Aluminium Consumers in Europe (FACE)

𝐀𝐥𝐮𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐮𝐦 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐫𝐚𝐰 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐬 🇮🇹 The recent debate in the Italian Chamber of Deputies on critical raw materials of strategic interest is a compulsory step to identify the resources needed for energy transition and industrial sustainability. The bill converting Law Decree No. 84 dated June 25th 2024 aims to strengthen Italy’s resilience in the sector of critical raw materials, which are essential for the green and digital transition. The measure fits into the framework of the objectives outlined by (EU) Regulation 2024/1252, known as the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRM Act), which aims to ensure a secure and sustainable supply of these resources, which are indispensable for strategic sectors such as aerospace, defence and renewable energy. 🗣️ "To optimise the effectiveness of the draft law - said our President and CEO Mario Conserva in the last editorial for the magazine A&L Alluminio e Leghe - we consider it essential to include specific measures promoting the recycling of non-ferrous metals, such as aluminium". 🇪🇺 The aluminium sector in Europe faces significant challenges, including dependence on raw material imports and high energy costs. Aluminium is an essential resource for Europe's future and its recycling is a priority quality, requiring only 5% of the energy needed to produce primary aluminium. The draft law under discussion is an important answer to these challenges, as it aims to secure the supply of critical raw materials, reducing dependence on external supplies and promoting recycling and sustainability. 📌 We propose extending the monitoring already established for ferrous scrap also to copper and aluminium scrap. Finally, and a key point if we really want to ensure a stable supply of critical raw materials, the elimination of import duty on raw aluminium within the EU can no longer be postponed. This duty increases the costs for European manufacturing industries, reducing their competitiveness at global level, and the end-user segment, which accounts for more than 90% of the segment’s turnover and is overwhelmingly made up of SMEs, is damaged. The elimination of this duty on raw metal means cheaper access to the raw material primary aluminium, of which the EU is short of 85% thus supporting the growth and sustainability of the sector. 🫱🏻🫲🏼 We fully support this measure with the hope that further measures will be introduced to promote recycling, efficient use of resources, and correct and fair access to materials. By fostering proper cooperation between institutions and industry, thinking of our small and medium-sized companies and not of the interests of large multinational lobbies, we can ensure a more sustainable and competitive future for the aluminium supply chain in Europe. Here the full article 👉🏼 https://lnkd.in/dC8Aqeme #FACE #Aluminium #Alluminio #CriticalRawMaterials #EuropeanUnion #EU

🇪🇺 Europe has to import about 8 million tonnes of primary aluminium per year, compared to a total use of raw metal, including recycled aluminium, of just over 13.5 million tonnes. In recent years, in fact, the EU has experienced a sharp drop in the production of primary aluminium with a loss of 65%, and domestic production, which was over 3 million tonnes in 2000, now amounts to only about 950,000 tonnes. ⚙️ This is a risky situation for a high-tech material that is widely and increasingly used in every industrial segment. In particular in Europe, this situation is impacted by circumstances related to the very characteristics of the production and supply chain of the versatile light metal: the high energy consumption in its production on which high and growing costs weigh; the actual availability of the raw metal and the problems in the supply chains, such as import duties in the EU, absurd for a raw material that we do not have; climate measures that impact on production costs, both as a cost and as a tariff on imports from less virtuous countries in the EU; then add to this the lobbying pressures for self-defeating sanctions that are also artfully constructed in connection with international crises such as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. 🏭 Our President and CEO Mario Conserva was interviewed by the Italian press agency Dire.it to give voice to the thousands of small and medium-sized companies downstream processing, transforming and using light metal, which are today endangered by short-sighted, ineffective and self-defeating political choices for the European downstream. 🗣️ "It is necessary to ensure uniform conditions and rules, a level playing field for our operators, with the same conditions of access to raw materials that our formidable competitors in the East have. Decision-makers must help us by selecting the most appropriate and environmentally friendly producers, the most reliable and also the closest, because distance also counts", stated our CEO and President. Read and listen to the whole interview here 👉🏼 https://lnkd.in/eW8KPgrq #FACE #Aluminium #Alluminio #EuropeanUnion #EU #CBAM

𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐦𝐚𝐩 ⚠ Caution should be paid to the case of aluminium and the weak choices of the Western world which complicate trading and neglect the general interest of the supply chain and downstream SMEs. 🇨🇳 The Chinese economy has been working on key commodities for some time, and the case of aluminium is part of this logic. Their system is adding investment upon investment across the commodities front, with a clear strategic plan, apart from rare metals. China’s State Council recently published an action plan on a subject very closely related to commodities, that of energy saving and green technologies for the 2024-25 period, with the aim of reducing energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by around 2.5% and 3.9% respectively in 2024. The share of non-fossil energy consumption is expected to grow to 18.9% in 2024 and 20% in 2025. 🗣️ "In relation to the aluminium sector, how can one fail to appreciate their timing to really get ahead of the times to be able to compete head-on with our manufacturing? - said our President and CEO Mario Conserva in the last editorial for the magazine A&L Alluminio e Leghe. In this context it is utterly self-destructive to maintain EU tariffs on imports of a raw material such as primary aluminium whose domestic production is disappearing, and it is equally absurd and self-damaging to make calls for restricting or banning flows of low carbon primary aluminium that are still being purchased by EU consumers in a general context of shortage and high prices. 🇪🇺 In recent decades, in the market for our metal, the decision-makers who have "protected" the so-called compromises on tariffs and other decisions on the unfortunately hopeless production of primary aluminium, disregarding competent and unbiased positions, thus undermining competitiveness of 80% and more of the supply chain and the many SMEs in the segment. Here the full article 👉🏼 https://lnkd.in/dFUrmeAJ #FACE #Aluminium #Alluminio #EuropeanUnion #EU #China

𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐄𝐔 𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐮𝐦 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞’𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐲 🗣️ Naike Gruppioni, member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Italian Parliament, recently stated that, while in Brussels a new set of sanctions against Russia is being considered, "sanctioning aluminium from Russia would be politically and economically counterproductive, as the EU market does not follow the same supply patterns as those of the UK and the US", which instead recently imposed restrictions banning Russian aluminium from using the London Metals Exchange (LME) and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) as markets of last resort”. 🌍 In fact, as the MP said, the aluminium "proceeds through a high-value-added European supply chain that supports jobs and investments across Europe. Significant downstream European operations like foundries and refineries are spread across the continent - often in manufacturing regions that cannot afford to lose those high-skilled jobs". ⚙️ As we have been advocating for a long time, "any sanction on aluminium would undermine - and in some cases, completely kill - this high-value-added European supply chain. Restrictions on such a large source of supply would lead to price increases and inflation at every stage, from raw materials to finished products, including clean energy infrastructure and consumer goods. The return of inflation caused by political decisions is the last thing the European industry and consumer need. When that European supply chain is shut down after the imposition of sanctions, what will happen to the EU’s aluminium demand? The answer is that the EU will become even more dependent on the world’s number one aluminium producer: China". 🇪🇺 EU Member States should not sanction aluminium because "the benefits would be purely performative, and the disadvantages would be real and have enormous repercussions not only on competitiveness, but also on security and strategic dependence. We would put the very survival of the European industrial fabric at real risk - both in processing countries like Sweden and Ireland, and in industrial end-user countries like France and Italy". Here the article by Euractiv 👉🏼 https://lnkd.in/epVyGkH6 #FACE #Alluminio #Aluminium #EuropeanUnion #EU

📌 Assofond General Assembly 2024 | Commodities, what future? 🗓️ Friday 21 June, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. 📍 Borgo Rocca Sveva in Soave (VR) - Italy It is with great pleasure that we would like to report Assofond event regarding the 2024 edition of the ordinary general meeting of its member foundries, which will take place on Friday 21 June at Borgo Rocca Sveva in Soave (VR) - Italy. The Soave event will feature a private session, reserved for members, scheduled in the morning, and a public conference in the afternoon, starting at 2 p.m. Between the two events, a networking lunch will be held in the presence of all the main players in the industry. The public conference will focus on raw materials and the possible evolutions that will characterise the near future, between geopolitical tensions that may jeopardise supply and the path towards the ecological transition that requires not only to reduce our emissions, but also and above all to decarbonise the upstream supply chain. Find out more here 👉🏼 https://lnkd.in/dAPGxtGh #FACE #Assofond #Alluminio #Aluminium

🎉 FACE joins the congratulations made by our Secretary General Mario Conserva to the newly elected President of Assofermet Cinzia Vezzosi and to the new Vice-President Michele Ciocca! #FACE #ASSOFERMET #Alluminio #Aluminium

🎉 FACE turns 25! Celebrating a quarter-century of shaping a brighter future for European Aluminium! 🇮🇹 In November, FACE will celebrate its 25th anniversary in Rome, in one of the Eternal City's most extraordinary and prestigious monuments, the Altar of the Peace of emperor Augustus, the ARA PACIS AUGUSTAE, with the "Green Competitiveness Conference", that will explore innovative pathways and low-carbon applications for our zero-carbon future and make policy recommendations at a crucial time in an extremely important election year for our continent and internationally. ⚙️ Since its foundation in May 1999 by independent European aluminium transformers, FACE has been advocating for the need to create favourable and equal access conditions to raw materials supplies in Europe, looking after the interests of the thousands of small and medium-sized companies downstream processing, transforming and using the light metal, while at the same time developing initiatives to promote its research and development, the knowledge of its economic, social and environmental properties, and to encourage its diffusion in the appropriate end uses. 🇪🇺 With the strength of a group of members and partners composed mainly of small and medium-sized companies in the downstream sector of the supply chain, together with some important stakeholders in the upstream aluminium sector, FACE supports the protection of the entire light metal supply chain in the EU, based on the needs of thousands of SMEs representing over 70% of its turnover and over 90% of its workforce. 🫱🏻🫲🏼 We support a fair and rules-based international trading system with the WTO at its core, fair competition in the market, and the emphasis on the objectives of transformation towards a low carbon economy, with aluminium as the ideal material to achieve sustainability goals. Find out more about us 👉🏼 https://lnkd.in/djN2NneD #FACE #Alluminio #Aluminium #EuropeanUnion #EU

In the new editorial for A&L Alluminio e Leghe, FACE Secretary General Mario Conserva talks about green aluminium. When we talk about "green", we are referring to many aspects of eco-sustainability that puts aluminium in first place among other materials of industrial use for the realisation of the circular economy cycle. Aluminium needs energy to be produced, like other materials, but it has an extra edge because it can be recovered and put back into the cycle without losing its characteristics, and for this reason only 5% of the energy produced at the beginning of the cycle is needed. Metal from recycling currently covers over 30% of global needs and is expected to reach even over 50% by 2050; at European level, recovered metal already covers over 35% of needs and in Italy we are at 50%. But aluminium is not only green because it is easy to recycle: for some years now, initiatives have been developed by major primary producers to differentiate it according to its CO2 footprint, which in turn depends on the technical characteristics of the production plant and the type of electricity used. It is in everyone's interest to promote the most virtuous technologies and products, rewarding both the development of recycling and the influx of virtuous metal with a low CO2 footprint in Europe, which has a serious production shortage of primary aluminium and has so far been unable to develop a serious proposal on the energy plan to stop the closure and delocalisation of smelters out of the EU. Here the editorial by our Secretary General for the magazine A&L 👉🏼 https://lnkd.in/dsfi4QA2 #FACE #Alluminio #Aluminium #EuropeanUnion #EU #GreenAluminium

"European Union’s implementation of a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) will have a negative impact on the primary aluminium market", Wood Mackenzie said. The report, titled "CBAM and aluminium: The devil’s in the detail", highlights an imminent impact on European producers, leading to increased prices for consumers. This has been FACE's constant view since our first communications on CBAM with the EU Commission. FACE estimated that the CBAM will add at least 3,6 billions euros annually of overcost to the EU downstream aluminium sector which already suffers from more than 1 billion euros annual overcost of its raw material because of the maintaining of outdated and absurd import tariffs on raw aluminium in an import-dependent market. We should replace the CBAM by a European super-IRA style instrument, preferring incentive to taxation, and fully liberalise our supplies of low carbon primary aluminium, to support our competitiveness and decarbonisation. Here the full article by GreentechLead.com 👉🏼 https://lnkd.in/dKA7hM-T #FACE #Alluminio #Aluminium #CBAM #EU #EuropeanUnion

FACE welcomes BWA's policy paper on how European SMEs suffer the most from the unintended consequences of sanctions, specifically on critical raw materials such as aluminium. FACE (the Federation of Aluminium Consumers in Europe) welcomes the publication of a comprehensive report by the German Federal Association for Economic Development and Foreign Trade (BWA) e.V., authored by Prof. Dr. Daniel Horgos of the Berlin School of Management in collaboration with BWA's Raw Materials Commission. This important study sheds light on the far-reaching negative impacts of sanctions on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), particularly within the aluminium sector. The study argues that proposed sanctions on Russian aluminium are especially self-defeating and do not necessarily contribute to achieving policy goals, because the aluminium sector amounts to less than 1% of Russia's GDP. Here the report 👉🏼 https://lnkd.in/dS4asA9u #FACE #Aluminium #Alluminio #EuropeanUnion #EU #SME