Articles in Category: Green

According to the Financial Times, China’s President Xi Jinping surprised the global community by announcing last month a hugely ambitious plan to improve China’s environment and make the country carbon-neutral by 2060.

In addition, he said the country’s emissions would peak before 2030.

But does this really mean anything? If it does, what impact will it have on the country’s massive steel industry? The steel industry, of course, is the source of a significant proportion of the country’s carbon emissions?

Sign up today for Gunpowder, MetalMiner’s free, biweekly e-newsletter featuring news, analysis and more.

China’s environment and emissions figures

Firstly, let’s look at the scale of the proposition.

China is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases (such as carbon dioxide and methane).

Last year, China’s emissions accounted for roughly 27% of the global total. The country’s total accounted for more than the U.S., Europe and Japan combined, the Financial Times reported.

Furthermore, the country consumes more coal than the rest of the world put together. In addition, China continues to commission new coal power plants.

On the one hand, China also leads the world in the deployment of solar power, wind power and electric vehicles. Its energy-efficiency policies are ambitious and successful. Significantly, there are no known climate change deniers in the Chinese leadership.

But is the pledge meaningful?

It contrasts poorly with that made by almost 70 countries and the E.U. Those countries have already pledged to make their economies “net-zero” greenhouse gas emitters by mid-century, or 10 years earlier than China’s pledge.

And the 2030 peak emissions date is a rehash of a commitment made back in 2014, suggesting peak emissions could be reached well before 2030 and the authorities are simply back-sliding.

Difficult changes

The scale of the challenge vis-a-vis China’s environment and emissions is considerable.

More than 85% of China’s primary energy last year came from coal, oil, and natural gas, all of which produce carbon dioxide. This came despite massive investment in solar and wind.

Read more

India’s renewable energy sector, the fourth-most attractive renewable energy market in the world today, is all set to get a new player.

U.S.-based ArcVera Renewables, which specializes in consulting and technical services, has announced its entry into India’s solar, wind and hybrid energy storage market.

ArcVera has opened up an office in Bengaluru in the southern part of India. From there, it will deliver its expertise to project developers, lenders and investors — not only in India but also neighboring Southeast Asia and Pacific Rim countries.

The MetalMiner 2021 Annual Outlook consolidates our 12-month view and provides buying organizations with a complete understanding of the fundamental factors driving prices and a detailed forecast that can be used when sourcing metals for 2021 — including expected average prices, support and resistance levels.

ArcVera joins the fray in India’s renewable energy sector

The Colorado-based ArcVera Renewables has over 40 years of global experience. The firm is now providing expert technical, financial and independent engineering services for stand-alone energy storage or hybrid projects.

Gregory S. Poulos, CEO of ArcVera Renewables, told the Indian media a combination of factors had made the company take this decision to expand. He said, on the one hand, India is a large and rapidly growing renewables market. With the entry of energy tenders and hybrid project requirements, the country presents an even more complex and competitive market.

On the other hand, a competitor departure from the Indian wind market left a vacuum that ArcVera is ideally positioned to fill, Poulos added.

What also drove ArcVera’s decision is the fact that Indian developers and investors are on the lookout for technical expertise to lower project risk and raise project value.

ArcVera’s services cover the full project life cycle. That cycle includes: finance-grade resource assessments, project design, technology assessments, financing, M&A, due diligence, construction, operations and repowering.

The company has atmospheric scientists, engineers, and data analysts.

Read more

Europe’s steel industry appears to be at a crossroads.

Hurting before the coronavirus pandemic-induced lockdowns, the industry struggled with overcapacity, high costs, weak demand and competition from lower-cost sources (like China and Russia).

The lockdowns decimated demand. Major consumers, like the automotive sector, which takes something like 20% of European production of flat-rolled steel, according to the Financial Times, have now largely reopened.

Even so, auto sales are not expected to recover to pre-pandemic levels until 2025, according to major European component supplier Continental.

Volatility is the name of the game. Do you have a steel buying strategy that can handle the ups and downs?

Could M&A be the answer for European steelmakers?

Mergers and consolidation have traditionally been posed as solutions. Bigger is better and economies of scale will solve the challenge of profitability, the argument goes.

However, many are arguing European steelmakers should worry less about consolidation and more about rationalization.

Furthermore, politicians are among those reluctant to consider job losses in their own regions.

The steel industry employs some 330,000 people across the continent. About 40% of the workforce is currently on some form of short working or under threat of redundancies.

However, if the government does not support closures with retraining and regional enterprise policies to support alternative employment opportunities, the European steel industry will limp on with, at best, marginal profitability and poor capacity utilization.

Read more

eyetronic/Adobe Stock

Before we head into the long Labor Day weekend, let’s take a look back at the week that was in the world of metals.

Automakers released August sales reports, mostly showing sales remain down compared with 2019 levels.

Meanwhile, for the week ending Aug. 29, U.S. steel mills’ capacity utilization fell compared with the previous week, interrupting an extended stretch of weekly capacity increases.

In other news, President Donald Trump took aim at steel imports from Brazil and Mexico. With respect to Brazil, Trump opted to cut Brazil’s semi-finished steel quota for the remainder of the year down to 60,000 tons from 350,000 tons.

Stay up to date on MetalMiner with weekly, monthly, or quarterly updates – without the sales pitch. Sign up now.

Week of Aug. 31-Sept. 4

• July auto sales in China jumped 16.4% year over year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
• For the week ending Aug. 29, U.S. steel capacity utilization rate fell to 61.7%.
• The U.S. took aim at curbing steel imports from Brazil and Mexico.
• Stuart Burns delved into the pandemic and economic challenges India is facing.
• MetalMiner released the September MMO report earlier this week.
• Despite recent border tensions, India’s steel exports to China have surged.
• Burns weighed in on the steel scrap market and the case for price rises.
• Automakers Honda, Hyundai and Subaru reported their August sales results.
• European metals companies want to see a level environmental playing field.

Sign up today for Gunpowder, MetalMiner’s free, biweekly e-newsletter featuring news, analysis and more.

Andrey Kuzmin/Adobe Stack

Despite the economic and political challenges related to the coronavirus pandemic, the European metals industry is becoming increasingly vocal in trying to form the arguments around its own survival.

Are you under pressure to generate aluminum cost savings? Make sure you are following these 5 best practices!

Making the case

A recent article in the Financial Times — penned, it must be said by the president of Eurometaux, the European Association of non-ferrous metals producers — should not be dismissed as just a PR attempt to lobby Brussels.

The arguments made are repeated across the European metals sector. The arguments nod to social trends supported across the region to tackle climate change issues while trying to protect jobs and local economies.

Europe may not be able to set the world’s agenda. Collectively, however, the E.U. can set Europe’s agenda. In so doing, it can set an example other countries are already showing some interest in adopting.

Lost market share

As the post points out, since the 2008 financial crisis, Europe has lost a third of its primary aluminum production. Meanwhile, China has grown to produce some 60% of the world’s market.

Europe has lost market share for other base metals, too, missing the early boat for the cobalt, lithium and rare earths (used in electric cars).

Like the U.S., Europe has come to realize its dependency on foreign countries for strategic resources comes at its peril.

“The era of a conciliatory or naive Europe that relies on others to look after its interests is over,” Thierry Breton, the E.U. industry commissioner, is quoted by the Financial Times as saying.

Mining and refining in Europe has slashed its collective carbon footprint by more than 60% in the past two decades due to far higher and better-enforced standards in the region. Yet, not surprisingly, Europe’s metals sector cannot compete with subsidized imports from China and other regions.

A level playing field

But drawing on parallel commitments to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, the region’s industry is making the case for creating a level playing field. That level playing would come not simply by imposing quotas but by applying a financial cost to imports that come with significantly higher carbon and environmental costs.

The wider industry is buying into the idea of products having a lower carbon footprint as a brand strength.

The LME is launching a low-carbon aluminum spot contract to promote and facilitate growing demand for metal with a definable carbon footprint.

Some producers are already onboard.

Rusal is at the forefront of promoting its primary metal as coming wholly from renewable (hydroelectric) sources. European metals producers may not have such a clear advantage in terms of power supply. However, a combination of technologies, practices and power sources means each ton of metal Europe produces emits on average eight times less carbon than its equivalent from China.

The industry wants the E.U. establish a coherent framework to assess, regulate and penalize imports that do not meet the same level of environmental responsibility. That could include a carbon tax on imports that would help level the playing field.

Ultimately, consumers always pay for taxes. However, at least this approach may have the benefit of helping to ensure a sustainable regional metals industry. It could encourage producers elsewhere to lower their environmental impact. Furthermore, it could reduce the supply chain risk of a growing dependence on countries like China that play by a different set of rules.

Want an occasional email from MetalMiner that highlights new content with NO sales ploys? Join that list here.

Gui Yong Nian/Adobe Stock

India will propose a World Solar Bank at the World Solar Technology Summit organized by the International Solar Alliance (ISA) in September, the Business Standard reported.

Stay up to date on MetalMiner with weekly, monthly, or quarterly updates – without the sales pitch. Sign up now.

The virtual conference by the India-headquartered ISA will showcase state-of-the-art, next-generation technologies to ramp up solar deployment affordably.

By the numbers

The likely capital size of the World Solar Bank would be U.S. $10 billion. ISA officials said the country that would request to host the headquarters of the bank would have to contribute 30% of the proposed capital.

“A global competition would be held among the member countries to decide who will have the bank’s headquarters,” the ISA official was quoted as saying by the Business Standard.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to attend the inaugural event. In addition, along ministers from all ISA member countries and other R&D institutions from around the world would attend.

Summit topics

The summit will be divided into four technical sessions. Well-known companies and research organizations in the green energy space will present their work and deliberate on solar technology trends.

Topics will include, according to pv magazine:

• Photovoltaic technology development and its future;
• Recent advances, including conversion efficiency improvements and declining costs in PV modules and storage
• Disruptive solar technologies for grid application – ground-mounted, floating or on residential and commercial rooftops
• solar beyond the power sector

One of the aims of the World Solar Bank is to bring together global resources to fund solar power projects in ISA member countries.

The ISA came together in 2015 during the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris. The alliance, a partnership of solar resource-rich countries, currently has 121 countries as members.

Most of the participating countries are from Africa, Southeast Asia and Europe. Pakistan and China are not members of the ISA.

While speaking at the curtain raiser for the summit to be hosted by ISA next month, Indian Minister of State for Power R.K. Singh pointed solar energy is the future and technology would drive its down.

A few days ago, Modi reiterated the “One Sun, One World, One Grid” (OSOWOG) plan. The plan call for a transnational electricity grid supplying solar power across the globe, first announced in 2018.

M. Stanley Whittingham will deliver the keynote address.He will be joined by John B. Goodenough and Akira Yoshino. The trio won the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of lithium-ion batteries.

Sign up today for Gunpowder, MetalMiner’s free, biweekly e-newsletter featuring news, analysis and more.

ehrlif/Adobe Stock

This past week’s metals news covered everything from silver price movements to the copper price rise’s slowdown to the reimposition of tariffs on some Canadian aluminum.

We also broke down President Donald Trump’s recent proclamation with respect to reimposing the Section 232 tariff on some Canadian aluminum. MetalMiner’s Stuart Burns delved into the concern expressed by Ontario Premier Doug Ford: could Trump target Canadian steel next?

As our readers know well by now, Trump imposed Section 232 tariffs on imported steel and aluminum of 25% and 10%, respectively, in 2018. During the course of negotiations with Canada and Mexico over the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) — the successor to NAFTA — the U.S. rescinded the tariffs in May 2019.

Now, at least for unalloyed aluminum from Canada, the tariff is back.

The Aluminum Association called the tariffs the “wrong approach.”

Furthermore, the tariff comes in a time when beverage makers are struggling with an aluminum can shortage.

For the buyers out there, if you are under pressure to generate cost savings in aluminum, steel or anything else, make sure you are following these five best practices.

But the tariff storyline is but one thread in the world of metals.

Before we head into the weekend, let’s take a look back at the week that was:

MetalMiner Week in Review, Aug. 10-14

• Stuart Burns took a look at the shipping industry and how rates are faring several months into the global pandemic.
• With an eye to the November presidential election, Burns also broke down Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden’s plan for net-zero electricity emissions.
• Copper prices trended sideways last month, Maria Rosa Gobitz explained.
• Could the U.S. slap tariffs on Canadian steel once again?
• China’s aluminum imports skyrocketed in June.
• The Department of Defense is moving forward with rare earths projects slated for locations in Texas and California.
• The silver price has skyrocketed since March but showed signs of slowing this week.
• Chinese demand and supply concerns in Brazil have supported the iron ore price.

Want more from MetalMiner? We offer exclusive analyst commentary in our weekly, monthly, or quarterly updates – all metals, no sales fluff. 

In this month’s Automotive Monthly Metals Index (MMI) report: Ford CEO Jim Hackett will retire, the company announced this week; General Motors has plans to add more than 2,700 electric vehicle charging stations across the U.S.; and U.S. sales continue to show signs of recovery, but July sales remained down compared with a year ago.

The Automotive Monthly Metals Index (MMI) gained 2.4% for this month’s MMI reading.

Read more

Olivier Le Moal/Adobe Stock

Before we head into the weekend, let’s take a look back at the week that was and some of the metals storylines here on MetalMiner, including coverage of silver prices, LME off-warrant stocks, cobalt-free lithium-ion batteries and more:

Read more

The media — at least in Europe — seems to be abuzz with talk about green hydrogen.

As an energy source, backers envision hydrogen powering everything from aircraft, to steel mills, to global shipping fleets, cars, and homes.

Read more