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to contribute to optimised purity. Energy is also an increasingly important driver, and demand is growing for consumable products able to contribute to reduced usage.
China’s exports of unwrought aluminium and products have fallen, partly due to lower premiums and outright prices. If Chinese exports do not rise, the world outside China may find itself in a deficit, which will help reduce stockpiles. But if prices rally because of lower exports from China, its exports are likely to pick up again.
EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) probably represents the most stable of all of the current main aluminium markets. One of the main developments here is the growing co-location of facilities for primary and secondary processing, to reduce transport and storage costs while benefiting from economies of scale. Perhaps more than anywhere else, quality is the key driver, in both purity of the casting in terms of its metal content and also in ensuring that unwanted gas is removed from the process. The drive for quality applies not just to the secondary aluminium sector but to primary processes too, where processors are exploring the benefits of achieving greater quality at first melt stage.
The desire to reduce energy usage is not quite so pronounced in the Americas as in other regions due to the more prevalent use of gas-powered heating with gas generated from fracking. The market is strengthening rapidly, not least in the secondary aluminium sector, where the desire for quality and longer-lasting consumables to optimise productivity is behind many of the innovations being brought to the market by the major players.
Across the world, as is the case across the majority of industry sectors, the goal is to reduce total cost of ownership of production consumables. And while the focus on end product quality has usually been the preserve of the secondary aluminium processors, primary aluminium processors are also increasingly seeking to gain competitive advantage through optimised production quality.
Suppliers of consumables are realising that their products must be approved by OEMs, generating increased co-operation with machinery manufacturers at the component design stage.
Price always remains a key driver, with falling prices having made some smelters uncompetitive. A further effect of the continued cost pressures is on the receptiveness to change within the sector. Traditionally very conservative and loyal to tried and tested techniques, products and processes, there is now a far greater openness to the use of alternatives in the areas of consumables, especially if these products can last longer
– increasing maintenance intervals and lowering total cost of ownership – and reduce energy usage.
This last point is key in the light of rapidly rising energy costs and more stringent emissions regulation across almost the entire globe, with the possible exception of North America.
In the automotive sector, the goal of reducing vehicle weight remains at the heart of component development and design, with aluminium still representing an attractive option in terms of total cost of ownership compared with most other lightweight alternatives.
Technical Paper
May 2016 Issue
ENGINEER THE REFRACTORIES
25
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