COMMENT :
Metals faces trying times amidst recession
The global economic slowdown has seriously afftected the steel amd metal industries worldwide. The period has been very rough since metals, once among the market's leading sectors, have now become laggards. According to the reports, BSE Metals Index was the second worst performing index in 2008 second only to real estate sector, having fallen by nearly 75%. The vital question arises as how the metal sector will withstand the recession period?
NEWS CORNER
The international internet portal of the aluminium industry
Alu-Scout® is a specialist platform for the aluminium industry that offers soundly based information relating to aluminium and provides a forum for the exchange of knowledge, experience and ideas. The portal contains an independent database with over 28,000 addresses of companies and decision-makers from the aluminium industry, as well as sub-suppliers. Alu-Scout®’s users can make contact with companies from the whole value-added chain of the aluminium industry. This can lead to the creation of new business contacts and the nurturing of existing ones. Alu-Scout® has been online since 2002 and has 600,000 visitors a year, and the trend is ever upwards.
RECYCLING & MELTING
Aluminium Scrap Recycling an Indian Perspective
The Indian aluminium industry is more than six decades old. It started in early forties with the first smelter to fulfill the needs of various industries consuming aluminium metal. In recent years the rapid growth in building, power, telecommunication and the electrical industry followed by the entry of the world class players in automobile and appliance sectors has given rise to a significant boost to the secondary industry, a major consumer of scrap. Indian primary industry currently produces over one million tons aluminium per annum. This is likely to increase to 3 million tons by 2015. The additional demand for aluminium metal is met by imported or domestic scrap supply. Exact consumption of the scrap is not reported since a large number of scrap suppliers and users come from unorganized sector – estimated at over 500000 tons per year. This paper addresses the current status of scrap recycling in India and the need for better technology to improve energy, metal yield, environment, health & safety.
SPECIAL COVERAGE
Sterlite Industries riding high against slowdown with long term prospects
Sterlite Industries’ aluminium business is represented by its stake in Balco (51%) and Vedanta Aluminium (29.5%). Balco currently contributes about 16% to Sterlite’s consolidated revenues. With the international aluminium prices down by over 50%, EBIDTA per tonne is expected to fall to $509 in H2, FY09 as compared to $1,134 per tonne in H1, FY09. Notably, margins are expected to improve in FY10, led by recovery in aluminium prices. Meanwhile, lower alumina and fuel costs should lead to savings of about 20-30% in production costs in this business.
TECHNOLOGY/PROCESS REVIEW
Heat Treatment of Ni and Ni-Alloys
Nickel is a versatile element and will alloy with most metals. Complete solid solubility exists between nickel and copper. Wide solubility ranges between iron, chromium, and nickel make possible many alloy combinations. Nickel and nickel alloys are used for a wide variety of applications,
the majority of which involve corrosion resistance and/or heat resistance.
First Experience with a New Device for Online Measurement of Melt Cleanliness in Aluminium Melts
Non metallic inclusions are of particular concern in aluminium castings. Because of its reactivity, aluminium oxidizes readily in liquid and solid states. The oxidation rate is greater at molten metal temperatures and increases with temperature and time of exposure. Magnesium in aluminium alloys oxidises even faster than aluminium and reacts with oxygen and aluminium oxide to form spinel.
TECHNOLOGY FOCUS
Simulation of the Ca-treatment of Al-killed liquid steel
Production of high-quality deep drawing steel by continuous casting requires strict aluminium control, both for deoxidation and alloying. To reduce the problems caused by residual Al2O3 particles that have a tendency to clog refractory nozzles, metallic calcium is injected into liquid steel to convert solid Al2O3 particles into liquid calcium aluminates (CA) that are entrained with the liquid steel flow. The success of the Ca-treatment is determined by the control over the chemical composition of the calcium aluminates. The composition of the formed nCaO.Al2O3 must be such that it is liquid at the solidification temperature of the steel cast. Often CaS is formed as an unwanted side product, which can promote clogging and must thus be suppressed. Furthermore, metallic calcium is expensive and yield is low in practice.
Microstructural development during Casting of Aluminium Alloys
The 3D microstructure reconstruction of as-quenched samples revealed features that showed a coalescence of the finer solid regions formed upon quenching, which might cause the overestimation of the solid fraction as compared to the lever rule and Scheil approximation. 3D-microstructure development is analyzed during solidification of an Al-7 wt% Cu alloy by using the quenching technique and serial sectioning for stacking and 3D reconstruction
METAL FOCUS
Base metals prices continue to fall amid fears of global recession
The prices of the base metals at London Metal Exchange (LME) witnessed a steep fall in the last few months as demand continued to dwindle on fears that the world was gradually heading for a prolonged recession. In mid-November, aluminium price trading at $1888 a tonne on LME touched a 3-year low, reflecting poor demand for the metal.
COLD ROLLING
Vimetco NV- upgrade of Cold Rolling mill at Alro, Romania
At the end of April 2008, Vimetco announced the completion of the modernization programme for its Alro subsidiary’s cold rolling mill, following work in association with Fata Hunter to increase capacity. The modernization was part of a wide-reaching strategic plan that Alro embarked on when the company was privatised in April 2002. At that time, Vimetco announced important plans to vertically integrate all its related aluminium facilities and focus operations on value-added products whilst also fulfilling all privatisation and environmental obligations, increasing the production capacity of each branch and increasing operations security.
COMPANY PROFILE
Hindalco continues expansion amid weak worldwide demand scenario
Hindalco continues to pursue its capacity expansion regime primarily because the domestic demand from user industries, such as power, continues to remain ‘modest’. The expansion plans of Hindalco Industry Ltd., the flagship company of Aditya Birla Group, are on track and will not be ‘scaled down’, assured managing director Debu Bhattacharya, even though the falling demand scenario is wreaking havoc in the global base metal industry . Hindalco plans to invest around Rs25,000 crore to expand capacity of aluminium and copper production by nearly three times in the next five years.
Nalco in fighting spirits passing through the hard times
With the world gradually plunging into recession and subsequent slowdown in the metal’s demand the LME aluminium prices started sliding down since August. The downfall has been alarming and has put many aluminium companies across the globe in jeopardy over the last few months.
IN FOCUS
Aluminium Sector Energy Management Practices
Aluminium industry understands the importance of energy conservation and has set up energy management cell (EMC). This cell has members drawn from various sections of the plant who have additional responsibility of energy conservation other than related to maintenance or production. The job of the EMC is to generate the energy management plan, identification and execution of energy conservation projects in the plant.
Developments and challenges in the aluminium rolling industry - a market perspective
The past couple of years has witnessed significant change within the aluminium rolling sector. Indeed, recent merger activity in the wider aluminium sector has already given birth to truly independent global rolling companies, while recent mega-merger activity, where the major integrated aluminium companies become increasingly focused on upstream core competencies is likely to create significant downstream opportunities. One way or another the fallout from this process of global consolidation is likely to be the formation of large, and mostly independent, downstream entities with global capabilities. At the same time, we are in the midst of a substantial expansion in the Chinese downstream output, led by significant investments in rolling capacity. The initial phase of this expansion process was to replace imports in certain key markets such as foil. This has been easy to achieve with relatively straightforward continuous cast technology. However, the next phase in this process now underway involves the establishment of large-scale hot and cold mill projects where the final products are complex, both in terms of alloys/metallurgy and in terms of end-use. These developments will likely shape the future structure of the downstream sector and pose some questions - Do developments in China pose a threat or present an opportunity for established downstream companies? Will the expansion in independent rolling create a more ‘leaner and meaner’ downstream sector than we have seen in the past? Will pricing discipline be threatened by a potentially aggressive Chinese rolling industry?
Improved control of metal temperature by ceramic insulations
Efficient use of energy in high temperature processes such as Aluminium Castings - though considered difficult - is essential from the view point of energy conservation as well as economics. Presently, only about 25-50 % of calorific heat/energy generated from sources like oil/gas and Electricity which are consumed in melting / holding furnaces gets utilised and the balance 50-75% is lost to the surroundings.
REFRACTORY
Influence of process parameters on refractory performance - the way to success at VSP
The introduction of continuous casting of blooms demands increased tapping temperature from BOF. Earlier the steel teeming ladles were merely holding the liquid steel for casting but the evolution of ladle metallurgy necessitated better refractory performance. It is not the slag condition which determines the refractory design and selection but also the secondary process technology, temperature and treatment time. The tundish is the most important area of refractory application in continuous casting process. With introduction of tundish metallurgy the list of process parameters influencing the tundish refractory lining becomes longer and greatly affects its performance. This paper deals with the influencing of selected operational process parameters on the refractory lining, i.e. BOF, steel teeming ladle and the tundish. Also this paper enumerates the process improvement achieved for better refractory lining life and quality of cast steel over a period of a decade.
INTERVIEW
Eclipse Combustion to grow substantially with increasing business opportunities in India
We are a truly multinational company having manufacturing facilities at strategic locations around the world. We serve the global markets through global supply chain, mentioned a confident VM Deshmukh, MD while talking to METAL ASIA in a recent meeting with the Editorial team.
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