The role of russian aluminium producers on the world market and their influence on the future of aluminium industry.

1. Abstract
2. Introduction
3. The analysis of the world aluminium industry
3.1 Situation in the industry
3.2 Main players
4. The analysis of Russian market of aluminium industry
4.1 Situation in the industry
4.2 Main players and their positions on the world market
4.3 Problems of Russian aluminium industry
5. The perspectives of Russian aluminium industry development on the world market
6. Conclusions
7. Bibliography

The role of russian aluminium producers on the world market and their influence on the future of aluminium industry.

The products of human ingenuity, including industrial creations such as the versatile metal aluminium, have a vital role to play in successfully addressing this sustainability challenge. To do its part, the aluminium industry needs to minimize environmental, social and economic negatives and maximize the positives across its life-cycle – from pre-mining to post-consumer stages - delivering a clear net benefit to society.
The demand for aluminium products is increasing year by year, so why is aluminium a metal in such demand and what is its role in the lives of future generations?
Aluminium is a young material, and in the little more than a century since its first commercial production, it has become the world’s second most used metal after steel. Aluminium is the metal of choicefor leading designers, architects and engineers, all of whom are looking for a material which combines functionality and cost-effectiveness with forward looking form and design potential.
Aluminium is an extraordinarily versatile material. The range of forms it can take (castings, extrusions and tubes, sheet & plate, foil, powder, forgings etc) and variety of surface finishes available (coatings, anodizing, polishing etc) means it lends itself to a wide range of products, many of which we use every day of our lives.
As well as its versatile form, the metal’s light weight (a third of steel) and numerous material qualities – represented by a wide range of alloys – mean that products have been designed for use in all areas of modern life. It is a good conductor of electricity (one kilogram of aluminium cable can carry twice as much electricity as one kilogram of copper) and most overhead and many underground transmission lines are made of aluminium. It transmits conducted heat and reflects radiant heat, making it an excellent medium from which to produce cooking utensils and foils, radiators and building insulation. Its strength, combined with low density, make it ideal for transport and packaging applications. Aluminium is a unique metal: strong, durable, flexible, impermeable, lightweight, corrosion-resistant and 100 percent recyclable.
Aluminium is the third most abundant element in the earth’s crust and constitutes 7.3% by mass. In nature however it only exists in very stable combinations with other materials (particularly as silicates and oxides). While there were some historical mentions of aluminium use, it was not until 1808 that its existence was first established. It then took many years of painstaking research to “unlock” the metal from its ore - the hard, reddish and clay-like bauxite. Further years of experimentation finally, in 1854, saw the development of a viable, commercial production process.
Aluminium is a young metal, having only been produced commercially for 153 years. Despite the fact that copper, lead and tin have been in use for thousands of years, today more aluminium is produced than all other non-ferrous metals combined. Its unique combination of properties makes it suitable for myriad applications. It has become the world’s second most used metal after steel. Annual primary production of aluminium in 2006 was around 34 million tonnes and recycled production around 16 million tonnes. The total of some 50 million tonnes compares with 17 million tonnes of copper, 8 million tonnes of lead and 0.4 million tonnes of tin.
Aluminium is a unique metal; strong, durable, flexible, impermeable and light-weight, it does not rust and is 100 percent recyclable. It comes in a variety of surface finishes and can take many forms, allowing its use in a vast array of products.
First produced in 1888, aluminium has become the second most-used metal in the world after iron. Nearly three-quarters of all aluminium ever made remains in use today, representing a growing ‘energy and resource bank’, and the metal can be reused endlessly.
Examples of areas where aluminium helps people and the economy to operate effectively and efficiently include air, road, rail and sea transport; food and medicine; packaging; construction; electronics and electricity transmission.
By working continuously to minimize environmental negatives and maximize positives from having aluminium in the world’s industrial life-cycle, the IAI has committed to ensuring that it is part of the solution for a sustainable future.
The aluminium industry is committed to securing business success and continued growth towards a more sustainable global economy of the future.
It will achieve this by progressively improving its environmental, occupational health and safety performance, and by increasing its positive socioeconomic contribution through its ‘Aluminium for Future Generations’ Sustainable Development Programme.
This programme of continuous improvement, overseen by the IAI, whose Member companies are responsible for over 70% of global aluminium production, comprises 13 voluntary objectives, covering all key phases of aluminium’s life cycle from pre-mining to post-consumer. Data is being gathered against 22 performance indicators and it is planned to increase the number of voluntary objectives further in the future.
Headline objectives of the programme include best practice in workplace health and safety, environmental and safety management systems, mine rehabilitation, water and energy efficiency, emissions reductions including greenhouse gases, and recycling of aluminium.
Climate change is the paramount environmental issue for the global industry. The full process of manufacturing new stocks of aluminium is responsible for 1% of the global human-induced greenhouse gas emissions that scientists with the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) identify as a cause of unnaturally accelerated rates of global warming.
The industry employs a lifecycle approach to address the challenges of climate change, focusing not only on the energy required to produce aluminium products but also on the energy savings to be made through their use and reuse. It is in the use phase that the majority of energy is used and/or saved (e.g. during the useful life of cars, buildings, aircraft, etc). The high strength-to-weight ratio of aluminium plays a crucial role in producing lighter vehicles and other forms of transport, reducing fuel consumption without compromising performance and safety. The use of lightweight aluminium components in a vehicle can save six to twelve times the energy taken to produce the primary aluminium used in its construction. Up to 8% fuel savings can be realized for every 10% reduction in weight. One kilogram of aluminium, used to replace heavier materials in a car or light truck, has the potential to eliminate 20kg of CO2 over the lifetime of the vehicle. For other vehicles, such as trains, ferries and aircraft, the potential savings are even greater.
Climate change is a challenge that the aluminium industry shares with every business and everyone who participates in the global economy. As the world moves to combat climate change, the aluminium industry is moving too. With its immense versatility, smart uses of aluminium will be an important part of finding solutions across many applications, and the market for aluminium will grow and diversify.
The global aluminium industry has therefore developed a four-pronged voluntary strategy to meet the challenges of climate change, which encompasses the full lifecycle of aluminium from production, to primary use, to recycling and reuse:
Reduce greenhouse gas emissions from aluminium production;
Increase energy efficiency in aluminium production;
Maximize used-product collection, recycling and reuse;
Promote the light-weighting of vehicles.
Aluminium is produced from ore (primary aluminium) and scrap (recycled aluminium). In 2006 global aluminium production was 50.4 million tonnes - 34 million tonnes metal primary and 16.4 million tonnes recycled metal.
Aluminium ore, most commonly bauxite, is plentiful and occurs mainly in tropical and sub-tropical areas - Africa, West Indies, South America and Australia - with some deposits in Europe.
Bauxite is mined then refined into aluminium oxide trihydrate (alumina) using the Bayer Process, which has changed very little since the first plant opened more than 100 years ago.
Alumina is then electrolytically reduced via a smelting process into metallic aluminium.
Primary aluminium smelting plants are located all over the world, however, because it is an energy-intensive process, they are often in areas where there are abundant supplies of inexpensive energy, such as hydroelectric power.
Once aluminium is formed it is alloyed with other materials to make an array of metals with different properties and it can be processed in any number of ways - rolled, cast, extruded.
It is used in countless applications and products and can be recycled repeatedly.
Two to three tonnes of bauxite are required to produce one tonne of alumina and two tonnes of alumina are required to produce one tonne of aluminium metal.
The world consumption of aluminium in total, both primary and secondary, has grown at an average rate of 3,1% yearly in the 90s, from 29 Mt in 1994 to 38 Mt in 2000; however, the growth in consumption accelerated in the last few years at about 5% annually reaching 45 Mt in 2004 according to the aluminium industry. The more pronounced growth rate per year was observed in Asia at about over 6% before 2000 and 12% after 2000 and the lowest in Eastern European countries at 1% at this time. Consumption of primary aluminium was approximately 32 Mt in 2005, with Asia taking the largest share of 45% followed by North America and the EU with 22-23%, as details shown in pic. 2. Primary aluminium consumption in Asia again has the highest increase and followed closely the trend in growth rate of total aluminium.
Pic. 2. Aluminium consumption share by region
China, as the region’s principal country, quadrupled its consumption from 1994 to 2005 and accounts for 22% of world's total consumption, see Table 1. While the share has kept relatively unchanged for most of the principal countries, the relative share of USA and Japanese markets has decreased sharply by 8 and 4% respectively. Consumption of primary aluminium in the EU countries has been increasing, annually at around 2%, lower than the growth rate of total aluminium (3%), which implies that the availability of scrap for secondary aluminium is increasing.