On June 24 and 25 the first Italy-Russia Aluminium Forum will be held online. Two leading countries in the sector, respectively in the transformation (and applications) and in the production of aluminium, will meet to discuss future synergies and the strategic role that the light metal and its alloys will play in the coming years. The Forum, organized by Metef, the exhibition fair dedicated to aluminum, and by the Russian Aluminum Association, will see representatives of trade associations, entrepreneurs, technicians, designers of the two countries. They will discuss the role of light metal as a protagonist in sustainable development and in the various segments of application - from automotive to packaging - with a focus on architectural and construction applications.
Today, aluminium is considered the material of the future. With its versatile characteristics, lightness and resistance, easy to work and infinitely recyclable, this metal will see an increasing use in the coming years: in fact, the world demand for raw aluminum is expected to grow by 50 to 80% by 2050. Russia is one of the world's leading producers of primary aluminum with a low carbon footprint and Italy (like the rest of the EU) needs to import the primary metal to feed the downstream industries that transform and process the aluminum used in the most diverse segments. Our country, in fact, has about 500 companies producing and processing aluminum, employing 15,600 people for a turnover exceeding 9 billion euros (2020). Even looking at the per capita consumption, Italy represents a mature market with 32kg of aluminum per capita per year.
"We decided to organize the first Italy-Russia aluminum forum because in different ways these two countries are leaders in the sector. Russia is a large primary producing country that is working to make the aluminum produced at the best level of environmental sustainability. Italy, from its side, has not produced primary aluminum for years, so it is a major importer because it is a leader in transformations in the form of rolled, extruded, foundry castings and die-cast and in subsequent downstream processing," explains Mario Conserva, president of Metef, who adds: "Both countries, moreover, have sustainability as their primary goal: Russia aims to reach NET 0 by 2050 in the production of primary aluminum, Italy is historically at the forefront in the production of aluminum from recycling and is a leader in Europe in the recycling of aluminum packaging."
Artem Asatur, co-chair of the Russian Aluminum Association RAA, recalls that the path of close cooperation between Russia and Italy in the field of aluminum has been successfully underway for years, with the aim of evaluating every opportunity to transfer knowledge and technologies of mutual interest and also to develop the supply chain at best.
The first part of the forum will be dedicated to the link between the two countries in order to develop the potential of investments and business links in the aluminum industry, evaluate common strategies and discuss the key role of aluminum in sustainable development. A historical link, that of the two countries, confirmed by the presence, at the opening of the Forum, of the respective Ambassadors Sergey Razov and Ambassador Pasquale Terracciano, as well as Mario Fiorentino Director for Industrial Policy, Innovation and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises at the Ministry of Economic Development and Vincenzo Trani, President of the Italy-Russia Chamber of Commerce. Also featured Danilo Amigoni, President of Centroal, Riccardo Ferrario, General Manager of Idra Group, Antonello Colussi, President of Danieli Russia, Mauro Cibaldi, member of the board of the metallurgy sector of Confindustria Brescia, Stefano Stellini, Director of Communication of CIAL, Maurizio Sala, CEO of Foundry Ecocer, Fabio Zanardi, President and General Manager of Zanardi Fonderie, Gabriele Ceselin, General Manager and CEO of AQM, Cesare Pozzi, Professor of Industrial Economics at Luiss "Guido Carli" University and Gabriele Cirieco, Director and Founder of Strategic Advice. Representatives of the leading Russian companies of the aluminium sector: Dmitry Ryabov, Director for Science at the Institute of Light Materials and Alloys-ILMIT, Olga Krylova, Sustainability And Marketing Manager at Rusal Marketing Gmb and Vladimir Bakshaev, Director Of Cheboksary Enterprise "Sespel" will present their newest achievements during the forum.
The second day, on the other hand, will be dedicated to aluminium in the architecture and construction and AlumForum 2021 in Moscow and has been organized with the support of UNICMI and Russian companies Iplana and Supporting systems LLC. In addition to showing the potential of metal in this sector with the intervention of Studio Fuksas, Zanetti Design Architettura, Bernaskoni Studios and extensive reports by Paolo Rigone, UNICMI technical director, and Carmine Garzia, professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the UNICMI Center for Economic Studies, significant examples of realizations based on the use of aluminum by Russian and Italian architects will be presented.
Link to the program and to registration for the Forum:
June 24: https://www.aluminas.ru/en/events/rossiysko_italyanskiy_alyuminievyy_forum-24/
June 25: https://www.aluminas.ru/en/events/rossiysko_italyanskiy_alyuminievyy_forum/