Day 1 AZ China’s 6th Biennial Conference

As we you may know, we’re now 35 days away from the conference and we now have the program for Day 1. This day will be focused on Aluminum and Day 2 will be focused on Carbon.

Key note speaker – China: Is the Walk Matching the Talk?

The main theme of this conference is to bring clarity to the audience about what is going on in China and how China’s economic and strategic direction might inform or deform the aluminum industry.

Our guest speaker today will look at China’s vision for itself, its economic agenda, the role of debt, and its true plans regarding supply side reform and environmental clean-up. How will China’s external relations colour its domestic agenda? How will debt change the course of economic growth? What are the greatest risks to continuing growth and prosperity for the industry and for the market? Our guest speaker will give us some clarity on these questions.

Key Note Speaker: Anne Stevenson-Yang

Panel Session 1: The Big Issues

China produces 55% of the world’s aluminium, and consumes almost as much. But China has only 25% of the world’s population. This is but one aspect of the big issues confronting the aluminium industry. Environmental restrictions, Supply Side Reform, Tariff and trade wars, energy policy and the war on use of coal as a fuel, and the pressure on China from some quarters to reduce subsidies and over-capacity – these are just some of the big issues the panel will discuss.

Panel Session 2: Aluminum Technology

The recent announcement of a new carbonless technology has caught everyone’s attention, but while its potential is huge, other technological advancements have helped reduce carbon consumption, reduce costs and improve efficiency. Our panel today looks at technology and aluminium.

Panel Session 3: The market

The aluminum market is both a physical source of raw materials for manufacturers, and a financial play for traders. The relative influence of financial plays and speculators can have a huge effect on the physical market, and vice versa. How can physical producers and consumers maximise stability? And how can market speculators find the differentiator to maximise profit? And how do the two sides work together?

Panel Session 4: Bauxite & Alumina

There are many issues need examining in this area. This year China has become an exporter of alumina, but for how long? China has been cooling its primary metal industry, but we are seeing a plethora of new alumina projects – what’s the end game? China is increasingly relying on Guinea for bauxite, but is it too dependent on one country so far away and with a volatile history? Meantime, China is also cracking down on the domestic bauxite mining sector, even as the quality of domestic bauxite continues to decline. What’s the outlook for domestic bauxite?

Panel Session 5 : The Industry

So far, we have heard from market players, traders, investment bankers, and other experts. But what about the industry – without them we wouldn’t have any aluminium.

What are the challenges facing producers today? What innovative solutions are you employing? R&D into future solutions is all very well, but how to improve the key performance indicators today? Current Efficiency, net carbon consumption, iron levels, safety and emissions control, costs, and so on.

Panel Session 6: Downstream/Recycling

There have been some major shifts in the recycled aluminium market, with China reducing the amount of scrap it imports, and improving its own cycling performance. What is the outlook for secondary aluminium? What are the roadblocks that prevent China from doing more with recycling? Will China return to being a major importer of scrap aluminum?

The downstream sector gets remarkably little reporting, yet the sector is even more seriously over-capacity than upstream. With so much capacity, what do downstream companies have to do to make profits? Global players are gradually making more inroads into the China market, for instance, SAPA and Novelis. What’s the future for more foreign suppliers in China?

Inside China, transport has taken over as the largest consumer of aluminum, displacing housing & construction. But when will packaging start to build as a consumer of the metal? And where is China up to on HV power cable roll-out?

If you haven’t already signed up for our conference, what are you waiting for? https://conference.az-china.com/ the early bird price has already flown away, but we still have seats available.