Since the second half of 2021, with electricity as the leading role, then the coal shortage, oil shortage, gas shortages are popping up, along with electricity, gasoline, the phenomenon such as energy suppliers to collapse in the header, such as natural gas, thermal coal, electricity prices are a record high, especially coal prices lead to cost increase, the phenomenon of electricity in the local area.
People are beginning to realize that the global energy dilemma is coming.
Stimulated by the global energy crisis, commodity market base metal prices generally rose. Aluminum, in particular, is what the industry calls “solid power.” Each ton of aluminum requires 14 megawatt hours of electricity to produce, enough to power a typical home for nearly three years. If the aluminium industry, which produces 65m tonnes a year, were a country, it would be the world’s fifth-largest consumer of electricity.
On August 27, 2021, the National Development and Reform Commission issued “notice about perfecting the electrolytic aluminium industry ladder electricity price policy, specifically forbidden for electrolytic aluminum industry to implement preferential electrovalence, electrolytic aluminium enterprises, power grid enterprises strictly carry out the policies of the ladder electricity price, and September yunnan brownouts factors, asked local immediately cancel the preferential price.
Due to the current high electricity price, many aluminum plants in China have closed down, and yunnan, Guangxi, Guizhou, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning and other large provinces of electrolytic aluminum production have reduced production due to the double control of energy consumption and power rationing policies, and it is difficult to confirm the new production projects within this year. Aldel, the Netherlands’ sole primary aluminium producer, said on Friday it would suspend primary aluminium production until at least early 2022.
In the short term, aluminium production may have peaked. Lunal rose to its highest level since July 2008, topping $3,000 a tonne for the first time in 13 years, leading other base metals higher, hit by rising costs and supply cuts.
In the past, though, a surge in aluminum prices would have prompted global producers to reopen old plants and consider adding new supplies. However, the steeper rise in power costs is putting pressure on smelters and could make it harder to restart production.
In the future, aluminum production is facing unprecedented crisis! “Aluminum” reached a new high, but in the context of the global energy crisis, opportunities and challenges coexist, changes emerge at the historic moment!