Aluminum and Dams: 13 – Aluminum in international markets

CMIO 4 de April de 2016

3 minutes read

PHILIP M. FEARNSIDE

The international price of aluminum has risen and fallen over the last few decades, with logical impacts on the strength of this commodity in driving decisions about dam construction. These price cycles can be expected to continue in the future. During periods with attractive prices, aluminum has been one of the reasons (and in many cases the main reason) for the construction of some of the largest dams in the world, which are also some with the greatest environmental and social impacts. These include the Tucuruí dams in Brazil, Akosombo in Ghana, the James Bay complex in Canada, Guri in Venezuela and several dams in the Patagonia region of Chile. [1].

The existing and planned Inga dams on the Congo River have had a long history of connecting with aluminum, with a huge complex of smelters from various countries planned from the 1970s to the early 1980s and again in the 2000s before of the 2008 global financial crash [2]. In addition to price fluctuations, political and military developments in the Democratic Republic of Congo have impeded the implementation of the plan. [2]; however, Congo is specifically mentioned by the International Aluminum Institute (IAI) as a likely location for future smelting plants ([3], for. 27).

Aluminum prices dropped dramatically from $3,000/tonne to $1,250/ton with the global financial crisis in 2008; prices partially recovered to $2,750/tonne by April 2011 and then declined to a plateau around $2,000/tonne in mid-2013, where they remained until April 2015 [4]. Low prices caused the postponement of expansion plans by Brazilian mills.

For example, in 2009, Votorantim put on hold a planned 100,000 t/y expansion of its 475,000 t/y plant in Sorocaba, São Paulo, while at the same time investing in a new aluminum plant in Trinidad and Tobago. , where Chinese funding had been lured with a 30-year supply of cheap electricity generated from the country’s plentiful natural gas reserves [5]. Presumably, at some future date, global demand should pick up enough to make investments in smelters in Brazil and elsewhere attractive again. [6].

GRADES

[1] Gitlitz, J. 1993. The Relationship between Primary Aluminum Production and the Damming of World Rivers. IRN Working Paper 2, International Rivers Network (IRN), Berkeley, California, USA 151 p.

[2] Misser, F. 2013. La Saga d’Inga: L’Histoire des Barrages du Fleuve Congo. Editions L’Harmattan, Paris, France. 221 p.

[3] Nappi, C. 2013. The Global Aluminum Industry 40 years from 1972. International Aluminum Institute (IAI). 27 p.

[4] LME (London Metal Exchange). 2015. Historical price graph for aluminum.

[5] Ribeiro, I. 2009. Grupo Votorantim will make aluminum in Trinidad and Tobago. Valor Econômico, December 4, 2009

[6] This is a partial translation of Fearnside, PM 2016. Environmental and social impacts of hydroelectric dams in Brazilian Amazonia: Implications for the aluminum industry. World Development 77: 48-65. doi: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2015.08.015. The author’s research is funded by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) (proc. 304020/2010-9; 573810/2008-7), by the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Amazonas (FAPEAM) (proc. 708565). ) and the National Institute for Research in the Amazon (INPA) (PRJ1).

Read too:

Aluminum and Dams: 1 – Series summary

Aluminum and Dams: 2 – Decisions on dams in the Amazon

Aluminum and Dams: 3 – The first step to review energy policy

Aluminum and Dams: 4 – The “curse of natural resources”

Aluminum and Dams: 5 – Aluminum and the construction of hydroelectric plants

Aluminum and Dams: 6 – Exporting energy and importing impacts

Aluminum and Dams: 7 – The “invisible hand” of the economy

Aluminum and Dams: 8 – Economic returns

Aluminum and Dams: 9 – Aluminum and employment

Aluminum and Dams: 10 – Indirect jobs

Aluminum and Dams: 11 – What is “consumed” aluminum?

Aluminum and Dams: 12 – Energy incorporated in commerce

Philip M. Fearnside holds a PhD from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan (USA) and is a researcher at the National Institute for Research in the Amazon (Inpa), in Manaus (AM), where he has lived since 1978. He is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and also coordinates the INCT (National Institute of Science and Technology) of the Environmental Services of the Amazon. He received the Nobel Peace Prize by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007. He has more than 500 scientific publications and more than 200 dissemination texts of his authorship that are available at this link.

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