22.03.2022
By 2025, it is planned to replace 80% of copper with aluminium and its alloys in the cable industry. This was discussed at an open meeting of the Energy Sector at the Aluminium Association, which was held at Moskabelmet Group.
Elena Asanova, Head of Market Relations at the Aluminium Association The topic of the event was operation under the sanctions and growth prospects. The moderator was Elena Asanova, Head of Market Relations at the Aluminium Association. The meeting was attended by representatives of manufacturers of cable and wire products, industry associations and RUSAL.
Opening the meeting, Elena Asanova recalled that the Energy Sector includes leading cable companies: Uncomtech, Kama Cable, Bogoslovsky Cable Plant, Moskabelmet, Saransk Cable, VNIIKP, Energokomplekt, EM-KAT, Beltelekabel, Tsvetlit, Baltkabel, Energoservice and Akron-Holding. She emphasised that the current economic situation requires revising the usual business scenarios, but at the same time opens up new opportunities.
The aluminium industry went through the pandemic without losses, and by the end of 2021, the country saw a recovery and growth in the consumption of aluminium and products based on it. This was facilitated by an increase in demand for aluminium from key sectors of the economy, including the construction and energy sectors.
In turn, representatives of the cable industry noted the important role of RUSAL's pricing policy, which allowed them to maintain stability in the current difficult conditions and continue to implement projects. RUSAL is making efforts to maintain the price of the metal – the company fixed the rouble price for March at the level of January-February 2022 for customers in the domestic market. RUSAL plans to continue supporting customers in the Russian market in the future too.
The task for cable producers is to convey to consumers the need to switch from copper to aluminium. This opinion was expressed by Pavel Moryakov, Head of the Energy Sector at the Aluminium Association, CEO of Moskabelmet. According to him, aluminium has a great advantage – it can reduce the cost of current projects by 50%. This is especially important in the current realities – aluminium, unlike copper, is less prone to price fluctuations. The dynamics of metal prices is a critical factor when calculating projects to be implemented in the future three to five years. Already now, cable producers are consistently switching to aluminium cable and conductor products and intend to prove that 8xxx series aluminium can be used in most projects.
The potential market capacity for 8xxx series cables in residential construction will be about 30,000 tonnes.
Aluminium has broad prospects for use in construction. For example, AsVVG cables are applied for construction of buildings, AsKG – for temporary networks, AsVBShv and AsPPG – for oil refineries, AsPPG – for metro facilities, AsVBShv and AsPPG – for industrial plants, AsKG, AsPPG, KRYOSIL and AsRV – for oil and gas sector, and AsVBS – for street lighting.
Snezhana Ravlyuk, RUSAL analyst, spoke about the new realities in the non-ferrous metal market. The global demand for aluminium continues to go up. Since 2010, the global primary aluminium consumption doubled, while the demand for copper was much more stable – it increased on average by 2% per year. Last year, there was an explosive demand for non-ferrous metals associated with the global energy transition.
Experts believe that this trend will continue in the future, but with some adjustments to the current situation. According to expert data, the total copper consumption in the energy sector remained practically unchanged over the past 10 years, while the aluminium consumption increased by 30%. The development of new aluminium alloys makes aluminium an attractive material for using in cable and wire products.
About 13% of all aluminium produced in the world is used in the energy sector.
Artem Asatur, Co-Chair of the Aluminium Association, spoke about initiatives to develop appropriate federal and regional support measures for production facilities. Today, the Association's specialists participate in working groups of the government and relevant ministries on daily basis, where proposals for strategic support measures are prepared. The Aluminium Association sees risks for the market if the product certification procedures are significantly simplified and anti-dumping duties are cancelled. Proposals were sent to the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia to exclude aluminium products, including cables, from this procedure.
The Association played an important role in the field of standardisation and combating counterfeit products, aimed at increasing public confidence in aluminium products. Over the past period, four standards for cables with aluminium conductors, nine regulatory documents for low-voltage hardware were approved, products of various brands were purchased and tested, and relevant complaints were sent in case of violations. The Aluminium Association and its partners managed to achieve the introduction of anti-dumping duties on imports of aluminium semis and other products, which made it possible to protect domestic producers from unfair imports.
Maxim Tretyakov, President of the Elektrokabel Association, called on cable producers to actively participate in creating a new business climate. The key tasks of the industry are searching for components and struggling for adequate materials. Another main area is struggling for adequate cost of production.