Column: Sustainability the new battleground for aluminium producers – by Andy Home (Reuters U.K. – October 22, 2019)

https://uk.reuters.com/

LONDON (Reuters) – Another year, another portfolio review by Alcoa. The U.S. aluminium producer has just announced a five-year review of around 4.0 million tonnes of alumina capacity and 1.5 million tonnes of smelter capacity.

Assets will be improved, curtailed, closed or sold. It’s not quite an annual event but Alcoa shareholders have been here many times before as the company keeps trying to move down the cost curve in the face of chronically depressed prices.

On the London Metal Exchange (LME) three-month aluminium has ground steadily lower over the course of 2019 and at a current $1,720 per tonne is close to the near three-year low of $1,705 recorded earlier this month.

This time around, however, Alcoa is throwing an extra ingredient into the cost-cutting mix – sustainability. The company “expects to be the lowest emitter of carbon dioxide among all global aluminum companies”.

Going green is the new differentiator in the cut-throat business of making aluminium. Aluminium is one of the metals expected to benefit from the “green revolution” given its recyclability and light-weighting potential in the automotive sector.

For the rest of this article: https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-metals-aluminium-ahome/column-sustainability-the-new-battleground-for-aluminium-producers-idUKKBN1X11ER