The Metally Evrazii magazine published a series of articles on problems of using the secondary aluminum in Russia. The articles were written by president of the non-commercial association Aluminum Igor Prokopov, doctor of engineering and professor Gennady Makarov as well as by holder of an academic degree in engineering Mikhail Lokshin and others. The following is the review of these articles done by Vladimir Potapov.

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he world business is counting on a long-term and steady development of producing aluminum, which competes successfully with such widely used construction materials as steel and plastics. The dynamically growing use of this metal is explained not only by its high consumer properties but also by a possibility of its repeated utilization. New refining of the metal does not result in any perceptible loss of physical and mechanical properties; its power consumption is low and the negative impact on the environment is significantly reduced.
According to specialists, by 2030 the world consumption of aluminum may reach 50 million tons with the secondary aluminum accounting for no less than 22 to 24 million tons. As for today, up to 30 % to 40 % of the secondary aluminum are used for producing aluminum alloys, semi-finished products and different items. However, these valuable raw materials are distributed irregularly. While the share of this secondary metal in the U.S. reaches 32 %, Russia’s share amounts to only 18 %.

Secondary Metals & Alloys Plant (VMS, Moscow region) annually produces 20,000 tons of secondary aluminium alloys

Up to 80 % of raw materials used for producing the secondary aluminum come from the automotive industry. The same industry uses most of secondary alloys. The recycled metal accounts for about 63 % of aluminum per one motor vehicle in the U.S. In recent years the American automotive industry has spent up to 112 kg of aluminum per one motor vehicle. According to estimates of the company Alcan, by 2010 an American motor vehicle will contain about 156 kg of aluminum. As for Western Europe, the share of aluminum reached up to 75 kg per each motor vehicle. What is more, over 80 % of it were received from the secondary raw materials. It is expected that by 2015 a European motor vehicle will contain details made of aluminum alloys, which will totally weigh 200 kg on average. Russian motor-car plants, which are producing one million motor vehicles a year, are spending on each of them just 44 kg of aluminum alloys on average.
Along with the use of cast alloys (for casting details of motor units and wheel disks) the application of wrought alloys (sheets, tubes and sections for transmission parts as well as for component decoration and manufacturing motor vehicle’s bodies) has risen lately. Since these two types of alloys differ from each other by their chemical composition and essentially belong to different alloying systems, this complicates the use of motor vehicle’ scrap in the repeated turnover. On the one hand, there is a need to arrange special systems of scrap collection; to establish long-term relations with alloy producers, consumers of ingots (rolling and press plants) and scrap collectors under partnership agreements on secondary refining of aluminum in closed loop. On the other hand, it is necessary to develop highly effective technologies and equipment for preparing scrap, melting it, processing the melt and casting.
It goes without saying that only large companies with enough funds, of course, can afford to use such technologies. In the U.S. 60 % of secondary aluminum mills have the production capacity over 50,000 tons a year and the capacity of one third of them exceeds 100,000 tons a year. As 30 American mills account for 1.4 million tons of secondary aluminum production a year, in Western Europe 210 mills are annually producing 2 million tons of it. However, they have also started the consolidation process.
So, what is the situation in Russia? In 1990 the country had over 10 secondary aluminum mills with the annual capacity ranging from 5,000 tons to 220,000 tons. They provided collecting 980,000 tons of scrap and producing 778,000 tons of secondary aluminum alloys for the domestic use. The export shipments accounted for 92,000 tons and 100,000 tons of scrap were supplied to metallurgical mills specializing in production of wrought alloys.
With a catastrophic decrease in the demand for aluminum by the Russian industry in the next decade the amount of prepared secondary aluminum raw materials was a little reduced being decreased by just between 8 % and 10 %. But its structure underwent considerable changes. If in 1990 the share of production waste equaled 70 % and the obsolescent scrap accounted for 30 %, in 2000 the share of the latter increased up to 85 % and the share of waste decreased accordingly. Over 50 % of collected raw materials were exported. And only the introduction of a 30 % export custom duty in 1999 followed by a 50 % export custom duty in 2000 prevented the enormous leakage of the secondary raw materials abroad. During these years the export shipments of scrap and waste went down from 408,000 tons to 107,000 tons. At the same time the export shipments of secondary aluminum alloys increased from 436,000 tons to 535,000.
Along with traditional producers of secondary alloys having their capacities loaded by 30 % to 50 % a lot of small metallurgical enterprises and sectors emerged that were producing around 200 tons a month. In 2000 more than 135 producers made 660,000 tons of secondary alloys. Most of these enterprises offer alloys of low quality. Their products are losing $100 a ton in the world market and they are regarded, mainly, as cheap raw materials to make high-quality secondary stock.
By estimates of foreign experts, in 2000 only 30 % of Russian secondary alloys conformed to world level standards. It is worth mentioning two enterprises in the Moscow region among makers of such products. They are the Podolsk mill of non-ferrous metals (51,700 tons of secondary alloys) and the mill VMS (30,000 tons) as well as the enterprise Permtsvetmet (40,000 tons). They modernized their equipment and used new technologies that permitted them to get ISO 9002 quality production certificates.
Russian enterprises are exporting the major part (from 75 % to 85 %) of secondary aluminum alloys that leads to a gradual exhaustion of raw material resources, constant reduction of aluminum scrap supply to the Russian market and rise in prices for it.
In order to ensure a more effective use of secondary aluminum in Russia, specialists are recommending to include enterprises, which are making this product, in structures of aluminum companies. At present, both leaders, Russian Aluminum and SUAL-Holding, do not have sufficiently voluminous production facilities to make secondary aluminum as part of their structures. Acquiring assets of these enterprises and modernizing them will, of course, require considerable financial resources. But these expenses cannot even be compared with the amount of investments in establishing production facilities to achieve the same volumes of making primary aluminum.
In a longer term mills of secondary aluminum are expected to introduce new highly effective technological processes of sorting out and reprocessing scrap and waste. These steps will allow companies to increase the share of secondary aluminum in commercial products (alloys, semi-finished products and various items) up to 40 %.
Experts are also appealing to agencies of State power, since there is a need for a policy to stimulate the growth of aluminum domestic consumption and production of its secondary alloys. Russian enterprises are feeling the necessity to systematically develop the market of secondary aluminum alloys. Investments are needed not only in reprocessing scrap but also in scrap-consuming industries as well as in marketing and personnel training, in maintaining information exchanges, including those with leading foreign companies.