Aluminum: The Car Industry s Blind Spot – Why Car Companies Should Address the Human Rights Impact of Aluminum Production polity.org.za - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from polity.org.za Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Russia s Rusal, the world s largest aluminium producer outside China, announced last week it plans to spin off its higher-carbon production assets into a new company, leaving its low-carbon refineries and smelters in a rebranded "AL+".
Rusal carbon split heralds bigger aluminum market rupture
Sayanogorsk aluminium smelter. Credit: Rusal
(The opinions expressed here are those of Andy Home, a columnist for Reuters.)
How green would you like your aluminium?
Sign Up for the Africa, Europe & Middle East Digest
Sign Up
The answer for a growing number of electronics manufacturers, car makers and packaging companies is as green as possible.
This rising demand for metal with a low-carbon or even zero-carbon footprint is rapidly reshaping the market landscape.
Russia’s Rusal, the world’s largest aluminium producer outside China, announced last week it plans to spin off its higher-carbon production assets into a new company, leaving its low-carbon refineries and smelters in a rebranded “AL+”.
Adobe Stock
Here’s a quick rundown of news and thoughts from particular commodity markets, including US electricity consumption, green steel and graphite anodes.
MetalMiner, a sister site of ours, scours the landscape for what matters. This week:
US electricity consumption forecast to bounce back
Unsurprisingly, after a drop in 2020, US electricity consumption is forecast to rise in 2021.
The Energy Information Administration forecast electricity consumption to rise by 2.1% this year. Last year, US electricity consumption fell by 3.8%.
Meanwhile, the EIA forecast US electricity generation from natural gas to decline this year and in 2022.
However, the EIA forecast the share of power generation from coal to rise from 20% to 22% in 2021.
European aluminum industry rejects carbon border adjustment tax
Efforts to reduce Europe’s carbon footprint are many and varied, including in the European aluminum sector.
Energy-intensive industrial processes like steel, aluminium and cement manufacturing make up a significant chunk of carbon emissions. A carbon tax as crafted in the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is seen as a major plank in shutting out or penalizing producers outside the bloc with high carbon
loadings. In turn, the mechanism thereby supports domestic producers with much lower carbon footprints.
European aluminum sector expresses opposition
An SBGlobal article cites European Aluminium Association data, saying the carbon footprint for primary aluminum production in China is, on average, three times more carbon-intensive than producing the same aluminum in Europe.