The Aluminum Association, based in Arlington, Virginia, has released the latest edition of its "Aluminum Statistical Review," reporting on aluminum demand and other market factors for 2014.

The latest edition features a new design and statistics through 2014 in the North American market, and includes information on every cycle of the aluminum production process from primary aluminum to markets for finished goods to the recovery of aluminum scrap, the association says.

The full report is available for purchase in the Aluminum Association bookstore at www.aluminum.org.

This year’s Review shows continued growth in demand for the metal and positive trend lines in many key market sectors. Among key findings, the report found that in 2014 in the U.S. and Canada:

• Demand for aluminum (producer net shipments and imports) increased by 3.6 percent to 25.5 billion pounds;
• U.S. imports of aluminum and aluminum products increased 7.0 percent over 2013, to a total of 11.7 billion pounds;
• Growth in U.S. imports was largely a result of an increase in aluminum originating from China, with shipments up 38 percent over 2013 levels;
• Shipments to the transportation sector grew 11.1 percent to 8.4 billion pounds;
• Shipments in the building and construction market increased 6.7 percent to 3.1 billion pounds;
• Container and packaging shipments edged up four-tenths of 1 percent to 4.6 billion pounds;
• Net shipments of semifabricated or mill products increased 4.2 percent over the previous year to 17.6 billion pounds.

“The Aluminum Association is the authoritative source for statistics on the North American aluminum industry and the 'Review' is the resource to find comprehensive year-end figures,” says Ryan Olsen, Aluminum Association vice president for business information and statistics. “The data highlights the significant growth a number of the industry’s key markets experienced in 2014.”

Aluminum Association President and CEO Heidi Brock adds, “One notable takeaway from this report is the apparent increase in aluminum imports coming from China—up some 38 percent in 2014. Preliminary data suggest these imports are continuing to grow in 2015. The Association is currently working to highlight these changes in the marketplace with both the Chinese and U.S. governments to help ensure that the aluminum trade between our two countries is free, fair and transparent.”

Overall in 2014, the industry shipped more than 25.5 billion pounds of metal for the first time since before the recession, with total demand up more than 36 percent since 2009. Demand in the building and construction sector has grown nearly 19 percent, while the transportation market has grown an unprecedented 95 percent during that same time period. Despite the recent growth, the North American aluminum industry has committed to more than $2 billion in domestic capital investment to take advantage of the anticipated continued demand growth in the coming years.

The "Aluminum Statistical Review" is divided into five major sections: supply, shipments, markets, foreign trade and world statistics. Contents include text, tables and charts to provide year-end figures and other historic data on U.S. and Canadian shipments, markets, supply and foreign trade. The latest edition spotlights the last 10 years (2004-2014), and also provides historical statistics on the aluminum industry.

To purchase a download of the Aluminum Statistical Review for 2014, visit www.aluminum.org and click the “Bookstore” tab. The price is $150 for members, or $300 for nonmembers.

The Brussels-based European Organization for Packaging and the Environment (EUROPEN) and 28 other associations representing a large range of industries and sectors including major consumer goods brands, packaging producers, material producers and extended producer responsibility (EPR) organisations, have announced a set of joint recommendations for the new Circular Economy proposals expected from the European Commission (EC) by the end of 2015.

The 29 organisations call for a long-term strategic European Union (EU) policy framework that facilitates sustainable resource use from a full lifecycle perspective, incentivizes economies of scale and takes into account value chains at all levels.

“In order for the forthcoming EU proposals to benefit the environment as well as European competitiveness, jobs and growth, we need a holistic approach that recognizes the positive role of packaging in optimizing resource use, minimizing product waste and protecting products all along the many and varied value chains that are concerned,” says Martin Reynolds, chairman of EUROPEN. “We call on the EU to ensure that a full lifecycle approach to packaging and the Internal Market principle is firmly embedded in future EU measures, as it is today in the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive, the cornerstone of EU law for our sector.”

The joint industry recommendations call on the EU to ensure that the Circular Economy package:

• Safeguards the free movement of packaging and packaged goods in the EU Internal Market
• Ensures the full implementation and enforcement of existing EU laws
• Strengthens the EU legal framework for Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for used packaging
• Establishes a solid, comparable and harmonised calculation method for packaging recycling rates
• Sets realistic and achievable packaging recycling targets based on known baselines
• Diverts packaging materials from landfill

“The packaging supply chain has achieved considerable progress in resource efficiency, including recycling and recovery over the past twenty years, supported by the holistic approach enshrined in current EU legislation,” says Virginia Janssens, managing director of EUROPEN. “We are committed to persevering along this road. The joint recommendations that we co-signed with such a broad range of sectors today point to a clear path ahead through which EU legislation can further enable our diverse industries to achieve continuous environmental improvement while continuing to contribute to a vibrant, innovative and competitive European economy.”

France-based Suez Environnement and Cemex in the United Kingdom have opened a new solid recovered fuel facility in Rugby, U.K., that will produce SRF for the Cemex cement plant in Rugby.

The companies officially opened the Rugby Solid Recovered Fuel facility on September 18, 2015.

The SRF facility, owned and operated by Suez, will supply the Cemex Rugby facility’s cement kiln with a direct replacement for fossil fuel, manufactured with regionally sourced waste from across Warwickshire, Northamptonshire and the wider Midlands Area, Cemex reports.

The fuel, which Suez calls Climafuel, replaces traditional coal as an energy supply, Suez says. The waste and recycling company will supply Cemex with up to 240,000 metric tons of the fuel every year to help meet the energy needs of the Cemex plant and improve its environmental performance.

The Rugby Solid Recovered Fuel Facility will produce up to 200,000 metric tons annually for the Cemex facility, with the balance of around 40,000 metric tons produced from Suez’s SRF plant in Birmingham, U.K.

The Rugby Solid Recovered Fuel Facility was built as part of a 25-year contract between Suez and Cemex, signed in 2012. Through the partnership between the two companies, Suez leased land opposite the kiln from Cemex in 2013, and construction of the £18 million ($28 million) fuel facility began in 2014. The commissioning of the process equipment took place earlier in 2015.

The SRF facility can process up to 300,000 metric tons of residual waste each year and around 70 percent of the input material comes from businesses in the region, while the remaining 30 percent is household waste.

According to Suez, the majority of this waste would otherwise be destined for landfill but the SRF manufacturing process enables the company to extract recyclable materials, such as plastics, card and metals, which would be too contaminated to viably recycle.

We are very pleased to officially open the Rugby Solid Recovered Fuel Facility and formally mark the start of this long term partnership between Suez and Cemex,” says Jean-Marc Boursier, senior executive vice president of SUEZ in charge of the recycling and waste recovery division for Europe. “With the 240,000 tonnes of SRF produced by this site, the Group now supplies 1.1 million tonnes of SRF worldwide.”

Fernando Gonzalez, CEO of Cemex, says, “This long term partnership with Suez in the UK reinforces one of the main drivers of our strategy: ensuring that sustainability is fully embedded in every aspect of our business.”

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The Brussels-based World Steel Association (Worldsteel) has reported that crude steel production for the 65 countries reporting to the association was 132 million metric tons in August 2015, down 3 percent compared with August 2014.

The crude steel capacity utilisation ratio for the 65 countries in August 2015 was 68 percent, which is 3.6 percentage points lower than August 2014. Compared with July 2015, it is 0.4 percentage points lower.

Worldsteel also reports that China’s crude steel production for August 2015 was down by 3.5 percent to 67 million metric tons, compared with August 2014. Japan registered a decline of almost 6 percent to a level of 8.8 million metric tons.

In the European Union, Germany produced 3.4 million metric tons of crude steel in August 2015, an increase of almost 11 percent compared with August 2014.

Russia produced 6 million metric tons of crude steel, down by 3 percent from August 2014.

And the United States produced 7 million metric tons of crude steel in August 2015, down by nearly 10 percent compared with August 2014.

For additional August production statistics reported to Worldsteel, visit www.worldsteel.org.