1999 TMS Annual Meeting: Light Metals Division Luncheon

During the week of February 28-March 4, 1999, the 128th Annual Meeting & Exhibition of The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS) will be held in San Diego, California at the San Diego Convention Center.

Tickets for this luncheon are $30.00 and should be purchased in advance using the on-line meeting registration form. Lunch begins at 12:00 noon, followed by a 40 minute tutorial lecture beginning at 12:20 pm. There will be no charge for those attending the lecture who do not wish to purchase the lunch.

"Aluminum Heading for the Next Millennium"

About the Topic: Aluminum is a fairly young, versatile metal, faced with opportunities and challenges in the next millennium. It has shown sustainable growth over the past 50 years. More recently, the growth has been driven by the transportation sector, at the same time being challenged by plastics within the packaging area. Populous areas in Asia, South America, and Russia offer significant growth potentials.

Being such a young material, it is necessary to educate the educators about its properties. We need to promote the material in a concerted and coordinated way to potential users within the various consumption segments. At the same time we need to inform the legislators and regulators about aluminum's possible contribution to a sustainable environment. The various aluminum associations around the world should play an important role in this respect.

One major benefit of aluminum, in a world concerned with global warming and energy consumption, is recycling. The material can be used again and again without deterioration of inherent properties, significantly reducing the specific CO₂ emissions and energy consumption over the total lifetime.

In the foreseeable future the industry will be faced with the continuous struggle of cost rationalization in old and new Hall-Heroult plants to cope with the declining price trend for aluminum in real terms. The plants are becoming bigger, reducing specific investment costs and energy consumption, increasing productivity figures and current efficiency, making a difficult time for old works with limited potential for improvement. The ownership structure of the industry is changing, the major producers increasing their share through expansion and acquisitions and the governments' involvement being reduced through privatization programs.

About the Presenter: Jon-Harald Nilsen is president of Hydro Aluminium Metal Products. He held an executive position in Hydro's Metal Division since 1988 and has been responsible for the division's marketing and sales of aluminium casthouse products. He graduated from the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration in 1975 and has worked for Norsk Hydro ASA since 1977.

The annual production capacity of Hydro Aluminium Metal Products' plants is about 740,000 tonnes. All the alloyed special products are produced on order. Annually, the Metal Division supplies about 1.7 million tonnes of casthouse products, often as part of a joint venture with customers, where the conversion of scrap, technology, commercial cooperation, logisitics, etc. are included. In addition to its own production of primary aluminium, the division also has considerable sales based on the remelting of aluminium scrap, supplies from joint venture companies and trading activities.