How much of China’s aluminium is liquid?

We have discussed here previously that there has been a shortage of 25kg ingot in China in recent weeks. Part of the reason was that China’s smelters are increasingly employing liquid metal transfers as a way of handling their metal sales.

When the pure aluminium is tapped from the pot, it is still liquid. Traditionally this metal is hauled to the cast house in a crucible, where it is poured into a furnace for alloying, or simply poured off into moulds. But when pouring the metal off into moulds, it takes time to cool down. Then when the customer takes those ingots the first thing he usually does is to remelt those ingots. Altogether the process is a waste of time and money - much better if the customer can simply pour the hot metal directly into his own furnace.

China has long understood that there is a better way. I first saw a Continuous Caster (which also uses liquid metal) more than 10 years ago. But recently the practice of transferring aluminium in liquid form has spread widely.

But how wide? AZ China recently did a survey of China’s aluminium smelters (we spoke with 50 companies, or about 50% of the total fleet). We found that the practice is quite popular in certain provinces, with some companies transferring 100% of their metal in liquid form.

We have published the results of that survey to our contacts, and now we are making it available to you. If you would like a copy of the report, please complete the contact form, and we will send it to you.

By the way, don’t forget that the Early Bird price for our conference expires May 31. Don’t miss out on the low price!