Expand the application of digestive aluminum excess capacity

Under the influence of national policy control, the expansion of aluminum applications and the market reversal mechanism, positive progress has been made in resolving the excess capacity of electrolytic aluminum. The overheating of investment in electrolytic aluminum projects has been significantly curbed, and the investment structure of the aluminum industry has continued to be optimized, but the pressure to resolve production capacity remains high. To resolve the excess capacity of the electrolytic aluminum industry, the fundamental way out is to expand consumption.

The key to expanding applications

From January to October this year, the investment in fixed assets of the aluminum smelting industry reached 50.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 26%; while the aluminum rolling processing industry invested 165.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 26%. This “a rise and fall” indicates that the overheating of investment in electrolytic aluminum projects has been significantly curbed, and the investment structure of the aluminum industry has continued to be optimized, but the pressure to resolve production capacity remains high.

"To resolve the excess capacity of the electrolytic aluminum industry, in the four batches, it is most important to digest a batch of aluminum. It is the fundamental way to expand aluminum consumption," said Wen Jun, deputy chairman of the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association.

"Excessive electrolytic aluminum production capacity led to a substantial loss in the aluminum industry." Literature Army said.

According to statistics, from January to September this year, the aluminum smelting industry realized a main business income of 308.5 billion yuan, an increase of 3.4% year-on-year; a loss of 9.6 billion yuan, an increase of 4.2 billion yuan over the same period of last year.

The important direction for China to resolve excess production capacity is four batches, that is, “digest one batch, transfer one batch, integrate one batch, and eliminate one batch”. In this regard, the literature army revealed that the backward production capacity of the electrolytic aluminum industry is not much, and we will be able to complete the task by eliminating more than 300,000 tons this year. Eliminating, integrating, and shifting are not applicable to the electrolytic aluminum industry. Only digesting production capacity on the premise of strictly controlling the increment will increase aluminum consumption.

“The aluminum industry is still a green industry and a sunrise industry. The current overcapacity is a phased and temporary one. The way out is to expand aluminum applications,” said Chen Quanxun, president of the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association.

The expansion of aluminum applications has the advantages of cost and energy saving. Aluminum is a metal with superior performance and broad prospects. It is light in weight, easy to process, corrosion-resistant, easy to recycle, economical and fashionable, and meets the requirements for energy-saving emission reduction and ecological civilization construction throughout the entire life cycle.

"More importantly, aluminum prices are now at historic lows, and there is little room for price increases in the short term, and the cost of expanding aluminum applications is low."

Although China's total aluminum consumption has ranked first in the world, China’s per capita aluminum consumption is only about 17 kilograms, and there is still a big gap compared with 25-30 kilograms in developed countries. China’s aluminum industry still has great potential for development.

The data shows that aluminum applications have gained market recognition. From January to October of this year, China's aluminum rolling processing industry made a profit of 36.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.4%. “The expansion of aluminum applications has already established a solid foundation and is also facing opportunities for new urbanization, ecological civilization construction, and the new normal economic development,” said Chen Quanxun.

Breakthroughs in key areas

According to statistics, at present, construction, transportation and electricity are the three major areas of application of aluminum. Among them, buildings accounted for 33%, traffic accounted for 20%, and electricity accounted for 16%. In recent years, the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association has done a lot of promotion work in the areas of transport "aluminum substitute steel", wire and cable "aluminum section copper", construction template "aluminum section wood" and other aspects, and actively promoted aluminum in transportation. , construction and power applications.

“The first major area for expanding aluminum applications is transportation.” According to the literature, the transportation sector will be the fastest growing area for aluminum applications, and aluminum trailers will be the breakthrough.

The pressure of energy conservation and emission reduction in the world has brought about a lighter traffic. The data shows that using aluminum instead of steel to produce cars can reduce the weight of the vehicle by 30% to 40%. For every 10% weight reduction of the trailer's weight, fuel consumption can be reduced by 6% to 8%. Heavy-duty trailers are a major fuel consumer in the transportation sector. Therefore, in the long run, aluminum trailers not only have significant energy-saving effects, but also have transportation and fuel economy benefits due to energy conservation and consumption reduction.

Aluminum trailers have received orders from SF Express, Jingdong, Sinopec and the Tobacco Corporation and have gradually gained recognition from the market. According to Su Zhenjia, executive director of the Jungle Group, in the past two years, aluminum trailers have been recognized by more and more users, and the sales volume has grown from dozens of vehicles in 2012 to more than 100 vehicles last year. Zhang Yunjian, general manager of the automotive division of Haotong Technology Group Co., Ltd., also stated that with the development of e-commerce and logistics, many self-built logistics e-commerce companies are very fond of aluminum trailers with significant energy savings.

“Architecture will still be the largest aluminum consumption field in the next 5 to 10 years.” The literature army said that the application of aluminum alloy doors and windows has been very mature, and the current promotion is focused on aluminum formwork, scaffolding and enclosures.

Aluminum overpass has become a new bright spot for aluminum applications in the construction field. Nannan Aluminium Engineering Co., Ltd. recently signed a large list of more than 150 million yuan with Nanning City, and will construct 20 aluminum alloy pedestrian bridges for Nanning City in 2015.

Create a level playing field

The new growth point of aluminum consumption continues to appear. Under the combined effect of production suspension and expansion of application, aluminum spot prices in some regions have even been in short supply. Since the beginning of this year, domestic aluminum spot prices have turned from premium to premium, and spot and futures have been the highest. The difference reached around 150 yuan per ton.

In the first 10 months of this year, the national investment increased by 15.9%, and consumption and exports increased by 11.5% and 4.4% respectively. Chen Quanxun pointed out that these figures show that for a long period of time, the fastest troika is to invest in this carriage. The fastest-growing investment is in infrastructure, and transportation, construction, and public facilities are still the foundations. The focus of facility construction is precisely the opportunity to expand aluminum applications.

However, aluminum promotion still faces some obstacles. "First of all, there is not enough legislation for energy saving and emission reduction in our country," the literature army pointed out. A typical example is many illegal overloaded steel trailers on the market, which have had a huge impact on aluminum trailers. From the roots, there are not enough penalties for illegal overloading of vehicles in production and transportation operations, and the order of road transport is urgent. specification.

In addition, the lack of standards and uniformity are also one of the important reasons that restrict the application of aluminum. For example, China has not yet established a unified aluminum template product standard, which is not conducive to standardization of production, affecting product quality and versatility, reducing the number of turnover, thereby reducing the overall benefits of aluminum templates.

In this regard, the literature army believes that the state should strengthen standards development, including fuel standards, material standards, application specifications, etc., in order to create a level playing field for aluminum applications. The state should also introduce some supportive policies to establish demonstration effects in areas such as lightweight automobiles and guide the market to accept aluminum products.