Conference Theme & Topics

The theme for this year’s conference is “2020 Vision – Aluminium outlook”.

By the year 2020, China will have around 60 million tonnes of primary aluminium capacity, while production in the rest of the world will be exceeded 30 million tonnes. The rapid expansion of capacity in China’s Northwest will be history, while the rest of the world will struggle to find new stranded energy sources to support additional smelting capacity.

That much aluminium capacity generates some huge challenges:

• China will need 84 million megawatts of electricity, in a country where electricity is scarce;
• The world will need close to 400 million tonnes of bauxite, refined into almost 200 million tonnes of alumina;
• China will need about 25 million tonnes of anodes, which in turn will need more than 30 million tonnes of petroleum coke. But not just any petcoke – it must be of a suitable grade to make into anodes.
• Cathodes, aluminium fluoride and other inputs to the process will all see an increase in demand.

But it is not just a question of supply of raw materials. More technological breakthroughs are needed simply to sustain the smelting process. We have seen the amps pushed to 600KA and now even beyond. We have heard talk of inert anodes for more than 10 years now. The world is rolling out more and more carbon and greenhouse gas emission controls, regulations and taxes.

It is not enough to be simply up with the latest trends in technology, processes and markets. To really succeed in tomorrow’s world, you need to have the answers to these questions and the solutions to the challenges – before it’s too late.