year. “The past two years has taught the industry a lot about pricing discipline,” he noted, “So companies are going to be very careful about how that capacity comes into the market.”

Brown, however, said there is still some questions whether there will enough demand for the new extrusion capacity and whether the extruders will be able to find sufficient workers and metal to operate them.

The US extrusion market is also currently being impacted by high raw material costs.

Mothersole said that with its supply being so tight, the billet premium is at a record high. This, Brown explained, came after extruders were cautious about locking in billet supply early in 2021. But when the market came back stronger than expected last year, they had to scramble for billet.

They still are scrambling with the war in Ukraine exacerbating the situation.

“It isn’t just primary billet that is tight,” Wittbecker noted. Secondary billet has been constrained by availability of obsolete scrap. He said that it remains unclear whether, even after some more secondary billet capacity comes online next year if producers will be able to find the obsolete scrap that they need or if they will have to use primary metal.

While US extruders continue to be at least cautiously optimistic about 2022, Henderson said it is anyone’s guess about how some factors will play out toward the end of this year and into 2023. “Because lead times are so long the market should get through this year with strong shipment performance,” Wittbecker said, noting that the big question is how new incoming order rates will be.

There have been some early signs of heightened risk of a slowdown in growth that is stronger than many people would be comfortable with, Mothersole said, including the potential for supply chains to remain roiled through the remainder of this year and possibly into 2023 at the same time as interest rates are going up. “That is a recipe for continued volatility and/or policy mistakes and could potentially lower growth to the point of a recession.” � Aluminium International Today

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52 AUTOMOTIVE

The transition from fuel run vehicles to electric vehicles is inevitably the future for the automotive history. The industry has seen all brands make their move in the transition, Ford being one.

Zahra Awan* spoke with Matt Landis** and JD Rutt*** from Hydro North America on the company’s latest developments with their partnership with Ford, and what we can expect of the automotive industry and its relationship with aluminium.

Hydro: The past, present, and future of automotive

Q. COULD YOU ELABORATE ON THE PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN HYDRO AND FORD? MATT LANDIS (ML) We started working with Ford around 2012-2013.

Looking at the relationship that hydro has with Ford, one key characteristic of the relationship was Hydro’s extensive R&D assets.

JD RUTT For context, Ford made a significant move in changing to an aluminium- alloy body structure. Hydro was integral, at that point in time, in making sure that the solution was efficient.

For more information on this development visit: https://www.hydro.com/en-AX/media/news/2015/teaming-up-with-ford-f-150-tocreate-new-aluminium-solution/ ML These R&D assets proved to be unrivalled support for automakers, like Ford. It is our goal, at Hydro, to get involved as soon as possible with their conceptual ideas during their development phase. This gives us the opportunity to provide as much input as possible on how aluminium can be used to support their applications and discuss

how this can then be tailored.

The companies then know what we offer, and vice versa. Based on collaboration together we are aware of the data and the requirements. In turn, we are shortening design cycle and increase their chance of success by closely collaborating with them now, and in the future.

JDR What we provide to Ford is a lightweighting solution, which improves other performance factors, such as fuel economy, as a result. Now they have moved to the next stage which is electrification of their vehicles.

* Editorial Assistant, Aluminium International Today ** Senior Business Development Manager *** Vice president of business development May/June 2022

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AUTOMOTIVE 53

WHERE DO YOU SEE ALUMINIUM BEING USED IN THE FUTURE AND WHERE DO YOU PICTURE THE COLLABORATION BETWEEN FORD AND HYDRO PROGRESSING? JDR From the perspective of Hydro what we see is that, not only from Ford, but virtually all the other automakers, there is an increase in the demand for aluminium.

This is simply because aluminium provides lightweighting, plus enhances the performance, and strength to the vehicle.

Now when you move into the EV transition, the material becomes even more critical. We have moved away from a mileage perspective, in relation to fuel, to considering the sheer weight of the battery. And this is what we’re seeing from the market: The accelerated use of aluminium in our little world of extrusions.

Of course, we’re seeing just tremendous growth because aluminium extrusions are integral to almost every design for an EV Powered vehicle, whether that be Ford or any of the other. So again, we see a very steep upward trajectory here.

ML There are new ways of applying aluminium now. In the past, battery boxes did not exist. And there are constantly going to be new ways of applying aluminium.

The box itself is one of those examples of the new applications where we see lots of opportunity.

WHAT ARE THE INNOVATIVE USES OF ALUMINIUM IN THE AUTOMOTIVE STRUCTURE? JDR I would say, what we call EV architecture is a prime example of the innovative uses of aluminium. There is no one size fits all architecture, of course, but there are some commonalities across almost all the automakers. You get into this battery box structure where aluminium extrusions are extremely well suited due to the energy absorption, the ability for extremely intricate design and the manufacture ability.

It’s been interesting; the automakers

have tried various solutions, but keep coming back to aluminium extrusions, which seem to be extremely well suited for this battery structure.

Another example is the body-in-white structure, which now, many models feature an extensive amount of aluminium. However, this was new only a few years ago.

Previously this type of aluminium body-in-white structure was only seen in supercars like Ferraris. Now we see the application of aluminium in mass models.

ML To echo JD’s comments; we have seen a large focus around that battery EV architecture, and it’s proliferated beyond that as well. Automakers are finding great uses of aluminium: From energy absorption to its corrosion resistance or recyclability etc. There’s a lot of upsides. But it’s the EV architecture where we have seemed to really get a lot of traction.

COULD YOU GIVE A COMMENT ON THE COLLABORATIONS BETWEEN HYDRO AND POLESTAR? JDR I can’t provide that much information, but for us in the US, Polstar is a relatively new entrant in the market, and we’ve only had what we call our preliminary initial discussions with polestar.

It is not a well-developed brand in the US, at this moment. But our colleagues around the world of course, are working much more closely as those models are coming to those other markets at a sooner time, but certainly here in the States we can call it as being in the ‘infancy’ stages of discussion.

ML I would agree, I think that’s exactly what the situation is. In Europe hydrogen collaboration is much farther along, and so hopefully there’s a future story that, well, maybe we can have more related to us in North America.

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FURTHER COMMENTS: JDR I mean for us; I think the exciting thing about Ford is their commitment to the marketplace regarding their development of EVs. We are working on several future EV models with Ford in terms of early development work, etc. So, we can expect a very exciting future in terms of the opportunities and certainly from the activities we see from ford. A lot of exciting stuff for us and a big opportunity for aluminium.

May/June 2022

25/04/2022 15:55:43

54 AUTOMOTIVE

Aluminium’s role in the race to embrace EV Written by Gary Peters*

It’s hard to avoid the topic of EV, and it’s only going to continue to gain traction and momentum in the months and years ahead in the race to become Net Zero.

The UK government took a historic step in 2020 by announcing the new petrol and diesel cars would cease trading from 2030. It’s a hugely ambitious target, one that the UK is not alone in trying to achieve.

The shift to EV is a global one and a lot of work and materials are required in order to make it happen, not just with the vehicles but also with the infrastructure in order to facilitate this grand sustainabilityled move.

The latest projections for 2022 show that global sales of electric passenger vehicles are projected to surpass 10.5 million, exceeding 2021 levels by about 4 million. By 2030, electric vehicles are also expected to occupy 40% of global sales of new cars.

The EV market is a dictator and will be for the foreseeable future. Its demand is understandable and the inflation it is driving across several raw materials has been seen, certainly over the last 12

months.

And when we’re talking about those raw materials, none arguably have a greater role to play in facilitating that growth than aluminium.

Aluminium is essential to the EV market in its race to become more lightweight Let’s take EV out of the equation just for a moment and start off by saying aluminium is in every car.

A report in 2016 showed that the average car has anything between 62kg right up to 612kg of aluminium on it, with the majority on the actual body of the car.

Its emphasis has always been important and that has only escalated with this shift to EV. Why? With electric vehicles, one of the biggest challenges the market needs to overcome is its range capability.

When you fill a car up with diesel, that is likely to be able to last more than 400 miles per tank. As of last year, a fully charged EV vehicle struggles to surpass 300 miles.

As well as improving that, the race is

also on to be able to facilitate recharge quickly. Aluminium, again, has a big role to play in that, particularly when it comes to making the vehicles we drive more lightweight.

It’s no secret that the heavier a vehicle is the quicker the battery is going to be drained. A standard petrol vehicle currently weighs over 1,800kg on average, but with EV vehicles, that figure is currently over 1,950kg. We’re going to see a big emphasis on bringing that figure down in the coming years.

What developers are striving for as the end goal is to be able to produce electric vehicles that are made up of up to 80% aluminium, following the same path that has been taken by the aviation industry, with aeroplanes being made up largely of aluminium.

That goes beyond just the chassis but also includes the turning parts. Aluminium is a third of the weight of steel, but its strength capacity is an equal match, providing you have the right grades for the right applications.

*Director at The Metals Warehouse May/June 2022

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Aluminium International Today

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AUTOMOTIVE 55

It’s not just about the car itself, aluminium has got a huge role to play in the growth of new essential EV infrastructure In order for the EV market to start making serious in-roads, the infrastructure has got to be in place to facilitate it.

They, too, have got to be sturdy, lightweight, pieces of kit that aren’t going to be vandalised, destroyed or damaged. It is easy to imagine that aluminium extrusions will make the framework of charging points.

You only have to imagine how many charging points there will be in 20 years’ time compared to today to imagine how much aluminium is required, especially after the UK Government made it law that charge points must be included as part of any new home, supermarket, workplace, or buildings undergoing major renovations in England from 2022.

Aluminium’s requirement has the potential to be infinite to make such a shift possible.

What this means for the demand for aluminium The growth of EV has seen the demand for aluminium increase exponentially and that will only continue to be the case moving forward.

This, of course, is totally reliant on the basis that EV is the only solution that is pursued as part of this Net Zero pledge.

Leaders around the world are pushing this because the growth and profit are evident. However, what isn’t very often acknowledged, is that prime aluminium production is extremely energy-intensive.

So, how ‘green’ is that EV vehicle before it’s driven a mile on the road?

Sure, the end result is a greener car that isn’t burning fuels. On the flip side, though, it is full of metal that took a great deal of effort and energy to produce in

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the first place. There has to be a question of, actually, how much more friendly is aluminium in this shift.

We’re talking about a very small minority of people right now who own EVs, but that pool is going to grow.

As well as the aluminium required to facilitate that, we still need to identify what we’re going to do with the battery cells once they’re worn out.

The world has got a massive problem with waste and plastic pollution and the disposal of batteries is only going

sustainable market for recycling EV batteries? Also, the process of separating the batteries into recycled components is very labour intensive. The question of ‘how green’ is the vehicle at the start of its life, also needs to be asked at the end of its life.

There have been further conversations about the viability of hydrogen engines, too. Is there going to be another development that could flip this conversation on its head entirely? You wouldn’t bet against that.

to compound the problem. We need answers on what we’re going to do with it all.

While it’s possible to break down EV batteries for recycling, it’s currently a costly process. So, will there be a

The reality is the UK, in its current state, would not be able to sustain a nationwide switch to EV, not in the timeframe that is being suggested right now. The nation simply hasn’t got the infrastructure or power in place to be able to cope with it.

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56 AUTOMOTIVE The first thing to say is that aluminium has not gone through anything like what nickel did during March.

The situation with Nickel hit beyond unprecedented levels, with that material increasing to a price on the London Metal Exchange that had never been seen before. It led to trading being ceased and one of the biggest manufacturers of nickel, Tsingshan Holding Group, reporting a trading loss of $8 billion.

While the aluminium market hasn’t been hit in the same way, it is trading much higher now than it has done over the past 20 years for exactly the same reasons as nickel.

Because of that, it was no surprise to see the price of aluminium hit a 13year high towards the end of 2021.

Unsurprisingly, that price had continued to gradually climb during the first few months of 2022 until they sunk to its lowest in three weeks at the beginning of April, due to worries that lockdowns in China and tighter monetary policies affecting demand.

There has been an increase in supply and demand since COVID and that has just continued to grow. That has accelerated since the war began in

Don’t expect the price of EV to return to pre-pandemic levels Ukraine. Russia is one of the biggest exporters of aluminium. However, unlike nickel, there are far more exporters outside of Russia for that product.

Due to the growth of EV and the fact that the construction industry is buoyant, the demand for aluminium is only going to stay strong and the prices we’re seeing should now be seen as the norm.

Could the situation with nickel have an impact on aluminium?

Although they are separate entities, you tend to find that if the price of one is going up or down, the other will follow.

That’s not always to the same degree.

The price of aluminium temporarily fell back down in March after investors saw what happened to the nickel market mainly because there was a lot of fear that the same thing could happen to aluminium.

What is clear, though, is that of all the metals that are traded as a commodity, nickel and aluminium have had the two biggest increases over the last 12 months and that’s going to continue to be the case as EV becomes more prevalent across the globe. �

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27/04/2022 09:21:55

TALSAD: EVENT REVIEW 57

Aluminium Symposium and ALUEXPO welcome the world The Turkish aluminium industry event, ALUEXPO returned on the 3rd – 5th March 2022 in Istanbul. The Aluminium International Today team was in attendance.

Mustafa Varank, Minister of Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Industry and Technology (Centre), Ali Kibar, Chairman of TALSAD (center left), and representatives of key sponsors after receiving their awards.

On the first day of the event, it was clear to see that despite the challenges presented to the industry by COVID-19, the global aluminium community came together. The event, in collaboration with the 10th Aluminium Symposium - hosted

by TALSAD, was designed to discuss the ‘present and future for the aluminium industry’, from primary aluminium to endstream products. It was also a celebration of TALSAD’s 50th anniversary.

The event was a hybrid event, with a symposium hosting presentations to the online and live audience, whilst live participants also had access to the ALUEXPO fairground.

The Symposium was introduced by Göksal Güngör, Executive Committee Chairman and President of the Global Aluminium Foil Roller Initiative (GLAFRI).

Mr Güngör commented that the event was supported by a record ‘29 sponsors’ and had 25 members of the Scientific Committee from 13 different countries, guest speakers from all over the world and participants who had submitted presentations.

Next to speak was Ali Kibar, TALSAD Chairman of the Board, who announced that there were more than 300 exhibitors all focusing on the new direction of the industry. This new direction for Aluminium International Today

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aluminium, in the Turkish industry, was elaborated on by Mustafa Varank, Ministry of Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Industry and Technology, who concluded that: “Turkey’s aim is to harness the need and benefits of aluminium, as its demand is high and they have the source… we want to make Turkey the number one supplier.”

This was followed by an awards ceremony for the Platinum, Gold, Silver and Technology Sponsors.

During a break, visitors were able to see the stands of key industry leaders, such as ASAŞ Alüminyum, ASSAN Alüminyum, SMS, and more.

With companies presenting at ALUEXPO from across the value chain, there was an array of stands and communication possibilities, a nice change from the virtual events that the industry had been restrained to for the previous years.

Paul Voss, the newly appointed Director General of European Aluminium, spoke on the role of aluminium in the world, and European Aluminium. He stated that “The European aluminium industry creates one million jobs globally.” Mr Voss continued with a forecast commenting that: “Global demand for aluminium is expected to rise by 50% by 2050 - 50% of which will be recycled aluminium.” He concluded that the “Global challenges

[that we have experienced as an industry] are [encouraging the industry] to a search for global solutions.”

Ross Strachan, Lead Analyst from CRU, discussed the present and future of Aluminium prices, highlighting the influence of the China Aluminium market on prices to the present effect of sanctions on Russia, and what to consider.

Guido Aufdemkamp, Executive Director of European Aluminium Foil Association (EAFA), discussed how to make the aluminium foil sector circular on the recycling technologies for aluminium foil.

He concluded that while flexible packaging with aluminium foil can be recycled, technologies must be harnessed for both the commercialisation and application and the next steps for aluminium packaging is trialling different sorting technologies, as well as combining multiple technologies to utilise the benefits of aluminium packaging.

Day two followed a similar format with presentations covering the topics: ‘Sustainability, Green Deal, Recycling’, ‘New Technology Applications in Aluminium’, ‘Extrusion’, ‘Melting, Casting and Recycling’, and ‘Heat Treatment’.

Speakers from across the world attended; MQP international – USA, University of May/June 2022

26/04/2022 06:28:32

58 TALSAD: EVENT REVIEW At the event, Zahra Awan* spoke with Dr. Erol Metin**. The pair spoke about the reception of the event, and disscussed the effects of COVID-19 and the future of the aluminium industry in Turkey: Q. How has it been, returning to live events after the long break, brought on due to COVID-19?

A. There are so many aspects to live events that have been missed during the pandemic. However, I think one of the most important thing is being in person, touching one another and being able to engage in a face- to – face conversation.

That is the most important and valuable aspect of live events.

Erol Metin, TALSAD Secretary General

Q. How has the event changed and developed over the years to be what it is today?

A. The symposium has been growing by itself, this is the 10th International Symposium; TALSAD has been organising this event for running for 20 years. It is inevitable, with the changes and developments, that this event will continue to expand and improve. But we have also seen growth in the events international position; there is still a lot to be done to progress this further, but the growth is there.

developed. It is interesting to see how these two sources interact as they fuel each other with ideas and challenge each other with theory and practicalities.

The academicians, the technicians, the engineers have been working together on this symposium providing the audience with quality information.

Half of the publications we have received are scientific journal quality.

Q. Could you discuss the presentations and Symposium articles?

A. Around 50% of the presentations and articles are coming from people within the industry meaning the speakers are the researchers and those who investigate developments.

On the other hand, two have papers and presentations from universities and academic research institutions, which again are highly researched and well

Q. During discussions, a reoccurring point was the desire to make Turkey a global player in the aluminium industry. How do events such as this symposium and ALUEXPO help the Turkish aluminium industry reach the global market?

A. Definitely, these types of events attract global attention, but it has been a process which has developed throughout the years. We have large

companies in turkey, but many of these are still locally based, as is the event. The event is large, on a local scale, therefore we are not yet international. With time we have and will continue to establish he TALSAD organisation. Looking back at the 7th Symposium, this was the first time we saw the event gain momentum, and this momentum has continued and grown through to today. And will do into the future. But we are not as international as we want to be.

Another reason for the challenge to go international is the locality of businesses.

Our industry, as previously mentioned, is only just going overseas and is still relatively local. However, the companies are also seeing a similar momentum to go international. Together, the industry and event will push each other to go global and compete against the global players in the aluminium industry.

Q. Do you see aluminium being the global leading metal?

A. Yes. As a materials engineer I really believe that.

If you look at all the qualities of the material, they are all correct. If you look at the trends in the demand for aluminium, these too are increasing in favour for the metal. If we look at the climate crisis and our list of potential solutions, aluminium is there as one of the solutions.

Aluminium is the material of the future.

*Editorial Assistant, Aluminium International Today **General Secretary of TALSAD ***10th International Aluminium Symposium Executive Committee Chairman

Ali Kibar, Chairman of TALSAD

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TALSAD: EVENT REVIEW 59

Following up on the event, Göksal Güngör*** provided Aluminium International Today with an exclusive interview about his view of the event and the importance of meeting in person once again.

Q. Can you give a brief overview on the event and its reception?

A. The 10th International Aluminium Symposium took place on March 03-04, 2022 in Istanbul, with the cooperation of TALSAD Turkish Aluminium Industrialists Association, TUBITAK Marmara Research Center and METEM-TMMOB Chamber of Metallurgical and Materials Engineers, Training Center. This symposium, held every two years, was the 10th of our Aluminium Symposiums. It took place simultaneously and in the same venue with the ALUEXPO 7th International Aluminium Technology, Machinery and Products Trade Fair, organised by Hannover-Messe Ankiros Fuarcılık A.Ş.

The symposium and the fair are jointly the most exclusive events representing the aluminium industry in all of Eurasia.

The symposium and fair attracted a great deal of participants and visitors.

In addition to these significant events, another milestone for our industry was the 50th anniversary of TALSAD, which has been the representing the Turkish aluminium industry for half a century.

TALSAD’s 50th anniversary was also celebrated at the ALUS’10 gala dinner, where the ceremony of the recycling project competition was also held. As our industry is one of the pioneering sectors in terms of the contribution sustainability in the global arena, events such as the symposium, fair and recycling project competition are very valuable.

I am happy to have led the committee organising the 10.

International Aluminium Symposium.

Q. What were the achievements of the event?

key

record of the previous symposium in 2022, ALUS’10 had a very effective and successful year with the invaluable support of its 29 sponsors, including eight Platinum, nine Gold, 11 Silver and one Technology.

Göksal Güngör, ALUS’10 Executive Committee Chairman General

A. Due to the unprecedented pandemic, which impacted the whole world, the symposium, has been postponed twice, once to October 2021, then to March 2022, therefore taking longer planned to meet with its participants. However, the aluminium industry showed a tremendous amount of interest and support to ALUS’10 and AluExpo. After our industry pulled through the pandemic period with strength, all of our supporting companies joined strengths with our symposium and fair and utilised the opportunity to communicate their corporate messages through this international network.

This year’s sponsorship participation is certainly worth mentioning, as a part of the the success of the symposium.

The 9th International Aluminium Symposium, held in 2019, was a strong international event with the contribution of four platinum, 10 gold, seven silver and one technology sponsors, with eight additional supporting organisations, including leading institutions from the aluminium community. Breaking the

Q. What can we expect of the Symposium/ ALUEXPO going into the future?

A. The Aluminium Symposium, which was held for the first time in 1993, became international for the first time in 2019 and continues to advance further as not only one of the most important aluminium events in Turkey, but also in all of Eurasia. As the Symposium Executive Board, we always see it as our priority to bring academia and industry together, to reflect the future vision of our industry, to support technological developments that will benefit the progress of the aluminium sector, and to raise awareness on important issues such as sustainability and recycling.

The success of the AluExpo Fair and the great deal of attention it attracted this year, the bar was raised even higher for the fair and our symposium that will is planned to be held in 2023.

Q. Are there any special words/ notes/quotes from visitors you would like to mention?

A. We are very happy to have received countless numbers of positive feedback for the ALUS’10 event. We will be very happy to see all of the stakeholders of our industry among us at the 11th International Aluminium Symposium and AluExpo Fair, which will be held in 2023.

Mustafa Varank, Minister of Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Industry and Technology

Aluminium International Today

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