CRU aluminum news roundup

With this new facility, Keymark’s total production space in Lakeland will exceed 330,000 square feet with the expansion bringing 40 new jobs. Keymark services include die engineering design, aluminum extrusion finishing, powder and wet painting, anodizing, and custom packaging.

Novelis to restart Sierre rolling mill week of Sept. 9, according to local media

According to local media, Novelis should restart its aluminum rolled products production the week starting Sept. 9. This follows the recent floods in Sierre in Switzerland at the end of June. The company has carried out a number of tests in recent weeks to check its equipment. In particular, it took pumping, draining, cleaning and restoring power to reconnect thousands of electrical components, reports said.

A meeting is also planned for Wednesday between Novelis and the Valais State Council over the financial responsibilities for the floods, which forced the company to shut down. The management’s objective is to review the urgent measures announced by the Council of State to specify the deadlines for this work and assess its efficiency, according to the reports.

Gränges joins First Movers Coalition

Gränges has officially joined the First Movers Coalition (FMC) – a strategic move aimed at accelerating the decarbonization of the aluminum industry. The move comes as Gränges seeks to secure access to low-carbon primary and recycled aluminum – a key factor in minimizing the environmental impact of its products and achieving its 2040 net-zero target.

The FMC – an initiative spearheaded by the World Economic Forum – represents a global coalition of companies committed to leveraging their purchasing power to drive down carbon emissions in heavy industries. This includes sectors such as aluminum, aviation, cement and concrete, steel, shipping, trucking, and advancements in carbon dioxide removal technologies. By consolidating the purchasing power of its members, the coalition aims to generate the largest private-sector demand for cutting-edge decarbonization technologies.

Gränges is the 100th member to join the coalition. “Not only is Gränges the 100th member of FMC, but as a global leader in aluminum rolling and recycling, Gränges brings valuable knowledge of the sector and purchasing power that will help to accelerate FMC’s mission to scale low-carbon primary and secondary aluminum,” said Rob van Riet, Interim Head of the First Movers Coalition.

Vimetco Extrusion completes major innovation project

Vimetco Extrusion, Romania’s largest extruder, has completed the implementation of a project worth over €3.8 million (USD$4.2 million), the company reported on its website. The project involved the purchase of an automatic packaging line for finished products – an investment that will lead to a reduction in CO2 emissions and in the amount of waste generated in the production process.

The project was financed with the support of grants from the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2014–21 within the program “SME Development in Romania.” It was carried out in partnership with International Development Norway, a Norwegian consulting company specializing in green innovation. The project ran from July 2021 to April 2024 and had a total value of €3,849,311, of which €1,851,000 was grant funding.

Constellium releases results of collaborative research project

Constellium announced the results of its collaborative research project Aluminum Intensive Vehicle Enclosures (ALIVE). Constellium’s University Technology Center (UTC) at Brunel University London was the lead partner of the project, focused on developing structural aluminum battery enclosures for electric vehicles. The £15m (USD$19.7-million) project, half funded by UK government subsidies through its Advanced Propulsion Center (APC), began in 2020. 

The consortium is made up of six industrial partners (BMW, Constellium, EXPERT Technologies Group, Innoval Technology, Powdertech and Volvo) and two university technology partners (BCAST (Brunel University London) and WMG (University of Warwick). The project enabled the creation of a full-scale battery enclosure prototyping line. The team also demonstrated the superior performance of coated aluminum solutions for fire resistance. ALIVE furthermore supported the development of cost models to quantify manufacturing costs and minimize capital expenditures to support future industrialization decision-making processes.

The Constellium team is already adapting the design philosophies to other enclosure types, such as chest battery packs for trucks and SUVs, as well as validating the use of high-recycled content alloys in such demanding aluminum product forms to further improve their carbon footprint.

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