Delegates at the St George Sonesta Hotel, Luxor, Egypt event were told global aluminium production could be about 100Mt by 2035 with continued urbanisation the main driver behind demand.
China and India will be the main consumers with both countries each using about 60% of demand thanks to increased construction and transportation, CRU Analysis’ Marco Georgiou, Head, Aluminium Primary and Products told the event.
However, the main challenges until about 2014 are to do with the fragile market as the industry recovers from the economic downturn.
Fears of a double dip recession remain, especially as government-backed infrastructure programmes and tax breaks come to an end, said Rio Tinto Alcan’s Sandeep Biswas, senior vice president, development and growth.
About 390 people from 30 countries attended the conference, which included an exhibition of about 12 companies.
Other speakers on the first day included Hydro’s Harald Odegaard who spoke about Hydro’s partnership with the regional and global aluminium industry, Qatalum’s group manager casthouse, Pal Vigeland, who gave an update on the clean up and restart of pots at the Qatalum, Qatar site after a power outage in August.
Day two speakers will include Alstom Norway’s Sivert Ose who will speak about ‘Alfeed’ – its alumina distribution and feeding system and SGL Carbon’s Andreas Schnittker, who will discuss SGL Cathode Bottom Blocks from Broad Base to Best Solutions.
Arabal is the 14th Arab International Aluminium Conference. The event is due to finish on Wednesday afternoon.
A comprehensive report of the conference will be published in Aluminium International Today’s January/February 2011 issue.