Column: China’s export tax bombshell rocks aluminum market
China's announcement on Friday may have major long-term ramifications for the global aluminum supply chain, writes Andy Home.
UC RUSAL, the world’s largest aluminium and alumina producer, has completed the conversion of one potroom at its Krasnoyarsk Aluminium Smelter (KrAZ) to the colloidal anode paste technology and says “the economic effect from this innovation at one potroom alone can be up to $1 million annually.” Using colloidal anode paste is one of the key parameters for the development of the ‘clean’ Soederberg cell. The project launched by Rusal’s Engineering and Construction Division of RUSAL in 2006 led to several modifications of the Soederberg cell in an effort to bring its performance parameters comparable to those of pre-bake anode technology in terms of production efficiency, and helped reduce the environmental impact and optimised the consumption rates for major raw materials. (more…)
