Metal Asia June 2012 Issue

A Complete Metal Magazine

SPECIAL FEATURE

Growth Story of Aluminium - The Indian Context
Aluminium is the third abundant element in the earth crust. It never occurs as a free element. It is a silvery white metal with a broad range of application in transport, construction, packaging industry, electronic production, household appliances, etc., and subsequently the economic activities of these industrial sectors determine the overall demand for aluminium.

COMMENT

Aluminium Industry – Key Growth Drivers
The aluminium industry, being the largest non-ferrous metal industry in the world economy, is experiencing a period of growth since its industrial invention, the demand for aluminium has been escalating and its application has extended to variety of economic sectors. Hence, the performance of this industry reflects the performance of the economy to a great extent.

NATIONAL TRENDS

• NMDC in discussions with Rio Tinto

  India’s largest iron ore producer NMDC has started a fresh round of discussions with global mining giant Rio Tinto to revive an equal joint venture that was mutually scrapped almost a year ago.

• Green signal for NALCO to setup JV plants with GMDC

  Gujarat Government has given its green signal for the Rs. 12,000-crore investment plan by National Aluminium Company (NALCO) in Gujarat to setup an alumina and smelter plant. The approval has cleared the way for NALCO and state-owned Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation (GMDC) to form a joint venture. GMDC will have a 26% stake in the joint venture.

• Indian cos to start due diligence on Afghanistan mines

  The Indian consortium shortlisted for copper and gold deposits in Afghanistan is shortly expected to conduct a due diligence on the deposits.

• NALCO bags performance excellence award

  National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO), the Navratna PSU under Ministry of Mines, Govt. of India, has bagged the coveted Performance Excellence Award for the year 2010-11 instituted by Indian Institute of Industrial Engineering (IIIE), Mumbai.

• SKF India Q1 2012 result

  The Board of Directors of SKF India Limited, India’s leading technology and solutions provider of bearings, seals, lubrication systems, mechatronics and services, has approved the unaudited financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2012.

• NALCO Foundation signs MoUs for sponsoring education

  NALCO Foundation, the CSR arm of National Aluminium Company Limited, signed MoUs with Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS), Koraput Development Foundation (KDF) and Bikash Vidyalaya, for full sponsoring education of children from the periphery villages of Damanjodi in Koraput from this academic year, covering their expenses on school fee, lodging, boarding and other expenses. The MoUs were signed by

INTERNATIONAL TRENDS

• Siemens to modernise drive technology in hot rolling mill at Aluminium Norf

  Together with Aluminium Norf GmbH (Alunorf), located in Neuss, Germany, Siemens Metals Technologies will be modernising the drive technology in hot rolling mill no. 2. The converter systems of all main drives will be replaced by new Sinamics SL150 cycloconverters in several stages.

• Rio Tinto takes next steps in its iron ore development plans

  Rio Tinto is taking the next steps in its phased investment programme by committing USD4.2 billion (100 per cent basis USD6.2 billion) to develop its tier one iron ore business. The investment covers USD3.7 billion (100 per cent basis USD5.2 billion) for expansion of the industry-leading Pilbara iron ore operations in Western Australia and USD501 million (100 per cent basis USD1.0 billion) for further infrastructure development at the Simandou iron ore project in Guinea.

• Alba plans expansion

  Aluminium Bahrain BSC will invest $2.5 billion by 2015 to increase production capacity; betting prices of the metal will rebound from a 30 per cent slump in the past year that’s forcing U.S. and European rivals to shutter plants.

• NALCO still on site hunt for Indonesian project

  Aluminium major National Aluminium Company Li m it ed (NALCO), which is proposing to setup a smelter and captive power plant in Indonesia with an investment of Rs. 16,500 crore, is yet to select a location for its aluminium complex.

• Ma'aden Alcoa JV attains major safety milestone

  Leading producer of primary aluminium, fabricated aluminium and alumina, Alcoa and the Saudi Arabian Mining Company, Ma’aden have recorded a major safety milestone during construction of their aluminium smelter at Ras Al Khair, in Saudi Arabia: 25 million hours worked without a lost work day injury.

IN FOCUS

• Hindustan Copper – Mining to be the central premise

  Hindustan Copper Limited (HCL), a public sector enterprise of the Government of India attains the merit of being India's only vertically integrated copper manufacturing company encompassing mining, beneficiation, smelting, refining and casting of refined copper metal. The company announced its highest ever profit after tax of Rs. 323 crore keeping mining and exploration as the central premises and paving ahead to be on effective market path.

COMPANY NEWS

Hydro : Keeping an eye on deforestation

As part of Brazil’s “Green Municipalities” program, Hydro is joining a project that will monitor deforestation throughout the Amazon region.

SAIL turnover grows 7% to highestever Rs. 50348 cr in FY’12

The audited financial results of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) for the year 2011-12, taken on record by its Board of Directors, showed the Company’s turnover for January- March (Q4) of FY’12 growing 13% over the corresponding period last year (CPLY) to Rs. 14,785 crore.

NMDC registers highest PAT for FY 2011-12

India’s largest iron-ore miner, NMDC has posted profit before tax (PBT) of Rs. 10,759.47 crore and profit after tax (PAT) of Rs. 7,265.39 crore for the year 2011-12 against PBT of Rs. 9,725.66 crore and PAT of Rs. 6,499.22 crore, registering an improvement of 11% & 12% respectively over last year i.e. 2010-11.

COMPANY PROFILE

SGS Technologies – Burner & Combustion System Specialists

SGS Technologies’ main business line is Combustion Systems. We have supplied burners to over 150 installations covering virtually all applications of Steel & Aluminium Industry.

PRODUCT / MARKET

HRS Process Systems - ECOFLUX * Corrugated Tube Heat Exchangers

HRS is the pioneer in introducing the revolutionary corrugated tube technology to the process industry. Corrugated Tube Heat Exchangers are shell and tube heat exchangers which use corrugated tubes instead of plain tubes. Corrugated tubes take the best features of both the plain tube and the plate heat exchanger. The tubes are corrugated to induce turbulence in both flows (product & service) at lower velocities. This not only increases thermal efficiency but also eliminates product channeling. Thermal efficiency is so improved, that for typical thin film applications heat transfer area can be reduced to less than half of that required in a plain tubular heat exchanger.

New developments in Outotec Grinding Service products

Outotec has developed the Outotec hydraulic Inching Drive system to improve equipment safety and maintenance productivity and the Outotec Barricade for superior sealing performance.

METAL APPLICATION

Copper in Gray Cast Iron

Present work was intended to investigate friction properties, chilling tendency and microstructure changes in Gray Cast Iron (GCI) on addition of 5, 10 and 15 wt.% Cu. Friction properties were tested using commercial grease LiTioL-24 as lubricant at two disk velocities- 100 and 300 rpm, under normal load range of 100 N to 2000 N. For comparison of anti-friction properties of GCI and copper-added GCI with bronze, Cu-10 wt.% Pb was taken as standard material (Std. Mat.). Chilling tendency in GCI and copperadded GCI was studied. Microstructure of materials was studied under optical microscopy (OM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Copper-added GCI exhibited better anti-friction property in comparison to GCI and Std. Mat., specifically at 300 rpm disk velocity. Copper addition favoured chilling tendency and it increased with increasing copper content. It was observed in OM and SEM that copper got alienated out inside GCI forming an intermediate layer at the interface.

TECHNOLOGY FOCUS

Hybrid Tilting Rotary Furnace MASTERmax for most efficient aluminium recycling

The total amount of Aluminium is constantly increasing worldwide. Therefore, Aluminium recycling becomes more and more important because recycling of Aluminium does only need about 5% of the energy needed for primary Aluminium production. The presentation deals with an innovative concept of tilting rotary furnace, which allows melting of various types of scrap with low energy consumption and high yields.

RAW MATERIALS

Global Bauxite Industry : steady yet blocked

The global bauxite industry is showing prominent signs of steadiness. As days are passing by, the related market is gaining momentum and is paving forward effectively. The demand scale is on a secured path – thanks to its widespread usage as varied applicators. The pace of demand growth is getting high.

REFRACTORY

Assessment of High Alumina Refractories by Phase Diagram Evaluations

Phase diagrams can be very useful tools for the assessment of hot temperature properties of refractories. It does not require sophisticated computer programs to work with the diagram but only a ruler and a calculator. The paper describes the benefit of phase diagram work in the assessment of high alumina refractories by selected examples from high alumina castables for steel applications.

PRE-SHOW REPORT

RAFTS-2012: An International Conference on Rolling & Finishing Technology of Steel

Indian Steel industry is witnessing a phase of expansion and modernisation of steelmaking facilities to meet the growing requirements of steel. This calls for adaptation of new technologies with high-tech engineering, automation and modelling aids in the steel plants. Rolling Mills being at the finishing end of the steelmaking process are supplied with most precision controlled facilities so as to meet the stringent requirements of the market. Challenge of managing the operation grows tremendously as the rolling and finishing lines constitute the longest chain of steel processing. To meet this challenge, one needs to keep abreast with the latest innovations in various fields like deformation science, reheating technology, roll pass design, thermo-mechanical treatment, descaling, pickling, annealing, coating, modelling, automation and instrumentation.