Aluminium

Aluminium is a young material. It has become the world's second most used metal after steel in little more than a century since its first commercial production. The range of forms Aluminum can take are castings, extrusions and tubes, sheet & plate, foil, powder, forgings etc and variety of surface finishes available are coatings, anodizing, polishing etc. It... more »

Aluminium is a young material. It has become the world's second most used metal after steel in little more than a century since its first commercial production. The range of forms Aluminum can take are castings, extrusions and tubes, sheet & plate, foil, powder, forgings etc and variety of surface finishes available are coatings, anodizing, polishing etc. It means Aluminum lends itself to a wide range of products, many of which we use every day of our lives. Aluminium is a unique metal. It is strong, durable, flexible, impermeable, lightweight, corrosion-resistant and 100% recyclable. Aluminium is the most widely used non-ferrous metal. Aluminium plays a very vital role when it comes to fuel efficiency of vehicles. It cuts down on fuel consumption and emissions without compromising the size or the safety of the vehicles by reducing the vehicles weight. Aluminium also facilitates the construction of corrosion-resistant and low maintenance buildings. The latest data of the world primary aluminium production is provided by International Aluminium Institute's (IAI). The major raw materials in production of aluminium are bauxite, caustic soda, cryolite, carbon & electricity. Alcoa, Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton, Nippon, Chalco are some of the major aluminium producing companies in the world. The most commercially mined aluminium ore is bauxite, as it has the highest content of the base metal. The primary aluminium production process consists of three stages. First is mining of bauxite, followed by refining of bauxite to alumina and finally smelting of alumina to aluminium. India is the fifth largest country with deposits of bauxite reserves of about 3 billion tonnes or 5% of world deposits. India's share in world aluminium capacity rests at about 3%. Production of 1 tonne of aluminium requires 2 tonnes of alumina while production of 1 tonne of alumina requires 2 to 3 tonnes of bauxite. The aluminium production process can be categorised into upstream and downstream activities. The upstream process involves mining and refining while the downstream process involves smelting and casting & fabricating. Downstream-fabricated products consist of rods, sheets, extrusions and foils. Power is amongst the largest cost component in manufacturing of aluminium, as the production involves electrolysis. Consequently, manufacturers are located near cheap and abundant sources of electricity such as hydroelectric power plants. Alternatively, captive power plant could be set up by them, which is the pattern in India. Indian manufacturers are the lowest cost producers of the base metal due to access to captive power, cheap labour and proximity to abundant supply of raw material, i.e., bauxite. The Indian aluminium sector is characterised by large integrated players like Hindalco and National Aluminium Company (Nalco). The other producers of primary aluminium include Indian Aluminium (Indal), now merged with Hindalco, Bharat Aluminium (Balco) and Madras Aluminium (Malco) the erstwhile PSUs, which is acquired by Sterlite Industries. Consequently, there are only three main primary metal producers in the sector. The per capita consumption of aluminium in India continues to remain abysmally low at under 1 kg as against nearly 25 to 30 kgs in the US and Europe, 15 kgs in Japan, 10 kgs in Taiwan and 3 kgs in China. The key consumer industries in India are power, transportation, consumer durables, packaging and construction. Of this, power is the biggest consumer (about 44% of total) followed by infrastructure (17%) and transportation (about 10% to 12%). However, internationally, the pattern of consumption is in favour of transportation, primarily due to large-scale aluminium consumption by the aviation space. hide «