Metal Directory

A Look at Used Metal Detectors

2008-08-28T22:24:00.002-07:00

There are many kinds of metal detectors - gold detectors, coin and jewel detectors, relic hunting detectors, beach-hunting detectors, and underwater metal detectors. Buying a metal detector can be a tricky affair. Before one decides to buy a metal detector, here are a few points to consider.

How often will it be put to use? If it is for a new hobby, it may be a good idea to buy a one with a lot of features.

Where it will be used? Will it be used on the beach, underwater, or in the woods?

Who will use it? If it for use in the family, there are detectors that have adjustable arm cups and separate pouches to mount the electronic box.

How much will you spend on a detector? It is advisable to be a little flexible in this regard so that one can buy one that most suits the requirements.

Buying used metal detectors usually offer the best value for your money. It is always best to buy used metal detectors from a respected dealer, rather than a classified ad. Most dealers offer a money back guarantee or a trade-in option. If you are buying from someone other than a dealer make sure it is someone you know and trust. Most dealers sell only tested metal detectors.

Prices of used metal detectors vary from $275 to $700 for all-purpose metal detectors. Underwater metal detectors can cost around $500. Most used accessories can cost $200. It is also a good idea to keep in mind that a used metal detector will not have the manufacturers warranty, but dealing with a reputable dealer will eliminate some of the risk.

Metal Detectors Info provides detailed information about walk-through, hand-held, and used metal detectors, as well as reviews of best metal detectors. Metal Detectors Info is the sister site of Security Cameras Web.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Damian_Sofsian

The Metal and Power Metal Genre(s)

2008-08-28T22:24:00.001-07:00

Many people love listening to Heavy Metal Music, especially Power Metal. Power Metal is a variation of the Metal Genre where it combines real vocal singing and incredible melodies.

Unfortunately many people just don't understand metal and can't adapt to its style. Some people say "it's just a bunch of noise." But that really depends on just how much you care to listen. When you hear amazing guitar-work it's not just a bunch of noise. It's years of practicing and learning theory and techniques which allow incredible versatility to be showcased.

What about the screaming "cookie monster" type vocals? That is your preference, and not every "Metal" band is like that. Especially Power Metal Bands. Some love that insane speed metal double bass drumming. Others don't. Many fantastic foreign metal bands include a keyboardist. I know some people that despise the use of any piano or keyboard in a band. Those people are entitled to their opinion however stupid they sound. It's all about your preference.

To be a true music lover you must enjoy many different genres of music. Classical, Rock, Pop, Old School Hip Hop, Heavy Metal, Power Metal, etc.

It makes your arguments more justifiable when you listen to many genres and are trying to comment on one or a specific band. Rather than just listening to classical and pointing your finger saying "Metal Is Bad!"

It is sometimes hard to understand another form of music but learning to appreciate it could dramatically change your outlook on things.

Michael Monahan is the creator of PowerMetal.mobi The only social networking website for lovers of the Power Metal Genre.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Monahan

Metal Detecting on the Beach! 3 Tips to Consider and Purchasing the Best Metal Detector-Part 1

2008-08-22T03:20:00.001-07:00

One of the most popular and rapidly growing types of metal detecting is metal detecting on the beach or near the sand. Just using a regular metal detector on sand in the past has made it a lot more difficult to locate items beneath the sands surface. With some of the improvements recently in the metal detectors, if beach metal detecting is your preference the advances recently made have mad your job a lot easier.

The beach metal detector pretty much works the same way as any other metal detector but they do it with a different intent and that is in the water or around the water. Salt water contains electrolytic substances which can sometimes confuse a regular metal detector, which is why you should always consider a beach metal detector if that is going to be your main area you focus on. The beach metal detector focuses on finding true metals and metallic substances and avoids nonmetallic elements.

So how does a metal detector that is made for the beach metal detecting differ from just a typical day-to-day metal detector? With your typical everyday metal detector the salt water may pose a problem for the detector to find metallic and nonmetallic substances. The beach metal detector basically deselects metalloids and just looks for true metal objects which is the basic function of a metal detector on the beach.

The beach detector specifically looks for coins, metal bars, gold, silver, platinum, in almost anything that she could think of that would be of value. Specifically, looking for finding gold, coins, and silver is a big plus on the beach because people tend to lose coins, watches, earrings, and other types of jewelry when they are on the beach and having fun.

Beach metal detectors have their own requirements and you just read some of what you need to know if you are interested in beach metal detecting. In part two we will take a look at tips on how to purchase the best metal detector for the beach.

J C Christian is an avid follower of metal detectors and how they work. He runs an informational site that follows Garrett Metal Detectors, Fisher Metal Detectors, Tesoro Metal Detectors, and Kellyco Metal Detectors just to name a few. Go to http://www.metal-detector-guides.com to find information to help with everything metal detecting.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=J_C_Christian

Metal Detector Buying Guide

2008-08-22T03:20:00.000-07:00

Finding the right metal detector for you can be a very challenging process. Though there are ways eliminate some of the stresses and unknowns of buying a metal detector.

First off, talking to others hobbyists on metal detecting forums about the metal detectors you have in mind can help allot. If its popular metal detector, chances are you will find someone that has used or is using it. They can offer a wealth of helpful feedback and information through true experience.

I also suggest that if your going to buy from a local metal detector dealer, that you find one that will take the time to explain each metal detector that might interest you in depth and also let you take each for a test drive. Any good metal detector dealer will do this! If a dealer doesnt have the time to explain the metal detector to you, or they will not let you take one for a test drive, move on!!!!!

The third, and possibly one of the most important steps you can take in finding that perfect metal detector is through online, metal detector reviews, like the one found at Reviews.Detectorx.com. These metal detector reviews have been written by people like you that have had experience with the metal detectors in which they review. You get unbiased information that is just invaluable when looking for a new metal detector.

The worst thing you can do is jump on the first metal detector that catches your eye! If you do this chances are you will end up with a metal detector that is not right for you. Do a little searching and some foot work and I am sure you will find a metal detector that suits your needs.

Metal Detecting And Metal Detectors At DetectorX Metal Detecting

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeremy_H

Reverse Cell Phone Number Directory

2008-02-14T01:58:00.000-08:00

There are hundreds and hundreds web sites on the Internet that offer an access to a reverse cell phone number directory, but the problem with such sites is that they charge an insane amount of money for a membership fee or per every search you make. Imagine how much money you could save if you didn't have to spend that much?

A reverse cell phone number directory doesn't have to be expensive, the only problem most of today's Internet users have is finding the best web sites for the lowest prices available. From my experience, it can be quite hard but it need lot's of time and patience.

I have tried over six different services which claimed to provide an access to the largest reverse cell phone number directory, but most of them failed to do so, as they simply couldn't deliver what they claimed. However, one web sites was very good and it even over delivered, the others weren't even close to this one.

The reason that I chose it as the best reverse cell phone number directory service is simple, it has the largest database I have ever seen. For testing purposes I tried to look everybody up and it gave me all the information I was looking for.

The other good thing, is that you also get an access to other valuable services like background checks, sex offender databases, people databases and much more. And it is completely free of charge, it goes as a bonus. That's why I like this service so much, best quality for the lowest price available on the Internet.

Whatever is your reason for using a reverse cell phone number directory, I can guarantee that you won't find anything better on the Net today. This is the greatest reverse phone directory and I doubt that there is something better, at least I couldn't find anything.

Men's Platinum Wedding Rings

2008-02-14T01:51:00.000-08:00

Platinum is the metal equivalent of diamonds - it is said to last forever. In addition to being one of the world's rarest precious metals, it is also extremely durable. It loses virtually no metal when scratched, and weighs 60 percent more than 14 karat gold. A six-inch cube of platinum weighs almost 165 pounds.

When used for jewelry, platinum is always alloyed with a second metal to give it strength, hold a high polish, and resist scratching. What is considered to be pure platinum actually contains no more than 5 percent alloy, and is often marked “.95 Plat” inside the band. Platinum with 10 percent allow can also be purchased, and may be marked as “.90 Plat” or similar.

Platinum is an ideal metal for anyone with sensitive skin, because it is most commonly alloyed with iridium or ruthenium, both of which are precious metals in the platinum metal group. Platinum only very rarely causes an allergic reaction; however, to be safe, always consult a physician.

Another reason that men’s platinum wedding rings have become so popular is that the metal never tarnishes. Its intense luster will remain intact over the years, despite everyday wear. Further, it is not vulnerable to problems like stress corrosion or cracking.

Just like diamonds, platinum is a very rare material. If all the platinum ever mined were compiled, it would only produce a cube 17 feet on each side – less than 5,000 cubic feet. In addition, it takes up to 10 tons of ore to produce one ounce of platinum, which is more than twice as much ore that is typically needed for one ounce of gold.

Metal Swing Sets

2008-02-01T04:12:00.000-08:00

Metal swing sets are considered to be the strongest, toughest, and sturdiest swing sets. It is manufactured mainly using rust resistant galvanized steel. Metal swing sets are available in different sizes and styles. It is the most cost effective form among all the different types of swing sets.

Metal swing sets are also known as traditional swing sets. Compared with wooden swing sets, metal swing sets have fewer features. However, it contains slides of different shapes and swings of distinct use and kind. Certain metal swing sets feature mild exercising equipments.

The metal swing sets accessories include aluminum compression clamping yokes, galvanized ductile iron swing hangers with oil impregnated bearings, and rust resistant galvanized straight coil chains. These metal sets are strong enough to hold adults. If cared properly and protected from rusting, metal swing sets can last for a long time. Use lighter color paints in order to offer a cooler touch, as lighter paint tones absorb less sunlight. Metal swing seats can cause injury so it is better to use plastic or rubber seats.

While selecting a swing, look out for the one that is strong enough to withstand pressure of excess use and exposure to different climatic conditions. While installing a metal swing set make sure to fix its base on sand or pea gravel, and should be at least six feet away from the wall. Regular and proper inspection of bolts and various parts are required from time to time. It is the responsibility of the parents to properly supervise the swing and teach kids about safety measures while playing.

Today, high performance steel swing sets are also available at various prices. A swing set in the backyard can entice children to play outside. These outdoor games, when played along with other kids can help children develop various qualities such as coordination, strength, cooperation, and social interaction.

The Cost Of Metal Roofing Is Well Worth It

2008-02-01T04:06:00.000-08:00

When it comes to home renovation projects, nothing quite equals the enormity of replacing the roof on your home. There are materials to compare, prices to collect, and most often contractors to hire. As far as materials go – and which products offer the most bang for the buck – metal roofing often rises to the challenge. While the cost of metal roofing may be initially high, it eventually pays for itself in durability and a long life span.

Metal roofing differs from traditional roofing material in a number of ways. Metal is a durable material that is both fire and water resistant. Further, metal roofing can hold up to climatic changes as well as stressors it encounters under severe weather. For those who choose to install such material, the cost of metal roofing is a small price to pay for the piece of mind that comes with such durability.

Additionally, while the cost of metal roofing may be high upon installation, the roof itself can easily last in excess of fifty years. While traditional roofs often have to be replaced in twenty-five years, the metal roof can easily give you double the life span for a little more of an investment in the beginning. Also, unlike traditional roofing materials, metal roofing retains its color and authenticity in the face of weather conditions and sun exposure.

Like other roofing material, metal roofing is offered to customers in a variety of styles and colors. Of course, the final cost of metal roofing will depend on the amount of roofing material that you need to purchase for the specific size of your home. Installation is part of the cost of metal roofing. And while many homeowners will attempt to install the metal roofing themselves because of the ease of handling the metal sheets, installation is most often best left to the professionals. You will pay no more for installation of metal roofing then you would for any other roofing installation.

Work with reputable roofing companies that are experienced in handling and installing metal roofing. It’s always a good idea to find those homeowners that have used particular roofing companies in the past and have had good experiences with them. In this way, you can get a first-hand account of the company’s reputation, as well as check out the work they did on another home.

In the end, the cost of metal roofing – while clearly a little more than you would pay upfront for traditional roofing material – is well worth its price; giving you more than double the lifespan than you would normally receive from traditional roofs.

A Closer Look at Human Edited Web Directories

2008-01-31T05:16:00.000-08:00

Web directories are web sites that include listings of various web sites throughout the Internet. These web directories may contain a wide range of categories that then include subcategories or the web directory may focus on just one broad topic or even geographical region. For example, the web directory may include categories such as games, health, shopping, and sports and, within each of these categories, several additional categories may be listed. Conversely, another web directory may focus on only web sites that serve a certain geographical regions or on one topic, such as art.

By including categories and subcategories, web directories make it easier for those using the web directory to find the information he or she is looking for. Of course, in order for a web directory to be of value, the sites included in the web directory need to be worthwhile and they need to be listed in the proper categories. This is where the human edited web directory comes in.

What is a Human Edited Web Directory?

A human edited web directory is one that is maintained by real humans rather than by software. As such, humans review all of the websites before adding them to the web directory. In this way, the human reviewer can determine if the site is of value and can also make sure it is listed in the most appropriate category.

Who Uses Human Edited Web Directories?

Web surfers that are interested in finding valuable web sites will uses web directories to help them find these sites. Unlike a search engine that finds sites according to certain keywords, web directories help users find information based on an organized system of categories and subcategories.

Web site owners also use human edited web directories. Getting a site placed on a reputable human edited web directory can be of great value to a web site that is attempting to improve its search engine ranking. Whether or not a web directory will actually assist with search engine rankings, however, will depend on whether or not the web directory has no follow attributes that prevent the search engine crawlers from following through to the other site.

Who is Responsible for Editing Human Edited Directories?

The people responsible for editing human edited directories can vary according to the directory. A great many of them, however, are actually maintained by volunteers that are considered to be experts in certain categories. By being an expert in that category, these volunteers are better able to determine the value and accuracy of the information contained on the site. Since these web directories are edited by volunteers, however, it can take a while before updates take place.

In order to expedite the process, some human edited web directories have implemented a wiki format. In this type of format, anyone that can access the web directory is able to make edits to the sites included in the directory. While this speeds up the process, it does run the risk of reducing the quality of the links included.

Importance of Link Popularity

2008-01-31T05:15:00.001-08:00

Link popularity is an important metric in determining organic (natural/free) search engine rankings. Link popularity is the foundation of any SEO efforts. In order to rank high you need back links. Back links are links from other websites that linking to your website.

Building link popularity is crucial. I will cover the topic of link popularity all week. Every new tip on Link popularity will come with a list of web directories you may want to consider. Today we will start with the letter A. Enjoy and start building your link popularity with the list below:

# Ababba PR0 http://www.ababba.com/
# ABC Submission PR0 http://abcsubmission.com/
# Abilogic PR6 http://www.abilogic.com/
# A Bot Directory PR0 http://www.abotdirectory.com/
# Add Link Directory PR0 http://addlinkdirectory.com/
# Addsite-SubmitFree PR0 http://www.addsite-submitfree.com/
# Add URL Free PR5 http://www.addurl-free.com/
# Add Your Link Web PR0 http://www.addyourlinkweb.com/
# Add Your Site PR4 http://www.addyoursitefreesubmit.com/
# A Free Directory PR3 http://www.a-free-directory.info
# All The Websites PR5 R http://www.allthewebsites.org/
# Alpha Dir PR3 http://www.alphadir.com/
# Apexoo PR4 http://www.apexoo.com/directory/
# Arakne-Links PR0 http://www.arakne-links.com/
# Asia URL PR0 http://www.asiaurl.com/World/
# Aspara Club PR0 http://www.asparaclub.com/
# Autumn Tree PR3 http://www.autumntree.info/

Importance of Link Popularity

2008-01-31T05:15:00.000-08:00

Underwater Metal Detectors

2008-01-30T03:05:00.001-08:00

Underwater metal detectors are widely used by underwater search and recovery teams. Treasure hunters, archaeologists, sport divers, military and law enforcement people use underwater metal detectors for different purposes. Underwater construction companies use underwater metal detectors for pipeline or cable locating functions.

The common features of underwater metal detectors are depth, alerts, ground balance, detection mode and sensitivity. Some of the underwater metal detectors can adjust the search depth. Better quality detectors give distinctive alerts, depending on the type of metal sensed. Underwater metal detectors have different detection modes for searching and prospecting. Most underwater metal detectors can be used on both fresh and salt water.

Underwater metal detectors are based on digital technology. They have different operating modes. The normal mode works with a single tone. Normal mode is used for beachcombing and other prolonged searches. The standard discrimination mode is for conventional pulse detection. Slight audio signals indicate small or deep targets, while strong signals indicate large targets. A discreet discrimination mode provides more enhanced and precise targets discrimination. The metal detecting unit consists of pulse width control. This feature helps to adjust depth, sensitivity and battery life of detectors. Underwater metal detectors have deep searching circuitry. Other features include operating frequency, search coil and headphones.

Some underwater metal detectors use advanced pulse induction technology. This provides more detection depth and stability in mineralized environments. The audio threshold adjustment control shows individual detecting styles. Automatic ground feature allows the user to set ground track for optimum performance. Underwater metal detectors have different control housing configurations. The adjustable operating frequency helps to minimize the electrical interference.

Advanced underwater metal detectors have electronics built into the headphones. They reduce the weight of the detector. They consist of heavy duty negative buoyancy search coil, and have crystal controlled operating search frequency. Advanced underwater metal detectors consist of permanently encapsulated high output head phone transducers. The headphone ear cups have heavy duty polymer ear surround and noise blocking features. They can also operate in beach, rain or storm. Other features of advanced underwater metal detectors are silent search, hand grip, armrest and isolator.

Underwater Metal Detectors

2008-01-30T03:05:00.000-08:00

Internet Directory Submissions

2008-01-30T03:01:00.001-08:00

Directories are websites listing hand-chosen collections of links, sorted by categories.

Unlike search engines, directories use human editors and consumer input to build a quality schedule.

Adding your website to directories is a very important stage in improving your search rankings and gaining free traffic. Because directories often carry a high Page Rank (importance of a site) linking your website from a top directory, will give you a portion of the Page Rank to your site.

You will probably come across many directories with paid inclusions: use your common sense to appreciate if it is worth it or not. A good criterion is to check their Google Page Rank: if it is at least three levels higher than your site's Page Rank, it is probably worth spending the money for the inclusion fee. However, do look for directories with a flat, one-time fee rather than recurring monthly or annual fees: you will end up spending less money!

The job of submitting not to directories is often a long drawn out task, requiring you to go through several categories to get to the right one for your website. Copy a captcha image; provide more information about your website etc. For this reason, a misconception came out that it is acceptable to submit to the top 5 - 10 directories and be happy with it.

Not the case!

Submitting a website site to 2,000 directories is a much suggestion. While some links will be discounted (not counted in the eyes of the search engines) many links will be counted for your website to enjoy better rankings, more back-links and overall more free traffic.

When submitting to directories, there are many SEO companies that offer a directory submission service for a fee, www.searchengineplug.com and www.directorymaximizer.com are two offering different packages, Always make sure when using submission services that you receive a full report of all the directories your site was submitted to so that you can follow up with the directories, do not expect instant approval some directories take 2-3 month to approve links.

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Here is a list of 10 Directories you should consider:

Directory name: alook web directory URL: http://www.alookwebdirectory.com

Directory name: 1st Choice Search URL: http://www.1stchoicesearch.com

Directory name: Main Searches URL: http://www.mainsearches.com

Directory name: Gprdir.com Directory URL: http://www.gprdir.com

Directory name: Choice 500 Domains URL: http://www.choice500domains.com

Directory name: RpiCams.com URL: http://www.rpicams.com

Directory name: Site Mapped URL: http://www.sitemapped.com

Directory name: Choice Premier Traffic Rank URL: http://www.choiceptr.com

Directory name: Inside Hits URL: http://www.insidehits.com

Directory name: Choice Directory URL: http://www.choicedir.com

A Closer Look at Human Edited Web Directories

2008-01-29T06:29:00.000-08:00

Importance of Link Popularity

2008-01-29T06:28:00.000-08:00

Metal Frame Gazebos - Easy Gazebo Construction

2008-01-05T03:52:00.000-08:00

A metal frame gazebo in your yard is a versatile and attractive addition to make outdoor gatherings more fun and convenient. A metal frame gazebo is built with a sturdy metal frame and is made of rust resistant material to give you years of use. You will only have to give it minor attention and maintenance and you will have no worries of breaking, cracking, or corrosion. Your metal frame gazebo should stand up to all kinds of weather and wind and still be able to stand tall.

A metal frame gazebo is often portable and you can take it with you it you are camping, having an outdoor picnic or plan on spending some time at the beach. Just because the sun is shining brightly, doesn’t mean you want it shining brightly on you and your guest's heads. A metal frame gazebo can be a pleasant respite on those hot days when you can’t seem to get cool. Fill up a glass with ice-cold lemonade, and sit yourself down beneath your metal frame gazebo.

You can add screening or netting to your metal frame gazebo if you want to keep those pesky insects out. This way your evenings can be better spent socializing and playing games rather than scratching and slapping at yourself all night. You will be glad of the protection the screen or netting gives you especially on hot humid nights when the bugs seem to stick to you and your clothes.

A metal frame gazebo is an easy and affordable way to have a gazebo for your backyard. You don’t have to go through weeks of construction and your husband cursing because he hammered his toe or cut off his finger while putting your wood gazebo together. It usually takes just two people a few hours or less, to get a metal frame gazebo up and ready to go.

You can find metal frame gazebos at any home and garden store and especially you will find a vast array of metal frame gazebo available online. You may be able to purchase your metal frame gazebo for a great price without leaving the comfort of your home. You are only a few clicks away from having the gazebo you’ve been dreaming about.

Starting a Metal Detecting Business? Don't Do it Until You Reads This Tips

2008-01-05T03:51:00.000-08:00

If you are looking start a business selling metal detectors you need some knowledge on the subject to make sure that your customers feel comfortable purchasing from you. If you are already knowledgeable about metal detectors than starting your own business and watching the profits come in should happen sooner rather than later.

Selling metal detectors can be extremely profitable and you can sell new, used, and metal detecting accessories. There are many people out there that are passionate about the hobby of metal detecting. In this article we will take a look at your possible customer base and how to find new ones.

If you want to sell metal detectors in larger quantities you may want to get in touch with many of the metal detecting clubs that are located in your area. Offer a discount to the club members so that they will get into your store and want to find a good deal. You may not make as much profit at first but the word of mouth and loyal customers will continue to grow. When the members are in your store they will want to take advantage of the discounts and purchase some more of the higher profit items such as accessories.

When starting a metal detecting business you will want to carry new metal detectors and you will need to contact the manufacturers that make the metal detectors. Find out if they have any co-op advertising that they can help you with. Letting people know you are open and in business is the first step to getting name recognition. You may also be able to obtain a customer listing of the people who have bought in your area. The manufacturers will have warranty information of the metal detectors in their database. If the companies share their customer base information send a letter letting them know that you will carry similar metal detectors.

Starting a metal detecting business can be made easier if you have a plan of attack. You can always find additional resources to help you out and increase the probability of success

The Durability of Standing Seam Metal Roofing

2007-12-19T23:37:00.001-08:00

The roof is the one part of the house that takes the most damage when protecting us from the elements. It has to cope with extreme conditions ranging from wintry ice to summer sun and often it can face both extremes at the same time. Many substances simply can not withstand this diverse a range of abuse meaning it is very important to select strong roofing made from a durable and resistant material that will withstand just about anything. Advances in technology have seen various new forms of roofing as well as advances in old techniques and reduces in cost, so the options available when selecting good roofing are wide.

Maintenance of your roof.

For all of the work that a roof does you would expect that it would be a part of housing and home maintenance that people took very seriously, but unfortunately it is a factor that is often overlooked until the worst happens. Many people do not maintain their roof or even have it checked on a regular basis but prevention is a much better option than cure. By having regular checks on your roof you can prevent costly repairs when things go wrong.

Traditional roofing material compared to standing seam metal roofing.

Asphalt and modified bitumen have previously been the most common choice when it comes to selecting a material for your roof, however in more recent years standing seam metal roofing has increased in popularity as it has decreased in cost and it’s durability, protection and flexibility have increased. Standing seam metal roofing has much to offer; it is fire resistant, weather resistant, can be easily formed to fit your roof and has become even easier to install. In fact, standing seam metal roofing meets the very highest of standards when it comes to fire resistance and wind and hail resistance.

The life of your standing seam metal roofing.

Standing seam metal roofing is very unlikely to rot, mould, split or crack. For this reason a standing seam metal roofing system means you can enjoy a long life from your roof with comparably low maintenance costs. It is also usually created from recycled products and is fully recyclable itself so it is a sustainable choice for the ecologically minded amongst you. The options are virtually limitless if you decide on standing seam metal roofing, and not least because of the numerous metals that are on offer. Copper, aluminum, galvanized or stainless steel and a range of other metals are commonly used and each has their own look, feel and uses.

Standing seam metal roofing – the environmental roof.

Standing seam metal roofing offers a life of 50 years or more making it much longer lasting than other traditional methods employed in many houses. It is usually made up of 50% recycled material and 100% of your standing seam metal roofing will be recycled in the event that it does eventually need replacing. Conversely, asphalt requires a huge amount of oil every year to create shingles that last an average of 15 years. At the end of their life they are then disposed of in landfill sites wasting yet more of the world’s resources. Standing seam metal roofing also means you will use less energy, conserving yet more resources and lowering your summer energy bills. Standing seam metal roofing reflects approximately 70% of the sun’s rays meaning you will spend a lot less keeping your air conditioning unit running.

Middle Age Baby Boomer Adults are in Orthodontic Braces!

2007-12-19T23:35:00.000-08:00

Adult orthodontia is big business. More 40-something year old parents have finally gotten all their children out of braces and now it’s their turn. Some middle-age people are just now becoming metal mouths because they are at a point in their life when they can finally afford it. Still others opt for the wires because after starting over after a divorce they are finally ready to get that gorgeous straight smile!

If you’re considering taking the plunge yourself, here are a few bits of information you should know before making a decision. There are basically three types of braces moms and dads are opting for: standard metal, clear brackets and invisible. The standard ones are the most cost effective and you can even change the color of your rubber bands like all the hip, cool kids are doing. Clear brackets are a bit larger in size than the metal ones. Depending on your bite you may not have enough room to get the clear ones on your lower teeth, at least not initially. The wires are still metal and you can see the braces on your teeth, they’re just not as noticeable. Drawbacks are they are slightly more expensive than the metal brackets and when it comes time to take them off, it’s takes a bit more effort and is consequently a little more uncomfortable. Lastly there are the invisible braces which go behind your teeth, not on the front like most. It takes a while longer to correct your smile and is the most expensive type.

Speaking of expensive, you should on plan on spending about $4,000 for your braces. Clearly you will find some orthodontists who will do it for less, and some for more. It really depends also on the length and severity of treatment. If you have orthodontia insurance coverage, some plans cover up to 50% of the total costs. Most orthodontists will allow you to make monthly payments. You’ll be required to put a down payment on your new beautiful smile.

One thing you may not hear during your initial consultation, yet other adults who have gone before you will testify to be that when you initially get your braces put on your teeth – it hurts! It hurts a lot and for along time! With children they tell them it may be a little uncomfortable for two or three days and to take Ibuprophin as needed for pain. That’s not the case with adults, although they may give you the same instructions. Think about it. Children who get braces have their permanent teeth for generally three months or three years. Those big teeth haven’t become too accustomed to hanging out in their current location.

Adults, on the other hand, have had those permanent teeth affixed in their mouth for 20-35 years prior to getting braces. They don’t move as easily or as willingly. One mother shared that she was glad she had left over heavy duty pain meds from her c-section five years prior. She lamented that she felt like an elephant was sitting on her head for 10-days straight. Further, she continued she’d rather go through another 52 hours of labor than to get braces put on again.

This is not to frighten you. It does get much easier and you even forget you have them on. When you get adjustments every eight weeks or so, you’re normally a little tender for 24-36 hours, and aspirin does help. The severe pain is just initially when you first get them on. Ask for pain meds. Do not let them tell you to take a few Tylenol and you’ll be fine in three days. You’re in for a rude awakening if you believe that.

Top 20 ferrous scrap processors in the United States: the managers of the nation's 20 largest ferrous scrap processing companies can be justifiably pr

2007-07-03T23:47:00.000-07:00

A list of the nation's largest ferrous scrap processors paints an interesting portrait. They are headquartered throughout the U.S.--on all coasts and throughout the interior of the country. Many large scrap companies have an unmistakable leadership position in the regional markets they serve, while the largest ones are striving to achieve that position in several regions at once.

But while there are common denominators to the 20 largest ferrous scrap companies in the U.S., there are also differences. Some are publicly traded, while many are privately or closely held. One of the largest is owned by an overseas holding company. Nearly all of them can trace their roots back to humble small business origins, while a few are the result of last decade's consolidation movement.

The statistical snapshots we have assembled about these companies can be seen on the chart on pages 40 and 42. What we are also doing on the following pages is presenting thumbnail sketches of who these companies are and how they got to be among the biggest (and presumably best) in their industry.

A list like this can provoke debate. Unfortunately, a reluctance by some companies to provide information may have led to their omission from the list. We suspect this is just fine with the companies in question.

However, we hope that some of these companies will reconsider. Listing the largest, most active companies is a way to gain recognition for what a company and its employees have accomplished. It takes hard work by a lot of people to procure, process and ship out ferrous scrap.
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Business owners who have grown or nurtured a business so that it has become among the leaders in its industry should be justifiably proud. We hope that our recognition of those companies in the ferrous scrap segment that have accomplished this feat will be seen for what it is: A way to honor leadership in an industry that can provide challenges with each price adjustment and each twist and turn of the market.

1. METAL MANAGEMENT INC.

Metal Management Inc., Chicago, was created during the consolidation wave of the 1990s. Today, the company is still publicly held, but is under the leadership of scrap industry veteran Albert Cozzi.

The Chicago area operations of Cozzi Iron & Metal make up a key part of Metal Management's current assets, but during its formation in 1997 and 1998, the company also acquired several regional companies, including: several smaller operators in the Chicago area; Perlco in Memphis, Tenn., and Salt River Recycling in Phoenix, which Cozzi had previously acquired; Naporano Iron & Metal Co., Newark, NJ.; Michael Schiavone & Sons, North Haven, Conn.; Proler Southwest, Houston; Newell Recycling of Denver Inc.; Emco Recycling Corp., Phoenix; Ellis Metals Inc., Tucson, Ariz.; The Isaac Group, Toledo, Ohio; M. Kimmerling & Sons, Birmingham, Ala.; Charles Bluestone Co., Elizabeth, Pa.; Nicroloy Co., Pittsburgh; and Aerospace Metals, Hartford, Conn.

Metal Management struggled through bankruptcy proceedings in 2001, and is still striving to achieve profitability in the current scrap markets.

The company's 1,600+ employees buy, process and sell more than $750 million worth of metals annually, working from locations in 14 different states. In addition to its ferrous operations, the company also trades heavily in nonferrous metals.

The publicly released results of Metal Management reflect the difficulties faced by scrap recyclers in 2001. For its quarter ending Sept. 30, 2001, Metal Management's revenues were down more than 20% compared to the same period last year, reflecting a much slower flow of materials through its yards.

The good news, says Cozzi, is that the company has reigned in its operating and administrative expenses, and a significant improvement in financial results can be anticipated when market conditions improve.

2. OMNISOURCE CORP.

The nation's second largest ferrous scrap company is a dominant player in the manufacturing region located at the western end of Lake Erie.

With its headquarters in Fort Wayne, Ind., and its roots lying there and in nearby Toledo, Ohio, OmniSource Corp. was born with the combination of two family businesses located in each of those cities.

In Fort Wayne, the Rifkin family built Superior Iron & Metal into a formidable regional company, while the Tuschman family did the same with Kripke-Tuschman Industries in Toledo. When the two companies merged in the 1980s, the Rifkins assumed overall operating control (though the Tuschmans remain involved in Toledo), and the name OmniSource was chosen for the company.

Although OmniSource grew significantly during the 1990s, it did not go on an acquisition spree as much as it acquired additional facilities in or adjacent to the regional market with which it was familiar. The company branched into Michigan in addition to acquiring more locations in Indiana and Ohio. It also began important service contracts at major automotive plants that provided it with access to steady supplies of scrap.

Consera Software Introduces Consera AgileOne; Innovative File Server Lifecycle Management Solution Delivers Solid Business Advantage

2007-06-19T02:24:00.000-07:00

Consera Software today announced the first member of its new product family, Consera AgileOne(TM), delivering a robust environment that allows organizations to optimize their server resources while enabling change and flexibility in file server lifecycle management.

The new product utilizes an Intelligent Automation System, a powerful underlying system that provides a new level of capabilities and capacities to IT staff when working with their computing infrastructure, including automating workflows, incorporating best practices and adapting infrastructure management operations to a specific environment. Consera was founded by Microsoft veteran Frank Artale and received Series A venture funding from Ignition Partners, Intel Capital and Matrix Partners, totaling $8.5 million.The process of deploying, migrating or consolidating servers is a time-consuming and frustrating task, with a success rate of less than 30 percent," said Ken Winell, president and CEO of Econium LLC. "Following pages and pages of handwritten instructions is tedious and inaccurate, and until now, the only way to effectively manage the process. Consera AgileOne automates the process and does it quickly and accurately, enabling our IT department to improve the overall quality of our infrastructure, while at the same time streamlining the management of our clients' operations." Consera AgileOne dramatically increases flexibility in managing servers, activating the corporate IT organization and allowing it to better meet the business needs of the organization. By giving IT the visibility and adaptability they need to control their complex server environments, IT professionals can freely manage, take action and deliver improved performance on a daily basis. The product leverages Consera's powerful underlying Intelligent Automation System to effectively abstract services from the physical and operating system infrastructure, delivering complete control in the management of those services. This proprietary technology allows Consera AgileOne to encapsulate lifecycle operations and configuration information related to a computing service, codify workflows while incorporating best practices, and combine them through an Intelligent Automation Engine that discovers, maps, schedules and executes the service management tasks appropriately.

Consera AgileOne is built on a scalable agentless architecture, delivering powerful file server lifecycle management capabilities, automating the process of deploying, migrating, consolidating and redeploying servers throughout an organization. Focusing on effective server lifecycle management, file sharing service management and comprehensive administrative capabilities; Consera AgileOne integrates into the existing environment and is easily managed through either a Web Console or a command line interface. The product supports the newest technology, including Microsoft's Automated Deployment Services (ADS). The key features of Consera AgileOne include:

-- Server Lifecycle Management -- Supports discovery, deployment,

migration, consolidation and redeployment of file servers.

This includes determining file servers of interest on the

network, exposing the properties and establishing a simple

view of the server infrastructure without any manual

exploration. Consera AgileOne enables IT to add and configure

a new file sharing service with custom configuration and

provisioning bare metal servers. File servers can be migrated

with all of the data and relevant configuration, such as

permissions and security, removing the burden from these human

intensive tasks. Multiple servers can be consolidated to a

single destination or redeployed efficiently, based on

changing business needs.

-- File Sharing Service Management -- Allows users to move file

shares with configuration information related to them such as

permissions and security from source to destination. Consera

AgileOne also enables users to add and configure a file

sharing service on an existing server, using standard or

customized configuration templates.

-- Administrative Capabilities -- Consera AgileOne allows for

share and directory conflict management to occur automatically

with operator-assisted resolution for all operations. Easy

access to operations and control settings is available through

a Web Console or command line interface. The product provides

flexible access to its capabilities by the various classes of

users it supports while also producing comprehensive logs for

job analysis and reporting and providing automatic roll back

when unanticipated errors occur. Consera AgileOne incorporates

a scalable, agentless architecture, allowing customization of

operations and scheduled or immediate operations.

International Directory of Company Histories, Volume 78 (2007) by April Gasbarre, Christina Stansell

2007-06-18T05:36:00.000-07:00

Created through the 1991 merger of America's Mooney Chemicals, Inc., Finland's Kokkola Chemicals Oy, and France's Vasset, S.A., OM Group, Inc. is one of the world's largest vertically integrated producers and marketers of metal-based specialty chemicals made mostly from cobalt and nickel. These chemicals are used in the production of more than 625 items used in a variety of industries including aerospace, hard metal tools, appliance, rubber, automotive, ceramics, paints and ink, catalysts, electronics, petrochemicals, stainless steel, magnetic media, and rechargeable battery chemicals. OM serves approximately 1,700 customers in 50 countries and has manufacturing facilities in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Canada, Europe, and the United States. OM faced challenges in the early years of the new millennium due to a slowdown in cobalt sales. When the company reported an unexpected $71 million third-quarter loss in 2002, shareholders filed class action lawsuits and an investigation into the company's accounting practices was launched. In response to the hardships, OM restructured operations and sold off assets to pay down debt.

The African country of Zaire (specifically its Shaba province) became the world's leading cobalt producer in the 1920s and continued to occupy that position throughout the 20th century, producing about one-third of the world's output in the late 1980s. The vast majority of cobalt ore is found in the presence of copper and nickel ores. The cobalt is separated from the other ores during the smelting process, when it is concentrated in the slag layer. A variety of processes can then be used to extract the cobalt from the slag.

By forging strong ties with copper and nickel miners in Zaire and Zambia, James B. Mooney was able to obtain cobalt-laden slag direct from the source. The personal contacts and high level of vertical integration developed during Mooney Chemicals' early years would become key contributors to the company's success in the decades to come. Strong business relationships helped Mooney maintain its supply of cobalt despite the countries' political and economic vacillations. In 1994, James P. Mooney asserted, "When [cobalt] supplies are limited, we're at the head of the line." Vertical integration helped Mooney Chemicals maintain some of the highest levels of productivity in the cobalt specialty-chemicals industry. In the mid-1990s, for example, OM Group's sales per employee were more than double the industry average, at $850,000 compared with less than $300,000.

Cobalt markets were limited in large part to paint and petroleum manufacturers in the 1940s and 1950s, but intractable strikes at Canadian nickel mines helped boost awareness and use of cobalt as a nickel substitute in the late 1960s. Although cobalt was more expensive than nickel, it was harder and more heat resistant. "Superalloys" (combinations of metals that had properties well-suited for particular applications) developed in the 1960s and 1970s further expanded the markets for cobalt to include aerospace, magnets, catalysts, and electronics.

Seventh of the founder's 14 children, James P. Mooney emerged as the one with the interest and intelligence needed to run the family business. Having been immersed in the cobalt trade from childhood (he dined with African mining executives as a teenager, for example), the younger Mooney joined the company in 1971 at the age of 23. Just four years later, he advanced from a sales position to join three of his brothers at the company's top executive offices. That is when the patriarch, who had been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease, retired and moved to Florida.

Because of a corporate aversion to debt, acquisitions were infrequent. Nevertheless, Mooney expanded its product line through the purchases of a Mobil Oil Co. subsidiary in Pennsylvania, Chicago's Lauder Chemical, and Cleveland's Harshaw Chemical in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. By 1984, the niche company's 40 employees generated about $2 million in annual sales.

After about 45 years of family ownership, many in the Mooney clan were ready to divest their stakes in the business. Unwilling to relinquish his birthright, President James Mooney sought out a sympathetic acquirer. He found it in Finnish mining powerhouse Outokumpu Oy, which was then looking for a way to spin off its peripheral cobalt operations. In 1991, Mooney Chemicals, Inc., was acquired for about $50 million and merged with Outokumpu's Kokkola Chemicals Oy (in Finland) and Vasset, S.A. (in France). Renamed Outokumpu Metals Group, the reformed company operated as a subsidiary of the Finnish giant until 1993, when the parent company spun off its 96 percent share to the public as OM Group. James Mooney continued to own about 4 percent of the "new" firm and serve as its chief executive officer.

Meddling with metal: novel nanocontrol yields chromium rival

2007-06-07T05:26:00.000-07:00

A legal battle launched in 1993 over toxic chromium metal became the basis for the movie Erin Brockovich, which featured superstar Julia Roberts. Now, materials scientists have quietly taken aim at one common use of that harmful substance by creating a nontoxic alloy with the potential to replace a coating containing chromium.

Costarring in these laboratory developments is a new method for making alloys. With it, scientists can dictate the sizes of nanoscale crystals in an alloy's structure--and therefore the alloy's properties--by manipulating its atomic composition. Christopher A. Schuh of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and his colleagues have applied the method to alloys composed mainly of nickel.

The scientists set out to create nontoxic coatings as hard and corrosion resistant as the chromium layer applied to steel. The so-called hexavalent form of chromium--used in those coatings and also in paints and dyes--poses a cancer risk to more than a half-million U.S. workers.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Feb. 28 slashed the permissible concentration of hexavalent chromium in workplace air by a factor of 10.

To make their nontoxic coatings sturdy, Schuh and his coworkers applied a well-known strategy: creating nanoscale crystalline grains in the materials. To do this, other researchers have rolled and pounded metals to reduce grain size (SN: 8/24/02, p. 117) or heated nanocrystalline powders to weld together smaller structures. Neither of these methods gives precise size control, Schuh says.

Art services directory - Directory

2007-06-06T06:35:00.000-07:00

GICLEE printmaking and scanning services

For artists. Archival 6 color pigment inks on 100% rag paper and canvas in limited edition up to 54"wide x any length. We work one on one in a close relationship to make your art. 320Studio can be reached at 212-367-8865 or visit www.320studio com. Gallery inquires welcome, specializing in producing shows for limited edition art. Also, HEXTONE printmaking for superior B&W photographic work.

North American scrap metals directory

2007-06-02T02:36:00.000-07:00

* From the publisher of Recycling Today magazine

* Available in two formats--print or searchable online database

* Features more than 8,500 companies dedicated to collecting, processing and brokering of scrap metal

* Listings include company name, contact information, Web sites, e-mail addresses, commodities handled, processor/broker status and specialities

Scrap directory available - Scrap Industry News - 2002 North American Scrap Metals Directory - Brief Article

2007-06-02T02:35:00.000-07:00

he 2002 North American Scrap Metals Directory is now available. The annual directory includes listing information on companies handling both ferrous and nonferrous metals. The publication includes more than 8,500 company listings.

The annual directory, produced by the RecyclingToday Media Group, Cleveland, is extensively researched, and provides detailed information on companies, including address, phone and fax number, e-mail and Web site address, type of material handled, contact name, type of business, and rail siding used by the company.

"This directory gathers the contact information for thousands of scrap metal dealers in North America into one handy volume. In an industry that increasingly requires buyers and sellers to look beyond their accustomed geographic range, I can't imagine trying to do business without it," says Dan Sandoval, senior editor of the Recycling Today Media Group and editor of the 2002 directory.

The cost of the directory is $85, plus $5 for shipping and handling. Discounts are available for multiple orders. International orders cost $10 for shipping and handling.

For those people interested in integrating the directory information into their own company database, the North American Scrap Metals Directory is available in CD-Rom format. The cost is $385, plus $5 shipping and handling.

Payment is possible by check, money order, Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover Card. Orders by check should be made out to North American Scrap Directory, 4012 Bridge Ave., Cleveland, OH 44113, attn: Books Department.

India: Global prices may nullify nickel duty cut gains

2007-05-08T04:52:00.001-07:00

The FM's announcement of a duty cut on nickel from 5% to 2% is unlikely to benefit domestic stainless steel players. A day after Mr Chidambaram made the announcement, the price of nickel for 3-month delivery at the London Metal Exchange (LME) zoomed by nearly $300 over Thursday's close to breach the psychological $50,000 per tonne mark.

In the last two months alone, prices have jumped by almost 50%. This is likely to induce a lot of stainless steel consumers in automobile, transport and construction sectors, towards other substitutes like aluminium or non-nickel bearing steel.

For stainless steel producers who entirely depend on imported nickel, a steep three-fold rise in prices — from $17,000 to $50,700 per tonne in the last 10 months — has sent alarm bells ringing. The reason is simple. The cost of nickel forms the single largest chunk of expenditure in the manufacture of stainless steel accounting for almost half of the cost.

Stainless steel is being widely used in exhaust systems of cars and in building construction. "When global prices are so strong, import duties tend to erode margins further. There is, after all, a limit to the extent to which consumers will agree to price increases," V S Jain, MD & CEO of Jindal Stainless told ET.

Moreover, the import duty cut will be applicable only on primary metal (pure nickel) which makes up for roughly around half of the total imports. The rest of it comes into the country in the form of stainless steel scrap.

"Beyond a point, high prices tend to wean away consumers towards other substitutes like aluminium. This has started happening globally. Stainless steel demand is strong in our country. But it may happen in our country too," Mr Jain added.

China may ban steel product export tolling

2007-05-08T04:50:00.002-07:00

China may ban steel product export tolling, just shortly after the cancellation of steel product export tax rebates, an official with China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) told Interfax today.

Interfax reported that steel product export tax rebates were cancelled on April 15, but China may further restrict high-end metals export tolling. "Official policy has not yet been set and we are currently still debating a provincial-level draft," an official with MOFCOM's tolling department said today.

"China is set to cancel tolling on imported semi-finished steel products and the re-export of processed products in the near future. Steel product fabricators will be required to start paying value-added tax on imports, and export taxes," an industrial source close to the government, said.

China banned tolling on the import of iron ore, pig iron, billet and scrap steel and the re-export of steel products in May 2005.

In addition to reducing steel product export tax rebates in September 2006 and finally, the recent cancellation of export tax rebates on steel products on April 15 this year, the ban on steel product export tolling will be another step towards further restricting the export of products which are high energy-consuming and highly-polluting, the source added.

However, the ban on steel product export tolling may go some way to ease recent trade disputes between China, the United States and the European Union.

Tolling is a practice of importing raw materials and re-exporting processed and finished products. During the tolling process, both imports and exports enjoy favourable tax policies, which boosts the domestic economy and increases international trade.

The new list of nonferrous metal products that will be restricted from tolling is due to be published soon, with most of the products involved in the export rebate reduction policy issued in September 2006 included. However, precision copper tube, which is widely used in air-conditioning units, will be the only type excluded from the policy, according to previous Interfax reports.

The government is also considering a tolling repayment process, such as charging 50% of the combined import price and VAT on refined copper imports, and then remunerating the full amount after the company exports finished copper products, a senior official with the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association told Interfax.

Tax rebates on the export of copper products was lowered from 13% to 5% on Sept. 15, 2006. China canceled tolling on the import of copper concentrate and re-export of refined copper on Nov. 22, 2006.

Commentary

Past and on-going consolidation/restructuring of China's metal industries has proven a major success, with domestic capacity growth now exceeding domestic demand. Export markets have grown markedly and have taken out the domestic excess.

However, trade imbalances are causing concern and subsequent measures to curb exports run the risk of domestic oversupply, particularly if such restrictions were extended to include high-end finished products such a stainless steel.

Allegheny Technologies slips on outlook despite strong quarter

2007-05-08T04:50:00.001-07:00

Allegheny Technologies slumped yesterday after the Pittsburgh specialty metals producer reported an 86 percent increase in first quarter earnings but forecast comparable second quarter results.

Net income of $197.8 million, or $1.92 per diluted share, came on sales of $1.37 billion. The results, which exceeded Wall Street forecasted earnings of $1.83 per share, were buoyed by higher metals prices and strong demand from the aerospace industry and other major customers.

"Our key growth markets remain strong, and we are well positioned to benefit from these strong markets," said Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer L. Patrick Hassey.

Despite the strong results, the markets appeared to focus on the second quarter forecast, which is based on better results from the company's high performance metals business but reduced earnings at the Allegheny Ludlum flat rolled products unit. Mr. Hassey cautioned that volatile nickel prices, a key ingredient in some of the specialty metal producer's products, could result in inventory-related charges greater than the $20.9 million recorded in the first quarter.

Allegheny Technologies shares fell $4.87 yesterday, finishing at $112.89. Even after the slide, they are up 24 percent this year.

U.S. Steel shares were dented Tuesday after the company posted better-than-expected first quarter earnings but forecast a flat second quarter. They rebounded yesterday, finishing at $104.83, up $1.79.

Allegheny Technologies first quarter results reflect pre-tax costs of $5.9 million related to a new contract for the company's Allegheny Ludlum operations. The four-year agreement was ratified in March, three months before the current contract was set to expire. It covers 3,100 members of the United Steelworkers union at plants in Western Pennsylvania, Ohio and five other states.

"We were happy to pay it to get an early agreement and a good agreement with the United Steelworkers," Mr. Hassey told analysts during a conference call.

He also forecast 25 percent growth in the company's titanium business this year and said that, given demand from the aerospace industry, the business could grow at a comparable clip for several years.

In the year-ago quarter, Allegheny earned $106.5 million, or $1.04 per diluted share, on sales of $1.04 billion.

Posco introduces nickel-free stainless steel

2007-05-08T04:49:00.002-07:00

Posco, the world's fourth-largest steel maker, will raise output of a nickel-free stainless steel fivefold next year as the price of nickel has hit a record.

Posco plans to sell 10,000 tonnes a month of the steel, which it introduced this month, from 2,000 this year, the Pohang-based firm said yesterday. The steel, which uses chromium instead of nickel, is the equivalent of US$2,470 a tonne, half the price of so-called 300-series cold-rolled coil steel.

Posco has raised stainless steel prices four times this year because of the cost of nickel.

While Posco's product is not the first of its kind and may be similar to products in U.S. markets, it does represent the acceleration in substitution by consumers, said Alan Heap, Citigroup analyst.

"It's a trend towards low and no nickel content alloys and away from austenitic nickel steel that's being driven by high nickel prices and short availability."

Citigroup expects substitution will likely slow nickel consumption growth in 2007 to 7.5%, from 10.5% in 2006. However, it still expects a supply deficit of 9,000 tons.

LME base metals end mixed; Copper up

2007-05-08T04:49:00.001-07:00

Base metals were mixed on the London Metals Exchange Wednesday, pressured by fund liquidation as the market digested mixed U.S. economic news.

"Effectively the market is still ranging, and there is still a little bit of confusion as to the direction of the U.S. economy," said Triland Metals analyst Roy Carson.

This could come from advance U.S. GDP figures Friday, he said.

Copper finished up 0.5% at $7,860/metric ton after see-sawing on mixed U.S data during the session.

The base metals complex started lower, but upticked on bullish durable goods data from the U.S, a broker said.

Orders for durable goods increased by 3.4% in March versus an expected climb of only 2.7%.

This was offset however by slightly bearish housing news from a smaller-than-expected rise in new home sales, which sparked some fund selling across the complex.

Sales of single-family homes increased by 2.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 858,000, the Commerce Department said Wednesday, but were below expectations of a 5.0% increase.

This carries on from Tuesday's slide, when March data showed that existing-home sales took the biggest tumble in 18 years as poor weather struck demand.

Adding to copper price support was of strike action at Southern Copper Corp.'s Toquepala unit in Peru from Saturday and continued stock drawdowns, Triland Metal's Carson said.

Copper for now is rangebound between $7,600-$8,100/ton with a break of $8,200/ton seen triggering a move sharply higher.

The rest of the base metals mostly took their tone from copper, with tin down 1% and the rest of the metals consolidating slightly lower.

LME zinc however held in positive territory around $3,760/ton, up from earlier lows after another drawdown in LME inventories Wednesday. LME zinc stocks have fallen some 8% since the start of April.

In news, the European Union will make a final decision on bringing into force legislation to halve the import duty on aluminium by the first half of May.

In January, the European Commission proposed to cut the duties to 3% from 6% retroactively from Jan. 1, 2007, and to eliminate them altogether by 2009, but Germany, France and Spain opposed the initiative, driven by Poland.

The issue has been a source of contention in the E.U. since 1997, when non-E.U. aluminium producers first called on the E.U. to lower aluminium tariffs.

Also, South Korea's Posco said it has developed a new nickel-free stainless steel product, which is about 50% cheaper than current stainless steel products that contain nickel.

Compared to the cold-rolled stainless steel that is priced at KRW4.92 million ($5300) per metric ton, the nickel-free product is much cheaper at KRW2.30 million ($2480)/ton.

Allegheny Technologies 1Q profit up on high-performance metals, flat-rolled products

2007-05-08T04:48:00.000-07:00

Steel maker Allegheny Technologies Inc. said Wednesday its first-quarter profit jumped 86 percent on improved sales in its high-performance metals and flat-rolled products segments.

Net income surged to $197.8 million, or $1.92 per share, versus $106.5 million, or $1.04 per share, in the prior-year period.

The current quarter's results include an expense of $4.4 million, or 4 cents per share, associated with the early resolution of new labor agreements. That was offset by a $4.2 million, or 4 cents per share, one-time tax benefit related to an adjustment of state deferred tax valuation allowances.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial predicted earnings of $1.83 per share.

Revenue for the quarter gained 32 percent to $1.37 billion from $1.04 billion in the previous year.

Sales rose 16 percent in the high performance metals unit and 52 percent in the flat-rolled products segment.

Consensus estimates put sales at $1.39 billion

Universal Stainless sees 2q profit growth on strong aerospace sales, nickel prices

2007-05-08T04:47:00.000-07:00

Universal Stainless & Alloy Products Inc. on Tuesday forecast up to 29 percent growth in second-quarter earnings per share, on expectations of continuing strong demand from the aerospace industry.

The company forecast quarterly earnings per share of 85 cents to 90 cents, compared with 70 cents per share in the second quarter of 2006. Universal Stainless also expects second-quarter revenue of $52 million to $57 million, compared with $48 million in the prior year's quarter.

Universal Stainless said it expects strong demand from the aerospace industry to continue, as airlines take deliveries of new planes to make their fleets more fuel efficient. The company also expects high nickel prices to continue.

Shares fell $3.46, or 6.7 percent, to $48.54 in morning trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market, where they have ranged between $21.56 and $54.16 over the past year.

Universal Stainless 1Q profit jumps on aerospace sales, lower income tax rate

2007-05-08T04:46:00.000-07:00

Universal Stainless & Alloy Products Inc. said Tuesday its first-quarter profit jumped 70 percent, aided by strong aerospace sales and a lower income tax rate.

Quarterly earnings rose to $6.8 million, or $1 per share, from $4 million, or 61 cents per share, in the prior-year period. Sales grew to $56.2 million from $44.9 million.

In January, the company projected first-quarter earnings per share of 82 cents to 87 cents on sales of $52 million to $57 million.

Chairman and Chief Executive Mac McAninch said in a statement that strong aerospace sales helped drive growth.

He expects the industry to continue its demand, with airlines ordering new airplanes to help make their fleets more fuel efficient.

Universal Stainless also said its annual income tax rate declined by a percentage point to 35 percent, equal to 2 cents per share in first-quarter income.

Shares fell $3.46, or 6.7 percent, to $48.54 in morning trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market, where they have ranged between $21.56 and $54.16 over the past year.

Finland's Outokumpu says to cut production; 1Q earnings surge

2007-05-08T04:45:00.001-07:00

Finnish stainless steel maker Outokumpu said Tuesday it would cut production by about 10 per cent in the second quarter after reporting its first-quarter operating profit rising to euro 424 million – an all-time record.

Net profit in the three-month period through March surged to euro307 million (US$416 million) from euro56 million a year earlier. Revenue increased 50 percent to euro 2.13 billion (US$2.9 billion) from euro1.4 billion in 2006.

The world's second-largest stainless steel maker Outokumpu said in a statement underlying demand for stainless steel continued to be strong.

"In standard volume products, however, distributors are decreasing their inventories and are hesitant in placing new orders. This has resulted in lower orderbooks at Outokumpu's mills that produce volume products," it added.

"Due to shortened orderbook Outokumpu has decided to cut production by some 10 per cent in the second quarter."

Posco 1Q profit rises 38 % on price hikes, cost cuts

2007-05-08T04:44:00.002-07:00

Posco, the world's third-largest steelmaker, said Thursday its first-quarter net profit rose 38 percent following price hikes for some of its key steel products and cost cuts.

Posco earned 982.31 billion won (US$1.1 billion; €784 million) in the three months ended March 31, the Pohang, South Korea-based company said in a statement. It posted net profit of 713.25 billion won in the same period last year.

The result was better than expected. The average estimate of 11 analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires forecast that the company would record net profit of 842.63 billion won (US$906 million; €672 million).

Sales during the quarter rose 22 percent to 5.70 trillion won (US$6.1 billion; €4.5 billion), also better than expected. Analysts had forecast sales of 5.42 trillion won (US$5.82 billion; €4.32 billion).

"Rising domestic demand and our cost-cutting efforts by using more low-priced iron and coal helped boost our earnings in the first quarter," said Ko Min-jin, a Posco spokeswoman.

Posco's earnings were also helped by an 8.3 percent price hike in its mainstay hot-rolled coil to 520,000 won (US$559; €415) per metric ton in July last year, Ko said.

In the first quarter, the steelmaker also raised prices of hot-rolled stainless steel, another of its mainstay products, three times to 4.3 million won (US$4,621; €3,431) a ton from 3.51 million won (US$3,772; €2,801).

Posco, which mainly produces hot-rolled coil, automotive steel plates, thick steel plates and stainless steel, sells 70 percent of its products in South Korea.

Shares in Posco, which released earnings results after the stock market closed, fell 0.5 percent to 386,000 won (US$415, €308).

Terra Nostra to significantly increase ownership of copper and stainless steel joint ventures in China

2007-05-08T04:44:00.001-07:00

Terra Nostra Resources Corporation (OTCBB:TNRO), Thursday announced that it has entered into an Equity Transfer Agreement with its Chinese Joint Venture partner whereby Terra Nostra can increase its ownership position to a maximum of 90% in both the Copper and Stainless Steel joint venture companies.

"As a result of Terra Nostra's increased ownership, we expect to see a very substantial increase in earnings per share due to the increase of Terra Nostra's percentage of net profits and the ramp up of production to optimal levels at the various plants", said Mr. Sun Liu James Po, Terra Nostra's CEO.

Presently, the Company owns a 51% interest in two Chinese Joint Venture companies in the strategic copper and stainless steel industries; Shandong Terra Nostra Jinpeng Metallurgical Co. Ltd. and Shandong Quanxin Stainless Steel Co. Ltd. The Agreement calls for an increase in ownership of both Joint Ventures to an additional 19% initially, followed by a further 20% position, resulting in a 90% ownership position in both joint venture companies by Terra Nostra.

The consideration for this transaction will be restricted common shares of Terra Nostra, the quantity of which is to be negotiated by the parties in conjunction with independent mutually agreed upon valuations of operations.

Terra Nostra is strategically positioned to benefit from the continually increasing demand for both copper and stainless steel from major growth sectors in China including the automotive, high technology, infrastructure development and construction industries.

About Terra Nostra Resources Corporation

Terra Nostra is one of the leading copper producers in China through its 51 percent interest in Shandong Terra Nostra Jinpeng Metallurgical Co., Ltd., which has an existing and under construction production capacity of 170,000 MT (metric tons) of electrolytic copper, 20,000 MT of low-oxygen copper and value-added copper rod and wire facilities. Terra Nostra is also emerging as a leading stainless steel producer in China through its 51 percent interest in Shandong Quanxin Stainless Steel Co., Ltd., a modern stainless steel production facility that commenced operations in early 2006 with a now expanded 230,000 MT casting mill, and a recently commissioned 150,000 MT rolling mill. The two joint venture companies, with total assets exceeding US$ 200 million and having over 800 employees, are located in the highly industrialized coastal province of Shandong, midway between Beijing and Shanghai.

Structural changes in molybdenum demand: report

2007-05-08T04:43:00.000-07:00

Molybdenum oxide price had stabilized in the mid-20s range for most of 2006, and the question is whether this is the new market equilibrium or whether molybdenum prices might slip back to earlier "historical" levels.

Molybdenum is undergoing significant structural change on both the supply and demand sides which makes a return to earlier price structures unlikely.

Now we have been through a period of high copper and molybdenum prices, and yet inventories and molybdenum production from many by-product producers is declining.

In Chile's case, falling head grades at their largest producer – a mine that has been operating since World War I – have resulted in a loss of 10 million pounds of production last year and possibly another 11 million pounds this year.

So while the company continues to maximize copper output, molybdenum output is falling.

This is a radical departure from the earlier reality of the molybdenum industry.

China's molybdenum mine production is falling as well. One estimate has it down by about a quarter between 2002 and 2006. One entire historic mining district appears absent from the news. Production figures out of China are notoriously unreliable, but it appears as though the country wants to retain more of what they produce: China is in the process of adding export tariffs and non-tariff restrictions to molybdenum exports.

A spokesman from the Chinese molybdenum producer JDC was quoted in March as saying that he expected a "…quotas system that would further restrict exports out from the country".

Certainly the stellar gains in stainless and carbon steelmaking in China suggest they'll need every pound of molybdenum they can get: China has become the world's largest stainless steel producer with its output exceeding five millions tons in 2006, up 60 percent from 2005.

Stainless steel capacity there is on track to reach 12 million tonnes by the end of 2007.

China's raw steel production was 418.8 million tonnes in 2006, up 18.5 percent from 2005 and just over one third the world total. In the first two months of this year alone, the output of steel products totaled 79 million tonnes – 25 percent higher year on year.

Canada also has seen significant erosion of its molybdenum production: Several mines have closed. The Highland Valley Copper mine is forecasting an equilibrium level of annual production around 3 million pounds – down from 10.7 million pounds in 2004.

For Canada as a whole, the expected 2007 molybdenum production represents just a
third of what it was in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

While the chronic oversupply and inventory accumulation that characterized the latter part of the last century has been rationalized (through some very hard times for producers and their employees), demand for molybdenum has continued to rise.

Since the mid-1990s, the annual consumption of molybdenum has increased by about 200 million pounds.

These production losses and the demand increase represent the opportunity for new production.

Looking at the demand side, molybdenum has a market niche in stainless steels and in carbon steels. There are other applications – catalysts for example – but steel is the main driver.

Many of these steels were on the drawing boards or in a field-trial stage, but not in substantial use while molybdenum languished at "historical" levels.
Stainless and duplex steels

Stainless steel first; this is roughly a 28 million tonne market.

We are seeing advancement of so-called duplex stainless steels with more molybdenum and less nickel. Right now, the most common duplex stainless grade produced is 2205, nominally containing 40 percent more molybdenum than the corresponding austenitic stainless – grade 316. (The actual compositions vary somewhat with producer.)

Commercial production of these duplex steels is still evolving: Baosteel, for example, China's largest producer, first produced hot rolled 2205 duplex stainless steel strip only this January.

Although the use of higher-molybdenum duplex grades in a given application is not driven solely by the intrinsic value of contained nickel and molybdenum, the recent increases in nickel prices have helped tilt things this way. (Use of the duplex steels involves weight and strength considerations and knowledge of the chemical conditions surrounding the application, etc.)

The potential substitution of a duplex stainless like 2304 (US$2,061/t with nickel at US$20/lb, Mo at US$25/lb) for austenitic stainless 304 (US$4,409/t with nickel at US$20/lb, Mo at US$25/lb) is an interesting one because of the relatively larger market for 304.

Molybdenum bearing stainless steels now represent only 7-10% of the total stainless steel market. Some project examples from Europe follow. The U.S. hasn't yet embraced the substitution to the extent Europe has.
Carbon steels

Carbon steel production in 2006 was over 1.2 billion tonnes.

This is 40 times the size of the stainless market and molybdenum is beginning to establish a foothold in carbon steels through the development of Advanced High Strength Steels (AHSS).

These revolutionary developments in steelmaking are allowing steel to recapture ground lost to aluminium and plastics over decades. Given the size of this segment relative to stainless, the potential for increased molybdenum consumption is truly extraordinary.

In this category, we see an increasing number of applications for molybdenum:

One is pipeline steels containing in the order of 0.25 percent molybdenum.

Engineering studies have shown significant project cost reduction using advanced high strength steels in pipelines, even with the increased unit price of the product.

The reduced wall thickness allowed by these new steels requires less steel overall for the pipeline, reduces transportation costs, and lowers construction costs.

Currently, molybdenum demand in this application is limited by the availability of capacity: The vast majority of the world's pipe mills have yet to upgrade to the newer grades like X100 and X120, which contain higher levels of molybdenum.
Catalysts

There is extraordinary new growth occurring in catalyst demand for the production of
ultra low sulfur diesel (ULSD).

About 95% of refiners use either a nickel-molybdenum catalyst or a cobalt-molybdenum catalyst for sulfur removal in the ULSD application.

ULSD is the single largest environmental mandate since the removal of lead from gasoline 25 years ago, and the full impact on molybdenum demand has yet to be felt.

The overall diesel demand growth rate in the last three years has been about double
that of gasoline: roughly 3.5-4% per year.

European steel producers win against US steel duties

2007-05-08T04:41:00.000-07:00

The US Department of Commerce has accepted a ruling by the World Trade Organization that required a change in the calculation of anti-dumping duties on eight European steel exporters. In most cases, the recalculation resulted in the elimination of all duties and a reduction in other cases, the DOC said in a 26-page decision posted on its web site Tuesday.

The duties were eliminated on hot-rolled coil from the Corus Group in the Netherlands (from 2.59% to zero) and stainless steel bar from Ugitech in France (from 3.9% to zero) and Corus Engineering Steels in the UK (from 4.48% to zero). Duties were also eliminated or reduced on six other stainless steel bar and wire rod producers in the UK, Italy, Germany, and Sweden, previously ranging from 4.76% to 32.32%. Duties on imports of cut-to-length carbon steel plate from Palini and Bertoli in Italy were reduced from 7.85% to 7.64%.

The US petitioners included Nucor, Mittal USA. Ipsco, Steel Dynamics, and Carpenter Technology.

The duties were recalculated without using a methodology called "zeroing," and allowed companies to offset goods sold at lower (or dumped) export prices with like products sold at higher prices in the US.

China to cancel steel product export tax rebates on April 15

2007-05-08T04:40:00.002-07:00

China will officially cancel export tax rebates for most steel products on April 15, with the exception of stainless steel plate and cold-rolled products that will have their export tax rebates reduced to 5%, according to a document jointly released today by the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation.

Steel products in 83 tax codes, mainly hot-rolled coil and plate, rod, bar, H-shape steel and angle steel will have their export tax rebates cancelled from a current 8% on April 15. High-value-added steel products in 76 tax codes will have export tax rebates cut to 5%, including cold-rolled coil and sheet, galvanized sheet, tin coated sheet, hot-rolled stainless steel coil and plate, stainless steel strip and bar, oriented silicon steel plate and alloy steel plate.

The government has stressed that all companies must implement the new policy on April 15, export contracts signed before April 15 will NOT be exempt from the new policy.

China's steel product exports increased 118.4% to 14.13 million tonnes in the first quarter of the year, according to statistics released by the General Customs Administration today.

China exported 5.38 tonnes of steel products in March, up 22.8% from February and slightly lower than the record 5.55 million tonnes exported last December.

China's steel product exports increased 118.4% to 14.13 million tonnes in the first quarter of this year, according to statistics released by the General Customs Administration today.

China exported 5.38 tonnes of steel products in March, up 22.8% from February and slightly lower than the record 5.55 million tonnes exported last December.

China's net export of steel products reached 9.86 million tonnes in the first quarter of the year.

China imported 100.19 million tonnes of iron ore in the first three months of the year, up 23.4% from last year, mainly driven by a high demand from steel mills after the Spring Festival. Iron ore imports stood at 35.62 million tonnes in March, up 23.94% month-on-month.

China exported 3.65 million tonnes of coke from January to March 2007, up 19.8%, while slab exports increased 98% to 1.78 million tonnes.

"Not possible" to predict lower alloys prices: trader

2007-05-08T04:40:00.001-07:00

Predicting lower prices for the major alloys that go into stainless steel "is not possible," given the need to keep inventories low and the emphasis on reporting standards, according to a trader.

Speaking at the American Metals Market Stainless and Its Alloys conference in Pittsburgh Tuesdayg, Dan Lehrman, president and founder of Hudson Metals, predicted that the extraordinary growth in demand by the Chinese stainless steel industry meant that high-carbon ferrochrome prices would exceed the all-time record of $1.10/lb in the US. He said that prices were already at the $1/lb level.

"Last December, high-carbon ferrochrome prices in the US were about 60 cents/lb; today, they're $1/lb. That's extraordinary price growth in four months," he said. "The reason for increasing prices is an absolute boom in stainless steel, especially in China," he added. He said the decision to award Beijing the 2008 Olympic Games forced China to modernize from an economy stuck in "early last century to shine before the world as an Olympic host."

Lehrman said that the removal of the export tax rebate on chrome ore and the introduction of an export tax earlier this year was because China wanted to keep its raw materials and have greater control over them. But it had also put upward pressure on prices. He said that prices for chrome metal in the US were around $8,000/mt CIF Baltimore, which equated to 375-385 cents/lb. Last December, chrome metal prices were 280 cents/lb.

He said that producers had two choices. "They could go for greater market share, or increased profit. I think they'll go for profit because the chrome market has had several years of low pricing." He added that the price boom came to chrome late.

Looking forward, Lehrman predicted that chrome metal prices would exceed their current range of 375-385 cents/lb. "And I think [high-carbon] ferrochrome will exceed its all-time high of $1.10 through 2008."

Earlier, on the sidelines of the conference, a ferroalloys trader claimed to have sold around 800 st of high-carbon ferrochrome this week at $1/lb for April-May delivery. Last week, the Platts assessment for 60-65% high-carbon free market ferrochrome was 93-94 cents/lb, up from 90-92 cents/lb previously.

Japan's Sojitz clinches US$92 mln order from Spanish steelmaker

2007-05-08T04:39:00.004-07:00

Japan's Sojitz Corp. (TSE:2768) has received an 11 billion yen (US$92.5 million) order for production machinery from stainless steel producer Acerinox SA of Spain.

Sojitz will deliver cold-rolling equipment procured from such Japanese companies as Mitsubishi-Hitachi Metals Machinery Inc. to Acerinox's South African and U.S. subsidiaries.

The equipment headed for South Africa is slated to be in operation in April 2009, with the equipment headed to the U.S. to be placed into service the following month.

Sojitz will also deliver to Acerinox annealing equipment used in cold-rolling preproduction, with plans to have that up and running by April 2008.

S Korea's Posco to up stainless steel prices in April

2007-05-08T04:39:00.003-07:00

South Korea's Posco (005490.SE) said Monday it will raise the domestic price of its hot-rolled stainless steel products by 8.1% later this month, due to higher nickel prices.

The world's third-largest steelmaker by output will raise its hot-rolled stainless steel price to KRW4.65 million a metric ton starting April 23, from KRW4.30 million, due to a continued rise in nickel prices, said Posco spokeswoman Ko Min-jin.

This will be the fourth time the company has raised stainless steel prices this year.

Posco said it will also raise the price of cold-rolled stainless steel products by 7.7% to KRW4.92 million/ton, from KRW4.57 million.

Hot-rolled stainless steel is mainly used in automobiles, medical equipment and buildings. Nickel is a key material used in stainless steel products.

On March 26, Posco raised the price of hot-rolled steel to KRW4.3 million from KRW3.95 million and that of cold-rolled steel to KRW4.57 million from KRW4.22 million.

The prices of nickel jumped to $52,370/ton on the London Metal Exchange April 5, compared to $14,500 at the start of 2006.

Medium term stainless steel price forecasts

2007-05-08T04:37:00.000-07:00

Transaction values went up significantly in Asia and North America to reflect higher nickel costs. In the EU these were offset by declining basis values. We see scope for further substantial increases in the short term in Asia and North America with more modest figures expected in the EU. Basis values are forecast to decline in both the EU and North America over the next few months. However, lower alloy surcharges should help to alleviate the downward pressure in the medium term.

Higher stocks and lower demand will put pressure on the mills to discount prices in all regions during the second half. This will lead to an inventory depletion phase which will further exacerbate price erosion. In the longer term, we expect stainless transaction values to decline in all regions to the end of 2007.

Yuzhny GOK earnings tumble 80% in 2006

2007-04-21T04:19:00.001-07:00

Yuzhny GOK, a major Ukrainian iron ore producer, closed 2006 with net profit down 78% to 5.564 million hryvni, the company said in a statement published in the press.

The company's retained earnings stood at 265.55 million hryvni at the end of 2006.

Current liabilities increased by 36.3% last year, to 1.05 billion hryvni, and long-term liabilities grew by 87.6% to 431.21 million hryvni. Long-term financial investments were unchanged at 1 million hryvni.

Yuzhny GOK's receivables rose 66.2% to 1.096 billion hryvni. The company's equity edged up 0.5% to 945.67 million hryvni, fixed assets slipped 0.1% to 1.031 billion hryvni, and overall assets grew 25% to 2.432 billion hryvni.

The company did not disclose its sales figures for last year.

Yuzhny GOK shareholders will review last year's results, distribution of profits and plans for 2007 at their annual general meeting on May 30. They will also discuss the rejection of plans to increase charter capital by 1.072 billion hryvni, to 1.608 billion hryvni from 535.915 million hryvni.

The decision to issue the new shares was made at a shareholder meeting in the summer of 2005, but it was later disputed in court by the State Property Fund.

Chinese iron ore imports could exceed 2007 projections

2007-04-21T04:18:00.002-07:00

Chinese iron ore imports, which are the second-largest exports from Brazil to China, could exceed the projection of 355 million tons from the Chinese Association of Iron and Steel, the Chinese official press reported Thursday, citing sector analysts.

"Analysts have said that if the growth posted in the first quarter of the year carries on between April and December, total imports for 2007 will exceed the forecast of 355 million tons," said official Chinese news Agency New China.

In the first quarter of the year, China imported 100.19 million tons of iron ore, or 23.4 percent more than in the same period of last year.

China, which is the world's biggest producer and consumer of steel, imported 325 million tons of iron ore – most of it from Brazil – and produced 418.78 million tons of steel in 2006.

Brazil is the largest exporter of iron ore to China and the material is, following soy beans, the second-largest export product from Brazil to China.

Brazilian company Companhia do Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD) became China's biggest supplier of iron ore in 2006, having sold 77.8 million tons on the Chinese market, or 37.8 percent more than in 2005 and almost a quarter of all iron ore bought by the Chinese that year.

Posco 1Q profit rises 38 % on price hikes, cost cuts

2007-04-21T04:18:00.001-07:00

Canada's IPSCO confirms talks about possible sale of company; Shares rise 11%

2007-04-21T04:17:00.002-07:00

Canadian steel products maker IPSCO Inc. confirmed Thursday it's in talks that could lead to the possible sale of the company.

The company said it made the statement "in response to market rumors and noting recent appreciation in its stock price," but declined to release any other details.

In morning trading, IPSCO shares surged $15, or 11.5 percent, to $145.90 on the New York Stock Exchange – having earlier hit a new 52-week high of $149.30, easily eclipsing the stock's previous year-high of $134.37 set on Tuesday.

Earlier Thursday, a business daily reported that Evraz Group SA, Russia's biggest steelmaker, is in talks to acquire IPSCO. Evraz's management held acquisition talks several weeks ago with IPSCO, the Vedomosti paper said, citing two unnamed businessmen familiar with Evraz's shareholders.

Evraz officials have declined to comment on the report.

In January, Evraz completed the takeover of Oregon Steel for $2.3 billion, making it one of the largest investments in the United States by a Russian company. Evraz already owns steelworks in the Czech Republic and Italy.

IPSCO produces energy tubulars and steel plate in North America with an annual steelmaking capacity of four million tons. With the acquisition of NS Group, IPSCO now operates four steel mills, 11 pipe mills, and scrap processing centers and product finishing facilities in 25 locations across the U.S. and Canada. IPSCO also provides connections for oil and gas drilling and production.

Workers block access to Shougang Peru iron ore mine

2007-04-21T04:17:00.001-07:00

Chinese-owned iron miner Shougang Hierro Peru SAA (SHPC1.VL) said Thursday that contract workers had blocked access to its mine site from early in the morning.

In a letter to the Peruvian regulatory agency, the company said that contract service workers blocked a highway, stopping access by workers and affecting production.

"We have become aware that persons from a service company are carrying out unacceptable violent acts that are tied to administrative demands made by their employers," Shougang said.

The company has been hit by a number of labor dispute stoppages in recent years.

The mine is located at San Juan de Marcona, 525 kilometres southeast of Lima.

On its Web site, the company says that "The actual total production capacity is 4,500,000 to 5,000,000 tons per year."

Shougang Hierro Peru, a unit of China's Shougang Group (SHGG.YY), has owned Peru's only iron ore mine since 1993.

Blue Pearl chairman foresees molybdenum supply challenges

2007-04-14T02:31:00.001-07:00

James Finch submits: There is a polite arrogance to the new king of primary molybdenum producers that comes with being the big kid on the block. That's how the executive chairman referred to Blue Pearl Mining during our hour-long telephone interview discussing his company's developments, the future of the molybdenum market and new companies hoping to imitate his success.

Ian McDonald may very well be entitled to his opinions. After all, Blue Pearl could produce the same number of molybdenum poundage in 2007 as Cameco (NYSE: CCJ) would produce of uranium. (And unencumbered by those pesky legacy contracts or remediation efforts at Cigar Lake.) Blue Pearl is now the largest publicly traded primary molybdenum producer. The company plans to mine about one-fifth of the world' primary moly in 2007, about five percent of the world's total mined molybdenum. His company will also roast about 12 percent of the world's molybdenum. Not bad for a company which was a penny stock some seven months ago.

Blue Pearl has become the darling of Bay Street since the company announced its audacious US$575 million acquisition of privately owned Thompson Creek Metals Company. Having closed the transaction in late October, Blue Pearl now owns two operating molybdenum mines and concentrators and a metallurgical (roaster) facility in Pennsylvania. In mid June, the company's shares traded for less than C$1.80; yesterday the stock closed at C$12.06. Since late August, shares in Blue Pearl have climbed relentlessly, with only brief pauses of consolidation.

We were fortunate to have included Blue Pearl in our seminal molybdenum article about the metal's relationship with the energy bull market, this past July, at a time when few had heard of the company.

On Monday, the company announced encouraging cash flow from the recently acquired Thompson Creek operations. In the 67 days following this acquisition, Blue Pearl generated revenues of $150.8 million, about $2.25 million per day. Annualized, this could reach more than $800 million in 2007 if the price molybdenum remains firm and production continues according to plan.

Production costs for output from the company's Thompson Creek and Endako molybdenum mines averaged $6.28/pound. The company sold this production at an average price of $25.74/pound. By 2008, the company hopes to mine 27 million pounds from these mines. The firm moly price helped Blue Pearl discharge the Second Lien Credit Facility of $64.3 million in mid March. According to Monday's news release, the company cash balance stands at approximately $135 million.

The company expects its bank debt to fall to $320 million after paying its first quarterly installment in 2007 of $18.75 million. Blue Pearl incurred $401.9 million in long-term debt as part of its acquisition of Thompson Creek Metals. At its current production pace, the quarterly bank payments amount to a little more than one week's production.
What's on Ian McDonald's Mind?

Historically, according to Western Troy's Rex Loesby, annual molybdenum demand has grown about four percent since the 1950s. This fits well with McDonald's forecast of 700 million pounds by 2020. "That's what will need to be the supply," he told us.

And where will this come from? "That, of course, is the big question," McDonald said. "There's a dearth of new projects in the pipeline." And he reminded us that China has started to consume more of their own molybdenum production.

As with uranium and other metals, China is a wild card for molybdenum supply. In any moly discussion, China remains a primary concern for miners. "China was producing, 13 to 14 years ago, about 110 million pounds and exporting 100 million into a 230-million pound market," McDonald pointed out. "Last year, in a 400-million pound market, China produced about 80 million pounds, net exporting about 30 million, so they are keeping more. The story is they use more of their own."

He is quick to point out that global moly demand was up six percent in 2006, but China's demand increased some 20 percent.

"I'm not going to sugar coat it," McDonald points out. "If they wanted to make it look bad, they would. If they start dumping on the market, everybody's trashed." But he doesn't believe this is a likely scenario. There are only 39 big mines in the world, producing molybdenum, he told us. "But in China, there are over 500 small mom-and-pop operations. China is desirous of having some world-class companies, and they've shut down some of the smaller operations because they don't use their power efficiently. If you have a big mining company, they are going to have a long-term view and maximize the country's resources."

From where supply comes from is second to the increasing demand McDonald sees ahead. "There are a growing number of applications for molybdenum." He pointed out that cars consume molybdenum. "There's about 0.9 pound or so in about a dozen different places in the automobile, and with 55 million cars in the world, that's about 50 million pounds." This is probably the third largest application of moly.

"High-end molybdenum stainless steel applications consume the biggest amount," McDonald said. "Any steel that's used in the ocean or near the ocean has got molybdenum in it."

He pointed out that Blue Pearl leaves about 10 percent of the company's molybdenum production in the sulphide form for the high-end lubrication market – the oil companies.

"Most of it is made into tech oxide, MO3, and about 25 percent would be ferromolybdenum," he said. "We just sold some (ferromoly) in Europe for $34/pound."

His company was chosen to help produce advice on the newly launched Sprott Molybdenum Participation Fund. We asked about his involvement. "We get a small fee for storing molybdenum if they choose to buy," he told us. It would be stored at Blue Pearl's metallurgical facility in Pennsylvania. "We would also sell them some," he added. His company would not be counseling the fund in which companies to take investment stakes. "It would pose a conflict of interest and we would have to recuse ourselves," he said.
Sees New Supply on the Horizon Lacking

"There's a tremendous barrier to entry for a new primary molybdenum mine to come onstream with no forward market," McDonald observed. "Because without a forward sale, financing requirements for the capital to build one of these new mined could be very, very challenging."

He believes one of the other big molybdenum mines will get financed, but he cautioned, "I think that once one does, it doesn't mean they are all going to." He explained his own personal experience: "When we raised the US$575 million last year to buy Thompson Creek, this was a company making close to US$400 million a year after tax, and we had some heavy lifting to do. It was difficult. It would be difficult for another junior."

One place where he sees imminent molybdenum supply is from Blue Pearl's Davidson deposit, not far from the company's Endako mine and milling facility.

"We will have the feasibility out in the second quarter – I say second quarter, but I hope it's very soon," McDonald told us. "It will become the highest-grade molybdenum mine in the world."

He said his company was lucky to have gotten it three years ago. "It had been ready for production and there was a lot of development done on it." So, the company decided to move to the final feasibility study instead of bothering with a scoping study or pre-feasibility. He said the Davidson project would be in full production in 2009.

What about mine development? "There's already 2.5 kilometers of underground workings there and terrific ground conditions," he said. "We opened that up a couple of years ago, after no one had been underground in 25 years. All of the scaling for the entire 2.5 kilometers fit in a five-gallon paint bucket." McDonald told us Blue Pearl plans to just mine the deposit and little else, "We will not even crush it, just a rock breaker, and just haul it right down to Endako."

But Blue Pearl may take in a partner on Davidson – the Japanese trading company, Sojitz. "They own 25 percent of Endako, and they want to buy 25 percent of Davidson," McDonald said. "It would make sense, if they own the same percentage of both. There wouldn't be any recovery issues, or combining of ore and al that. We would have the same labor force." He did caution the deal was not done yet. "We'll look to possibly do a transaction with them."

Another project where McDonald hopes will provide additional molybdenum supply comes with the possible expansion of Endako into a 'super pit.' The company plans to have the scoping study done later this year, possibly by June. "I feel pretty good about that, it's pretty realistic," he told us. "We have a massive resource there, and it would be a pretty big job. But, it could take the wind out of some of these other juniors."

We discussed his vision of expanding the mill to 50,000 tons per day. "It's probably 32,000 tons per day now," he pointed out. The first step involves redoing the reserves and resource calculations at Thompson Creek and Endako using a $10/pound moly price. The previous pricing was "way too conservative," according to McDonald. We suspect the higher resource figure would open the door to raising the likely $250 million to upgrade the facility to the higher tonnage operation. And his mind is already moving in that direction.

"Let's say we had a study done within the next year," he explained. "It would take to 2008 or 2009 to build it. Unfortunately, because the mine has been operating for forty-two years, we would have to move the existing mill." The mill would have to be moved because there is ore beneath the present mill site. "It won't happen overnight," he warned.

And what about those other junior molybdenum companies?

"We aren't going to grow our company by buying all these other moly deposits," he responded. "Then, we have to go and raise $700 million, worry about marketing another 20 million pounds a year, and betting the company on it. Personally, and our board agrees, we'd rather buy something that's either in production, and pay a little more for it, or take something at a feasibility stage, like copper/moly. We have a pretty good balance sheet, or we will have by the end of this year. Then maybe we could buy some moly production."

What are his plans as 2007 rolls on?

"We qualify for the New York Stock Exchange," McDonald confided. "We've talked to them. I think we will get the ball rolling this spring, and we could look for an early fall consummation. We are going to come to the U.S., we qualify and they seem pretty keen on having us."

Just to make sure we got his story right, McDonald added:

We're not going to sit on our laurels. We have a lot of growth ahead of us, bringing on Davidson, expanding the reserves of both mines and doing a scoping study for expanding Endako. Our main job is to get the debt paid down and increase the reserves. That's quite a bit. It's all within our backyard and with our own expertise. Anything we do outside of that – we will do other things, I think, but they are things that are going to be for sure.

Disclosure: Author has no position in the above-mentioned securities

China's ferroalloy export growth to slow on strong local demand

2007-04-14T02:30:00.004-07:00

China's net exports of ferroalloys will maintain at around 10% of the country's total production to reach at around 1.5-1.7 million mt/year in the next few years, said Xie Xinmin, consultant and former chairman of China Ferroalloys Industry Association, adding that the export growth from the country, however, had been on the downtrend.

Speaking at the Metal Bulletin 8th Asian Ferroalloys Conference in Hong Kong on Tuesday, Xie said China's ferroalloy export growth had slowed due to growing consumption in the local market. "Strong domestic demand reduces the proportion of the country's ferroalloys exports...China's proportion of net exports declined from 27.07% in 1998 to 12.85% in 2005 and 12.17% in 2006," he added.

Xie also pointed out that continued steel development in China played a key role in supporting the growth of the ferroalloys. "China's crude steel production will maintain at around 450-500 million mt/year, leading to a ferroalloy consumption of 11-12 million mt/year," Xie said. China produced 14.33 million mt of ferroalloys in 2006, with about 2.36 million mt were for exports to the global market, he added.
Industry faces overcapacity, low operation rate and backward facilities

Xie, however, noted that the Chinese ferroalloys industry continued to face concerns over serious overcapacity, low operation rate and backward production facilities. "Many ferroalloys plants in China are sparsely located in different areas and it takes extra time and efforts to regulate the sector," he said.

He added: "Among a total of about 1,530 ferroalloys producers in China, only about 25 of them have an output capacity at above 100,000 mt/year." He added that 75 of total ferroalloys producers were at 30,000-100,000 mt/year, 200 at 10,000-30,000 mt/year while the majority of producers of about 1,200 are with output capacity at below 10,000 mt/year. "The ferroalloys industry in China is still facing the problems of overcapacity, power shortage, environmental concerns, and financing."

Chen Renhua,, deputy general manager, Baoshan Iron & Steel Co., Ltd echoed the view and added: "The iron and steel industry in China stimulates both ferroalloy production and consumption in the country...but China is still seeing more supply than demand." Ren added that the competitiveness of the country's ferroalloy industry could enhance through mergers and acquisitions, technology innovation, reduced exports through export tax imposition and tightening environmental protection policies.

He added that in 2007, doemstic consumption of ferroalloys was estimated at about 11 million mt, accounting for 50% of the total production capacity.

Schnitzer recovers shredded scrap after barge capsizes

2007-04-14T02:30:00.003-07:00

US scrap processor and mini-mill operator Schnitzer Steel Industries has recovered approximately 4,000 long tons of shredded steel scrap from Commencement Bay after a barge capsized Friday at its dock facility in Tacoma, Washington.

"We recovered the metal beginning Friday and over the weekend," a company spokesman told Platts Monday. "We don't know the cause; it's still under investigation."

The incident occurred at the General Metals of Tacoma facility, a major export terminal. Schnitzer, based in Portland, Oregon, is the largest exporter of ferrous scrap from the US West Coast.

Nickel may be new Holy Grail, but have prices already peaked?

2007-04-14T02:30:00.001-07:00

Global nickel supplies are so tight that Nick Moore is almost ready to give the metal the same moniker aerospace engineers and sci-fi buffs have applied to a variety of mythical or hard-to-find substances over the years.

"Nickel has become a bit like Icarus, it's flying higher and higher – in fact, we're almost renaming it unobtainium," the ABN Amro Bank NV commodities strategist said when reached at his office in London yesterday, a few hours after Anglo-Swiss mining giant Xstrata PLC announced plans to buy Canadian nickel producer LionOre Mining International Ltd. for $4.6-billion.

However, Mr. Moore also figures prices for the metal, a key ingredient of high-grade stainless steel, may already have peaked.

Prices have risen 28 per cent so far this year and tripled since last March, powered by a potent combination of soaring Chinese stainless steel production, rock-bottom inventories, delays in bringing several major new mines into production – and the entry into the market of what he called "pinstriped consumers," that is, hedge funds and other speculators.

"We are quite comfortable we [may have seen the peak], as much as anyone can be comfortable with a metal which has absolutely astonished, astounded and amazed people," he said.

Nickel reached a record high on March 16, when the cash price hit $50,875 (U.S.) a tonne – $23.08 a pound – on the London Metal Exchange and the contract for delivery of the metal in three months touched $48,500 a tonne, up from about $15,000 a year ago.

Yesterday, the three-month contract closed at $42,500 a tonne, up $300, as the LME said in a daily report that nickel inventories in warehouses it monitors around the world fell by 0.7 per cent to 4,902 tonnes. That is less than two days' of global consumption.

The recovery came amid unconfirmed reports that CVRD Inco now figures production at its massive new Goro mine in New Caledonia will not start until 2011, two years later than its previous estimate.

LionOre chief executive officer Colin Steyn was not predicting more big gains for the metal.

"Nickel prices are at unsustainable levels and if they were to remain there we would start to see value destruction in the stainless steel market, which would affect demand," he said during a conference call with analysts about the deal with Xstrata.

That's also the view of Chinese nickel powerhouse Jinchuan Group Ltd. Last week it expressed "deep anxiety" about "crazy" nickel prices, warning that some industries have already begun to replace materials that require nickel with less-costly substitutes.

As well, the governments of both China and India are trying to put the brakes on their booming economies, which could reduce demand.

Mr. Moore said that another moderating influence is that BHP Billiton's Ravensthorpe nickel mine in Australia is now set to start production early next year.

Still, he said he is looking for the average price of nickel to climb substantially this year. "Last year, it averaged $11 [a pound] or $24,250 [a tonne], and I've pencilled in $15 or $33,070 for this year," he said.

Macquarie Bank Ltd,. metals analyst Jim Lennon told a nickel conference in New Caledonia yesterday that he figures nickel prices will average between $30,000 and $32,000 a tonne over the next three years, as supplies remain tight, according to a report by Bloomberg News.

By contrast, Jacques Bacardats, president of French nickel producer Eramet SA, reportedly told the same conference that the company is budgeting for a price this year of just $10 a pound or $22,000 a tonne and that "we expect prices to accelerate to the downside as market participants de-stock."

However, one London metals trader said Eramet is well-known in the market to be betting that nickel prices will fall and to have hedged itself so that it will benefit from this. "They're talking their book, basically," the trader said.

In the meantime, Mr . Moore warned that nickel could fall sharply if speculators decide to bail out. "Once the pinstriped consumers decide they've squeezed nickel and gotten as much out of it as they can, we may well see a very dramatic slide in prices," he said.

Steel demand down, prices up

2007-04-14T02:29:00.000-07:00

The upward trend in domestic steel prices is being spurred by the rise in raw materials costs rather than by demand, a practice potentially damaging to steelmakers' financial health.

The nation's minimills are hiking prices to offset the cost of scrap, their primary feedstock, which has had a 50 percent price increase since January. The integrated mills, including those operated along the lake shore by Mittal Steel USA and U.S. Steel Corp., also are raising prices to neutralize higher energy costs.

Roy Berlin, president and owner of Hammond-based Berlin Metals, said the threat of increased steel prices spurs service centers to order more steel despite already-bloated inventories. If demand continues to lag, inventories will escalate farther above the optimum three-month level and stall future steel orders.

From his steel industry outlook presentation at the Steel Business Briefing conference in Chicago last week, it is apparent steel analyst Charles Bradford agrees that service center hedge-buying often leads to an inventory bubble, such as the one that occurred in early 2005. That bubble caused a significant drop in steel prices and steel producer profits.

"Inventories go up as steel prices go up, inventories go down as steel prices do down," said Michelle Applebaum, managing director of Applebaum Research, during her presentation at the SBB conference.

Service centers are businesses that inventory and distribute metals for industrial customers and perform first-stage processing like sharing, slitting, stamping and sawing on the steel they resell to fabricators and manufacturers.

Centers typically have thousands of customers, while steel mills serve just hundreds. The effect of rising steel prices on the market was illustrated in 2004 when service center overbuying helped drive steel prices up and then down.

As steel prices and surcharges climbed throughout the first eight months of 2004, service centers overbought on the anticipation of shortages and even higher prices. By early 2005, service center inventories were bulging, and they stopped buying while working down their inventories.

Steel prices and steelmakers' profits plummeted before they rebounded as demand rose.

Service center inventory levels were at a 3.7-month level in February, up slightly from January's 3.5 month supply. This was primarily due to the month's shorter delivery time, according to the Metals Service Center Institute. The Institute predicts that at the current rate, inventory liquidation "is likely to last into the second quarter."

The consensus 2007 U.S. economic forecast is for 2.7 percent growth, and even that is being reduced, Bradford said during his presentation. U.S. economic growth is being tempered by the current lag in consumer demand due to higher energy costs, a dip in new housing starts and lower auto sales.

"Steel mills need 3 percent economic growth for there to be steel growth," Bradford said. "Even the non-construction side is weakening."

Bradford predicts steel company earnings to bottom in the first quarter and to improve significantly in the second quarter, but the third quarter is "very cloudy."

"First, we expect lower scrap prices in April/May, which could put some pressure on prices, and some customers are still sitting with excessive inventories and have been talking about reducing their steel buys in April," he said in his Friday steel outlook report. "Secondly, the automakers (the second largest steel user) face labor contract negotiations in the third quarter."

Mechel's Chelyabinsk plant to boost stainless steel output 650% by 2011

2007-03-27T03:16:00.002-07:00

The Mechel (RTS: MTLR) group plans to increase production of hot-and cold-rolled stainless steel products at its Chelyabinsk Iron & Steel Plant (RTS: CHMK) by 650% by 2011, to 300,000 tonnes per year.

The group's strategic marketing chief, Alexander Malanichev Wednesday at the Stainless Russia-2007 forum that meeting these targets would enable Mechel to increase its share of the hot-rolled products market to 80% in 2011 from 39% in 2006, and its share of the cold-rolled market to 50% from 15%.

The Chelyabinsk plant now produces 15,000 tonnes of cold-rolled and 25,000 tonnes of hot-rolled products per year, he said. The plans call for expanding production to respectively 200,000 tonnes and 100,000 tonnes.

Malanichev said these plans would be realized by modernizing production facilities, expanding the product line and improving quality while reducing costs.

He did not say how much the company would spend on updates at the plant, as the group's investment program to 2011 has not been approved yet. It will be approved by the end of the first half, he added.

Russia on March 20 imposed a three-year antidumping duty on imports of stainless steel from the European Union containing 2.5% or more nickel. The duty is 840 euros per tonne of steel.

Analysts reckon the duty will enable domestic producers to increase stainless steel production.

Chelyabinsk Iron & Steel Plant is Russia's biggest producer of stainless steel roll.

Fortescue ore all sold a year ahead of production

2007-03-27T03:16:00.001-07:00

Forecast production from Fortescue Metals' $3.7 billion Pilbara iron ore project is now fully sold after China's biggest steel maker, Baosteel, signed a supply agreement covering a game-changing 20 million tonnes a year.

Speculation about the agreement has been behind Fortescue's recent share price strength, with the 34 per cent price surge in the past 11 weeks carrying the value of the personal stake of the group's founder and chief executive, Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest, to more than $2 billion.

And in an add-on that will make the incumbent Pilbara iron ore producers BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto groan, the agreement provides for a "broad strategic relationship between the companies".

"Under this strategic relationship, Fortescue will preferentially seek out other opportunities with Baosteel to the mutual benefit of both parties."

The supply deal with Baosteel initially covers 5 million tonnes a year, or about 11 per cent of Fortescue's "stage one" production of 45 million tonnes a year.

First production is due in March next year but the schedule is under pressure following delays forced by cyclone George.

Two workers at a railway construction camp for the project were killed and 16 injured when the cyclone devastated portable accommodation at the camp.

Baosteel's deal with Fortescue envisages it will buy a further minimum 11 million tonnes a year and up to a maximum of 15 million tonnes a year.

That is out of a possible 25 million tonnes a year that Fortescue could expand beyond its initial target of 45 million tonnes a year.

Baosteel's direct entry into the Pilbara iron ore business has been sweetened by the formation of a joint venture with Fortescue potentially to develop a 1 billion-tonne low-grade iron ore deposit close to the new railway being built between the mine at Cloud Break and Port Hedland.

But there is no sweetheart deal on iron pricing, with the agreement based on the annual industry benchmark pricing for premium Pilbara iron ore.

Fortescue traded last Thursday at $22.70 a share. It was suspended from trade pending last night's announcement.

China rebate cuts, voluntary restraint to dampen steel exports – official

2007-03-27T03:15:00.001-07:00

China will continue to reduce export tax rebates for lower-end steel as well as encourage slower export growth among major steelmakers to moderate the rapid growth of steel products sales overseas, said Luo Bingsheng, vice chairman of the China Iron and Steel Association.

'We are still putting forward new tax rebate measures aimed at reducing rapid growth in steel exports, especially of low-end products,' Luo said at an industry conference in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.

He said Chinese steelmakers will be encouraged by rebate adjustments to move away from over-reliance on low-end products.

'Our focus is really on increasing investment in high-quality product. Cutting rebates is meant to curb overheating exports, and the question is whether this can be absorbed by domestic demand. If exports fall and domestic production increases, there will likely be a major impact on the domestic market and this we need to avoid,' Luo said.

China exported 43.0 mln tons of steel products in 2006, up 109.6 pct. Imports meanwhile fell 28.3 pct to 18.5 mln tons.

Luo said China's crude steel output this year would likely increase to 472 mln tons from around 419 mln in 2006.

'We have to control blind investment in steel. What I am more concerned with is overinvestment in hot-rolled sheet. We should be concerned about prices in hot-rolled sheet,' Luo said.

He added that the association has met with major domestic steelmakers to moderate export growth to head off trade tensions, but ultimately individual steelmakers set their own export strategies.

'We have met with major mills and discussed measures for the whole industry. This is what is meant by 'voluntary restraint' and 'industrial coordination'. But it is all voluntary and non-binding,' he said.

He said China's crude steel consumption is projected at 450 mln tons in 2007, adding that production and consumption are projected to peak around 2012.

China may announce export tax rebate reduction policies in early April, in order to control this year's export of steel products, an industry official said Monday

Steel demand down, prices up

2007-03-27T03:14:00.002-07:00

Chicago, Sunday, March 25, 2007 – The upward trend in domestic steel prices is being spurred by the rise in raw materials costs rather than by demand, a practice potentially damaging to steelmakers' financial health.

The nation's minimills are hiking prices to offset the cost of scrap, their primary feedstock, which has had a 50 percent price increase since January. The integrated mills, including those operated along the lake shore by Mittal Steel USA and U.S. Steel Corp., also are raising prices to neutralize higher energy costs.

Roy Berlin, president and owner of Hammond-based Berlin Metals, said the threat of increased steel prices spurs service centers to order more steel despite already-bloated inventories. If demand continues to lag, inventories will escalate farther above the optimum three-month level and stall future steel orders.

From his steel industry outlook presentation at the Steel Business Briefing conference in Chicago last week, it is apparent steel analyst Charles Bradford agrees that service center hedge-buying often leads to an inventory bubble, such as the one that occurred in early 2005. That bubble caused a significant drop in steel prices and steel producer profits.

"Inventories go up as steel prices go up, inventories go down as steel prices do down," said Michelle Applebaum, managing director of Applebaum Research, during her presentation at the SBB conference.

Service centers are businesses that inventory and distribute metals for industrial customers and perform first-stage processing like sharing, slitting, stamping and sawing on the steel they resell to fabricators and manufacturers.

Centers typically have thousands of customers, while steel mills serve just hundreds. The effect of rising steel prices on the market was illustrated in 2004 when service center overbuying helped drive steel prices up and then down.

As steel prices and surcharges climbed throughout the first eight months of 2004, service centers overbought on the anticipation of shortages and even higher prices. By early 2005, service center inventories were bulging, and they stopped buying while working down their inventories.

Steel prices and steelmakers' profits plummeted before they rebounded as demand rose.

Service center inventory levels were at a 3.7-month level in February, up slightly from January's 3.5 month supply. This was primarily due to the month's shorter delivery time, according to the Metals Service Center Institute. The Institute predicts that at the current rate, inventory liquidation "is likely to last into the second quarter."

The consensus 2007 U.S. economic forecast is for 2.7 percent growth, and even that is being reduced, Bradford said during his presentation. U.S. economic growth is being tempered by the current lag in consumer demand due to higher energy costs, a dip in new housing starts and lower auto sales.

"Steel mills need 3 percent economic growth for there to be steel growth," Bradford said. "Even the non-construction side is weakening."

Bradford predicts steel company earnings to bottom in the first quarter and to improve significantly in the second quarter, but the third quarter is "very cloudy."

"First, we expect lower scrap prices in April/May, which could put some pressure on prices, and some customers are still sitting with excessive inventories and have been talking about reducing their steel buys in April," he said in his Friday steel outlook report. "Secondly, the automakers (the second largest steel user) face labor contract negotiations in the third quarter."

Nickel may be new Holy Grail, but have prices already peaked?

2007-03-27T03:14:00.001-07:00

Base metals prices fall on fund selling

2007-03-22T06:13:00.001-07:00

Fund selling pressured London Metal Exchange base metals Wednesday, but market players await the Federal Reserve's statement due shortly for further clues over the health of the U.S. economy and fresh price direction, said traders.

Activity across the complex was "rather dull", with a large majority of market players sidelined ahead of the Federal Reserve's statement, a London-based broker said.

The two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed's policy-making arm, continues Wednesday with a rate decision expected at 1815 GMT.

The FOMC is expected to leave rates unchanged at 5.25%, but market players will be poring through the statement for clues about the U.S. housing market, inflation risks and the general health of the economy, traders say.

Fund selling pressured prices across the LME complex, but three-month zinc posted the largest percentage loss following a sharp LME stock inflow of 5,050 tons to 106,800 tons Wednesday. LME stocks have climbed roughly 14% since the beginning of March, and 18% since the start of 2007.

"The rise in LME zinc inventories – in contrast to the consistent downtrend over the course of 2006 – coupled with large Chinese zinc exports has weighed on zinc sentiment," said Kevin Norrish of Barclays Capital.

Adding to price pressure, the World Bureau of Metal Statistics said Wednesday that the global zinc market was in a surplus of 14,000 metric tons in January.

The London broker said the next level of support for zinc is $3,000/ton.

Meanwhile, nickel continued to fall in Europe – down roughly 9% from Monday's high – taking its cue from weakness in Asia and a heafty LME stock rise Wednesday.

LME nickel stocks rose 654 tons to 4,300 tons Wednesday, the largest daily net increase since Jan. 8, 2007, said Norrish. Available LME nickel stocks comprise roughly one day's worth of global nickel consumption.

However, the recent selloff will only be a major concern to the market if nickel falls below $42,000/ton, said another LME trader. "In a market that's been so fundamentally bullish for the last several months, a correction of this kind isn't unexpected," he said.

Three-month copper remained largely unchanged from its open. The metal fell to a low of $6,555/ton before recouping some of those losses to a PM kerb of $6,608/ton.

Despite a drawdown of LME copper stock, the market focused on the bearish news from the WBMS showing a surplus of 6,000 tons during January 2007, up from a surplus of 5,000 tons in December 2006, said the London broker.

This follows the International Copper Study Group's report Tuesday that the global refined copper market was in surplus of roughly 350,000 tons in 2006, compared with a deficit of around 100,000 tons in 2005.

China's alumina import prices steady; spot trade lackluster

2007-03-22T06:12:00.001-07:00

China's alumina import prices stood steady this week as industry sources said there was minimal spot trade seen in the market. Alumina import prices continued to be indicated at $410-430/mt CIF China, unchanged from last week. Offers were also heard steady at $430-440/mt CIF but "nothing was reported done this week as far as we know," a Chinese trader said.

A Beijing Antaike analyst said "there are very, very few spot trades this week...the market is very quiet. He added: "Import prices have not changed and even domestic prices are steady."

China's non-Chalco domestic alumina prices continued at around Yuan 3,900/mt ($504) ex-plant this week, unchanged from last week. Chalco lifted its alumina price effective Wednesday, March 21, to Yuan 3,900/mt from a previous Yuan 3,600/mt.

"The Chalco price change will have little impact on the market as people have been expecting it for a while, since alumina prices have been rising for the past weeks," the Antaike analyst said. "The new Chalco price is also the same as non-Chalco materials, so the domestic market levels will not be much affected," he added.

A source from smelter Zouping Aluminium agreed. "The Chalco price will have little impact, especially from smelters like us. We signed term contracts earlier in the year, so the change will not affect us...we buy very little from spot." The source also noted that spot trade had slowed in China as more smelters have turned to term contracts this year to avoid volatile spot prices.

An official from China Minmetals, the top alumina importer in the country, said: "We have also seen minimal spot interest this week and most indications for prices are unchanged. Our own port prices for imported alumina are also holding steady at Yuan 4,200/mt." He added: "Spot demand has slowed, but spot supply is tight, so we believe that will support prices for a while. Prices are unlikely to fall back much in the first half of this year, though it is hard to project for the second half."

Gold gains in electronic trade as Fed stands pat

2007-03-22T05:57:00.002-07:00

In a statement, the Federal Open Market Committee said its "predominant policy concern remains the risk that inflation will fail to moderate as expected."

"Inflation failing to moderate, per the FOMC decision today, indicates new worries on inflation from the Fed," said Peter Spina, chief investment strategist at GoldSeek.com.

"This, combined with the drop in reference to a rate hike, places pressures on the U.S. dollar and therefore deemed favorable for gold prices," he explained in e-mailed comments. "The initial reaction is a bit muted in the gold markets, but some firming bids are showing and may assist the yellow metal to break past this $660 area barrier."

Since the FOMC's last meeting in late January, more signs of a slowing economy have emerged, including further troubles in the mortgage market and a sharp downward revision to fourth-quarter growth. But inflation worries have also mounted, putting the Fed in a delicate position.

Gold for April delivery rose $1 to close out the regular trading session at $660 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was the contract's strongest closing level since March 1. It had gained $17.50, or 2.7%, during a five-session winning streak.

In electronic trading on CME Globex, the April contract was quoted at $664.60 an ounce, about two hours after the Fed decision.

The Fed announced its decision at 2:15 p.m. Eastern – 45 minutes after the official close of regular metals trading in New York.

"There's absolutely nothing in the latest Fed comments to altar gold's march to $700+," said Peter Grandich, editor of the Grandich Letter. "Their notation the economy is now 'mixed' ratchet their economic outlook lower, and puts another pin in what little hot air remains in the U.S. dollar balloon."

"While the fat lady hasn't sung yet, she's already in the building and has flowers for the gold bears burial upcoming," he said in e-mailed comments.

Before the announcement, James Moore, an analyst at TheBullionDesk.com said in a note to clients that although most people expected the Fed to leave rates unchanged, the recent slowdown in the U.S. housing market had led to speculation the Fed may cut rates, "a move likely to be bearish for the dollar and bullish for gold."

On the currency markets, the dollar had traded mainly higher against its major counterparts, but pared gains against the yen and declined against the euro immediately after the Fed announcement.

Elsewhere in commodities trading, crude futures climbed, but traded off the day's best levels after the Energy Department reported that crude supplies rose for a second week in a row.

Other metals prices lost ground during the regular trading session. May silver fell by 5 cents to close at $13.32 an ounce. June palladium fell $3.30 to end at $352 an ounce and April platinum slipped $5.30 to close at $1,230 an ounce. May copper shed 1.5 cents to finish at $3.019 a pound, a day after closing at a three-month high.

On the supply side, gold warehouse stocks were unchanged at 7.55 million troy ounces and copper supplies rose by 212 short tons to stand at 35,770 short tons as of late Tuesday, according to Nymex data. Silver supplies rose 494,988 troy ounces to stand at 120.17 million troy ounces.

European Goldfields swings to FY 12.0 mln usd pretax profit

2007-03-22T05:57:00.001-07:00

European Goldfields Ltd, a company operating in Greece and Romania, swung to a pretax profit in 2006 on higher-than-targeted production at the Stratoni mine.

The AIM-listed company moved to a pretax profit of 12.0 mln usd, from a pretax loss of 13.3 mln usd in 2005, as sales jumped to 52.4 mln usd from 1.5 mln. Evolution Securities had forecast pretax profit of 15.5 mln usd on sales of 55.5 mln.

The company holds a 65 pct interest in Hellas Gold SA, owner of three major gold and base metal deposits in Northern Greece. Production at the zinc-lead-silver Stratoni plant started in the fourth quarter of 2005, while mining permits for the Olympias and Skouries projects are expected by the end of the second quarter or start of the third.

Stratoni produced a total of 179,950 wet metric tonnes in 2006, exceeding the target of 170,000 tonnes, and is expected to produce up to 400,000 tonnes a year by 2009.

Initial results from new exploration drilling at Stratoni, which is expected to increase life of mine by another two years at least, are expected in the first quarter of 2007.

The company started selling existing stockpiles of Olympias gold concentrates in July 2006 and has signed off-take agreements signed for 70 pct of the Olympias stockpile of 258,000 tonnes (or about 193,000 ounces at 23.3 grammes a tonne) and received expressions of interest for the balance.

It said a technical feasibility study has nearly been completed at the gold-copper deposit Skouries and that Hellas Gold plans to publish the results of the final feasibility study once the final Environmental Impact Study is completed in the second quarter.

Hellas Gold has started discussions with Outokumpu Oy for the purchase of mill and plant equipment and with Aktor SA, Greece's largest infrastructure construction company, for the construction of the plant and related infrastructure.

Elsewhere, a technical feasibility study on its 80 pct-owned Certej project in Romania was submitted to the government in March 2007 and European Goldfields plans to submit a final EIS to the government in the third quarter.

The group said it believes it has adequate funds available this year to meet its corporate and administrative obligations and its planned spending on its mineral properties.

China copper concentrate imports up 34.9% in February

2007-03-22T05:56:00.001-07:00

China's copper concentrate imports rose 34.9% on year in February to 392,366 metric tons, the General Administration of Customs said Thursday.

Refined copper imports in February rose 177.9% to 148,679 tons.

In January-February, copper concentrate imports totaled 721,845 tons, up 23% on year, while refined copper imports totaled 280,530 tons, up 125.8% on year.

China is a large importer of copper concentrate in the world, sourcing most of its supplies from South America, Mongolia and Australia.

The following are tables of import and export data for copper, nickel, aluminium, alumina, bauxite, lead, zinc, tin and antimony as well as the leading importing and exporting countries from Jan. 1 to Feb. 28. The chart includes leading importing and exporting countries, origins of imports and destinations for exports. (All figures in metric tons unless otherwise stated.)

China leads the world in nonferrous output for 5 years: CNMIA

2007-03-22T05:55:00.000-07:00

China has led the world in nonferrous metals output for five years in a row, national news agency Xinhua reported Thursday, quoting sources with the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association (CNMIA).

The country's output of 10 main nonferrous metals, including copper, aluminium, nickel, lead, zinc and magnesium, surged 17.48% year on year to 19.17 million mt in 2006.

China produced 3 million mt of copper, 9.35 million mt of electrolytic aluminium, 2.74 million mt of lead and 3.15 million mt of zinc in 2006.

Output of nine nonferrous metals – excluding nickel – topped the world.

Profits of the country's main nonferrous metals companies soared 99.5% to Yuan 110 billion ($14.1 billion) in 2006.

In 2007, the country's nonferrous metals output will increase rapidly, with prices remaining at a high level due to rising demand, said Kang Yi, the CNMIA chairman.

Avalon closes up 10% on ASX debut

2007-03-22T05:54:00.000-07:00

Chinese-backed Avalon Minerals Ltd will be hoping proximity is on the company's side when it kick-starts work near Teck Cominco's Pillara zinc mine in Western Australia.

Avalon debuted on the Australian Stock Exchange today and its shares opened at 22 cents or 10 per cent higher than the 20 cent initial public offering price.

Avalon shares closed at 22 cents with over 1.14 million shares changing hands.

Avalon, which is headed by former Gindalbie Metals Ltd managing director David McSweeney, has compiled a portfolio of projects in the West Kimberley region located near the re-opened Pillara mine.

"The Lennard Shelf are of the West Kimberley region of Western Australia is a world-class base metal province," Mr McSweeney said.

"Until very recently it was the state's largest source of zinc and lead production.

"Avalon has noted with interest the recent recommencement of mining and processing operations at the Pillara zinc mine owned by Teck Cominco and Xstrata, and located just 28km from our Lennard Shelf Lawford project."

The Pillara mine was previously owned by failed miner Western Metals, with receivers to that company losing the operation down in late 2003.

Teck acquired the project soon after and a resurgence in the zinc price led the company to dust off the mine last year.

Avalon plans to spend $1.63 million on exploration on its ground over the next two years.

Joining Mr McSweeney on the board is corporate accountant Gary Steinepreis and former Apex Minerals Nl non-executive chairman Stephen Stone.

Hong Kong-based metals trader Sinom Ltd holds a 3.75 per cent stake in the company.
The full text of an Avalon announcement is pasted below:

Newly launched Australian base metals company, Avalon Minerals Limited (ASX: AVI), is set to make its debut on the Australian Stock Exchange at 10.30am (WDST) today (Thursday, 22 March) following a successful $3.5 million Initial Public Offering underpinning a major new exploration program in one of Western Australia's most productive zinc provinces. Avalon is headed up by well-known Australian mining executive, Mr David McSweeney.

The IPO – comprising 17.5 million shares at 20 cents each – closed less than a month following the launch of the Prospectus on 16 February after attracting strong Australian and international investor support, including a cornerstone investment by Hong Kong-based metals trader Sinom. Oversubscriptions were not accepted for the offer.

The $3.5 million raised will underpin initial exploration of Avalon's Lennard Shelf Project, located within an acclaimed zinc province in the West Kimberley region of Western Australia. In 2003, reported resources in the Lennard Shelf region totalled 22.18 million tonnes, grading 6.9% zinc and 2.8% lead.

Avalon has assembled a large Lennard Shelf landholding, with three granted and 11 pending exploration licences covering 2,600sq km within three distinct project areas – each containing untested zinc targets considered highly prospective for large Mississippi Valley Style (MVT) deposits.

The Company has budgeted $1.63 million for a comprehensive two-year exploration program initially covering the Lawford, Oscar Range and Barramundi projects, with the objective of rapidly developing a significant base metal resource inventory in the Lennard Shelf region.

Work will commence next month, with field crews employed to conduct detailed sampling and mapping, using the latest hand-held geochemical sampling analysis equipment.

"The Lennard Shelf area of the West Kimberley region of Western Australia is a world-class base metal province," said Avalon's Executive Chairman and Managing Director, Mr David McSweeney. "Until very recently, it was the State's largest source of zinc and lead production.

"Avalon has noted with interest the recent recommencement of mining and processing operations at the Pillara Zinc Mine, owned by TeckCominco and Xstrata, and located just 28km from our Lennard Shelf Lawford Project," he added.

Avalon's successful IPO and listing will also ensure the Company can progress its Paterson Range copper-gold Project in the Pilbara region, covering seven licences located in close proximity to the Telfer Gold Mine, Nifty Copper Mine and Kintyre Uranium Deposit.

"We will be a proactive and aggressive exploration company, with a focus on adding value rapidly for our shareholders by applying innovative thinking and techniques to unlock the value of our excellent asset base and moving quickly to secure additional opportunities," Mr McSweeney said.

In addition to Mr McSweeney, Avalon's Board also includes Non-Executive Directors Mr Gary Steinepreis, a well known corporate accountant and advisor, and respected geologist, Mr Stephen Stone.

"Together with my fellow Avalon Directors, I would like to welcome all shareholders and thank them for their support," Mr McSweeney said. "We are keen to develop projects that will supply raw materials to large, high-growth markets such as China and in that regard, are particularly pleased to have Sinom on board.

"We look forward to providing further announcements of our activities, including exploration and project generation updates."

At the time of listing, Avalon will have 40 million ordinary shares on issue to approximately 500 shareholders.

KGHM to dig for copper with the Chinese

2007-03-22T05:53:00.002-07:00

The copper conglomerate KGHM has announced plans to invest in new copper deposits together with a Chinese corporation China Minmetals, buying 10 percent of KGHM's output.

The Polish giant and the Chinese have signed an agreement on a strategic partnership.

"We have common plans regarding investing in deposits. It is too early to say how we will share profits in our enterprises. We will mainly invest in China, as well as in other locations," said Maksymilian Bylicki, KGHM's deputy president.

He added his company is interested in deposits of over 2 million tonnes of pure copper.

KGHM will certainly look for the resource in Europe. There is copper ore in Ukraine and in Germany's Saxony, close to the Polish border.

Umicore to spin off zinc assets in 3Q

2007-03-22T05:53:00.001-07:00

Umicore SA's (UMI.BT) Chief Executive Thomas Leysen expects the company's zinc activities to launch as a separate company sometime in the third quarter, he told La Libre Belgique Thursday in an interview.

Specialty materials company Umicore has combined its zinc activities with those of Australia's Zinifex Ltd. (ZFX.AU). The new company will make an initial public offering – probably on the Euronext stock exchange – later this year or in 2008, he said.

Chinese steel giant Baosteel builds new special alloy steel plant

2007-02-15T01:35:00.004-08:00

Baosteel Group, China's largest steelmaker, started work Tuesday on a Yuan 6 billion ($750 million) facility to produce special steel, China Daily reported Wednesday. The project, the group's largest investment in special steel, would be China's only large-scale special steel production line.

Xie Wei, general manager of Baosteel's special steel branch, said Tuesday that the high-end alloy steel project was part of Baosteel's efforts to build itself into a world leading research and production base for special steel. The project also reflected Baosteel's commitment to turning out more value-added steel products, as outlined in the Five-Year Plan period from 2006 to 2010, Xie added.

The alloy steel project is expected to produce 360,000 mt/year of steel plate and coil once it is completed in May 2009. The special steel products are expected to bring in around Yuan 8.3 billion/year to the group.

Xie said these high-intensity steel products were designed for the emerging needs of industries such as aerospace, nuclear power, and oil and gas prospecting.

Jia Liangqun, an analyst at industry portal Mysteel.com, described the project as "forward-looking." He said: "China is now going all out to manufacture large and more technology-intensive equipment, which requires abundant steel with special features."

A 1 million kilowatt nuclear power unit, for instance, requires about 2,110 mt of alloy steel, which includes high-temperature alloy, titanium alloy and special stainless steel. China now has 11 nuclear power stations with a total capacity of 8,700 MW.

According to a national plan unveiled in 2004, China would build another 40 nuclear power units by 2020. It also plans to help Pakistan build six 300 MW nuclear power stations.

Oil and gas prospecting, which usually requires high-intensity steel pipelines and drills, is also a big consumer of alloy steel.

Alloy steel is currently still a fledging product in China, and is mainly imported.

Baosteel plans to achieve a capacity of 30 million mt/year of steel during its eleventh Five-Year Plan, ending 2010. Such an expansion would make the company one of the top three steelmakers in the world. In 2005, Baosteel turned out 22.73 million mt of steel and reported Yuan 167.1 billion in sales.

Corrections to China tax rebate policy on export of steel, tin, nickel products

2007-02-15T01:35:00.003-08:00

China has made several adjustments to its export tax rebate policy announced Sept. 14, in order to fix some errors in the original list, according to the Ministry of Finance.

In a statement on October 06, the ministry said exports of stainless and alloy steel ingots will not receive any tax rebate, as they do not now, while a rebate rate of 5% will be applied to exports of tin and tin products, the ministry said.

In the original list, steel products such as stainless and alloy steel ingots, and tin and tin products including alloy bar, rod, wire, foil, sheet and strip, were awarded an 8% export tax rebate.

Nickel and nickel alloy powder and foil will be removed from the list of products whose export rebate rates have been cut, the ministry added, without mentioning the tax rebate rates for them.

The original tax rebate rate for nickel and nickel alloy powder and foil is 13%.

Exports of coated and galvanized iron and steel cords will receive a tax rebate rate of 8%, according to the ministry. On original the list, no rebate rate was specified.

The ministry said it made the corrections in response to problems local government departments encountered in implementing the new tax rebate policy, without elaborating.

China's trade surplus hit a record $18.8 billion in August as exports rose 32.8% that month from a year earlier to $90.77 billion. The country cut tax rebates for exports of some products as part of efforts to balance its two-way trade, according to analysts.

Steel shipments strong through August in US: AISI

2007-02-15T01:35:00.001-08:00

The latest statistics from the Washington, DC-based American Iron and Steel Institute reinforce what's still being heard in the steel marketplace in the US – demand remains buoyant in most market segments. The AISI reported late Friday that steel mills in the US shipped 9,591,000 st for the month of August 2006, a 7.4% increase from the 8,933,000 st shipped in August 2005, and a 6.4 percent increase from the 9,016,000 net tons shipped in the previous month, July 2006.

A year-to-year comparison of shipments of carbon, alloy and stainless steel, which totaled 75.1 million st through August, shows the following changes within major steel market categories: service centers and distributors, up 7.3%; automotive, up 15.7%; construction and contractors' products, up 13.7%; oil and gas, up 10.2%; machinery, industrial equipment and tools, up 9.2%; appliances, utensils and cutlery, down 3.4%; containers, packaging and shipping materials, up 5.1%; and electrical equipment, up 22%.

Although some steel product prices have come under pressure of late, most industry participants agree that this is due to mainly to an oversupply/excess inventory situation in the steel supply chain, rather than a weakening in demand.

EC OKs joint venture between Russian steelmaker NLMK and Duferco

2007-02-15T01:34:00.001-08:00

The European Commission has granted clearance under the EU Merger Regulation to a joint venture between Russian steel producer Novolipetsk Steel and Duferco Participations Holding, which is listed in Guernsey, the Channel Islands, the EC said Tuesday.

Under the terms of the deal, NLMK and Duferco will acquire joint control of various companies currently under the sole control of Duferco and its affiliates. NLMK produces and sells carbon steel semi-finished and finished flat products and electrical steel products. Duferco produces and sells carbon steel semi-finished and finished flat and long products, and buys and resells electrical steel, stainless steel and high-alloy steel.

The joint-venture companies are active in the production and processing of carbon steel semi-finished and finished flat and long products, the EC said, adding that the operation was examined under the simplified merger review procedure.

In October, NLMK announced it was in talks with Duferco to create a joint venture that would acquire certain steel production facilities currently owned by Duferco in Europe and the US. The main companies expected to be acquired by the joint venture include Duferco Farrel (US), Carsid (Belgium), Duferco Clabecq (Belgium), Duferco La Louviere (Belgium), Duferco Coating (France), Sorral(France), Acciaierie Grigoli (Italy) and Duferco Transformation Europe (France), the company said at the time.

The transaction, subject to the negotiation and execution of a definitive agreement and competition and other approvals, is expected to be completed by the end of the year, the company said, adding that no further announcement was expected to be made until the execution of a definitive agreement for the deal.

India: Customs duty cuts to curb prices

2007-02-15T01:33:00.000-08:00

Alarmed by inflation touching a two-year high of 6.12 per cent, the government today reduced customs duty on a host of items such as cement, raw materials and capital goods to lower the cost of manufacturing and infrastructure development.

Customs duty has been lowered on specified capital goods and their parts, and winding wires from 12.5 per cent or 10 per cent to 7.5 per cent. Duty on portland cements has been totally removed from 12.5 per cent at present.

The customs tariff on project imports has been reduced from 12.5 per cent or 10 per cent now to 7.5 per cent. Further, airport development projects and 'Metro Rail projects would now be included in project imports and taxed at the rate of 7.5 per cent.

Moreover, import tariff on primary and semi-finished forms of copper, aluminium, zinc, tin, other base metals has been brought down from 7.5 per cent to 5 per cent. The duty on stainless steel and other alloy steel has been cut to 5 per cent from 7.5 per cent at present. Pipes and tubes of aluminium, copper and zinc would now attract a customs duty of 7.5 per cent from 12.5 per cent now.

"These changes will come into affect immediately," an official statement said.

The measures are aimed at curbing inflation, which rose to 6.12 per cent for the week ended January 6 on rise in prices of manufactured products, besides some food items and fuel.

The decision to customs duty assumes importance as Finance Minister P Chidambaram had recently said that certain manufacturing sectors were contributing to "core inflation" by jacking up the prices to benefit from the surging demand. He had said the government will take all necessary steps to check rising prices as inflation crossed the RBI's threshold limit of 5.5 per cent for this fiscal.

The decision also gains significance as the move comes just a month before the Budget for 2007-08, which is expected to further reduce import duties as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has committed to bring down tariffs at the ASEAN level.

According to the notifications issued, the government has also brought down import duties on inorganic chemicals, like halogens (fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine), sulphur, carbon, hydrogen, rare gases (nitrogen, oxygen, silicon, phosphorus) and alkali metals (sodium, calcium) from 10 per cent to 5 per cent.

Customs duty on Carbon Black Feedstock has been reduced from 10 per cent to 5 per cent, and on calcined alumina from 7.5 per cent to 5 per cent. Duty on refractories would now be 5 per cent as against 7.5 per cent and specified raw materials of refractories five per cent compared to 10 per cent or 7.5 per cent.

Buckytubes - General Properties and Safety Data

2007-02-10T00:16:00.001-08:00

Property

Identifier

Decomposition Products

Carbon Fullerene

Formula

Carbon

Chemical Family

Synthetic Graphite

Synonyms

Single Wall Carbon Nanotubes, SWNT

CAS Number

7782-42-5 (Graphite)
Composition

Table 2. Composition and ingredient information

Component

%

OSHA/PEL

ACGIH/TLV

Synthetic Graphite

Up to 100%

15 mg/m3 (total dust)
5 mg/m3 (respirable fraction)

2 mg/m3 TWA

Metallic Impurity

Balance
Potential Hazards

Table 3. Potential hazards

Hazard

Symptom

First Aid Treatment

Eye Contact

May cause eye irritation

Immediately flush eyes with copious amounts of water for 15 minutes. If exposure persists, get medial attention

Skin Contact

No know hazards, but may be mildly irritating

Flush skin with water.

Inhalation

May cause irritation to respiratory tract

Remove to fresh air. If breathing difficulties persist, get medical attention

Ingestion

No known hazards, but may irritate gastrointestinal tract

Not expected to require first aid. If large amounts swallowed, give water and get medical advice.

Acute and Chronic Health Effects

High concentration of dusts may be irritating to eyes, skin, mucus membranes and respiratory tract.

Firefighting Measures

Table 3. Fire fighting Measures

Property

Fire Fighting Measure

Flash Point

Not applicable

Explosion Limits

Unknown

Extinguisher Medium

Water, Carbon Dioxide, Dry Chemical, or Foam

Special Procedures

None

Decomposition Products

Carbon Monoxide, Carbon Dioxide

Unusual Hazards

Thermal decomposition or combustion may produce dense smoke.

Spill Procedures

Sweep or vacuum according to normal housekeeping practices
Physical and Chemical Properties

Table 4. Physical and chemical properties

Property

Information

Form and Colour

Clumpy, black powder

Molecular Weight

840 to greater than 10,000,000

Boiling Point

Not applicable

Melting Point

Not determined. Expected to be greater than 2000°F

Specific Gravity

Greater than 1

Solubility in Water

Insoluble

Odour

Odourless

Stability

Yes

Hazardous Polymerisation

No

Hazardous Decomposition Products

Thermal decomposition or combustion may produce dense smoke, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide

Materials to avoid

Strong oxidizing and reducing agents

Incompatibilities

None known

Conditions to avoid

None known

Buckytubes - Applications

2007-02-10T00:15:00.000-08:00

The special nature of carbon combines with the molecular perfection of buckytubes (single-wall carbon nanotubes) to endow them with exceptionally high material properties such as electrical and thermal conductivity, strength, stiffness, and toughness. No other element in the periodic table bonds to itself in an extended network with the strength of the carbon-carbon bond. The delocalised pi-electron donated by each atom is free to move about the entire structure, rather than stay home with its donor atom, giving rise to the first molecule with metallic-type electrical conductivity. The high-frequency carbon-carbon bond vibrations provide an intrinsic thermal conductivity higher than even diamond.

In most materials, however, the actual observed material properties - strength, electrical conductivity, etc. - are degraded very substantially by the occurrence of defects in their structure. For example, high strength steel typically fails at about 1% of its theoretical breaking strength. Buckytubes, however, achieve values very close to their theoretical limits because of their perfection of structure - their molecular perfection. This aspect is part of the unique story of buckytubes.

Buckytubes are an example of true nanotechnology: only a nanometer in diameter, but molecules that can be manipulated chemically and physically. They open incredible applications in materials, electronics, chemical processing and energy management.
Applications

Buckytubes have extraordinary electrical conductivity, heat conductivity and mechanical properties. They are probably the best electron field-emitter possible. They are polymers of pure carbon and can be reacted and manipulated using the tremendously rich chemistry of carbon. This provides opportunity to modify the structure and to optimise solubility and dispersion.

Very significantly, buckytubes are molecularly perfect, which means that they are free of property-degrading flaws in the nanotube structure. Their material properties can therefore approach closely the very high levels intrinsic to them.

These extraordinary characteristics give buckytubes potential in numerous applications.
Field Emission

Buckytubes are the best known field emitters of any material. This is understandable, given their high electrical conductivity, and the unbeatable sharpness of their tip (the sharper the tip, the more concentrated will be an electric field, leading to field emission; this is the same reason lightening rods are sharp). The sharpness of the tip also means that they emit at especially low voltage, an important fact for building electrical devices that utilize this feature. Buckytubes can carry an astonishingly high current density, possibly as high as 1013 A/cm2. Furthermore, the current is extremely stable [B.Q. Wei, et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 79 1172 (2001)].

An immediate application of this behaviour receiving considerable interest is in field-emission flat-panel displays. Instead of a single electron gun, as in a traditional cathode ray tube display, here there is a separate electron gun (or many) for each pixel in the display. The high current density, low turn-on and operating voltage, and steady, long-lived behaviour make buckytubes attract field emitters to enable this application.

Other applications utilising the field-emission characteristics of buckytubes include: general cold-cathode lighting sources, lightning arrestors, and electron microscope sources.
Conductive Plastics

Much of the history of plastics over the last half century has been as a replacement for metal. For structural applications, plastics have made tremendous headway, but not where electrical conductivity is required, plastics being famously good electrical insulators.

This deficiency is overcome by loading plastics up with conductive fillers, such as carbon black and graphite fibres (the larger ones used to make golf clubs and tennis racquets). The loading required to provide the necessary conductivity is typically high, however, resulting in heavy parts, and more importantly, plastic parts whose structural properties are highly degraded.

It is well established that the higher aspect ratio of filler, the lower loading required to achieve a given level of conductivity. Buckytubes are ideal in this sense, since they have the highest aspect ratio of any carbon fibre. In addition, their natural tendency to form ropes provides inherently very long conductive pathways even at ultra-low loadings.

Applications that exploit this behaviour of buckytubes include EMI/RFI shielding composites and coatings for enclosures, gaskets, and other uses; electrostatic dissipation (ESD), and antistatic materials and (even transparent!) coatings; and radar-absorbing materials.
Energy Storage

Buckytubes have the intrinsic characteristics desired in material used as electrodes in batteries and capacitors, two technologies of rapidly increasing importance. Buckytubes have a tremendously high surface area (~1000 m2/g), good electrical conductivity, and very importantly, their linear geometry makes their surface highly accessible to the electrolyte.

Research has shown that buckytubes have the highest reversible capacity of any carbon material for use in lithium-ion batteries [B. Gao, Chem. Phys. Lett. 327, 69 (2000)]. In addition, buckytubes are outstanding materials for supercapacitor electrodes [R.Z. Ma, et al., Science in China Series E-Technological Sciences 43 178 (2000)] and are now being marketed.

Buckytubes also have applications in a variety of fuel cell components. They have a number of properties including high surface area and thermal conductivity that make them useful as electrode catalyst supports in PEM fuel cells. They may also be used in gas diffusion layers as well as current collectors because of their high electrical conductivity. Buckytubes' high strength and toughness to weight characteristics may also prove valuable as part of composite components in fuel cells that are deployed in transport applications where durability is extremely important.
Conductive Adhesives and Connectors

The same issues that make buckytubes attractive as conductive fillers for use in shielding, ESD materials, etc., make them attractive for electronics materials, such as adhesives and other connectors (e.g., solders).
Molecular Electronics

The idea of building electronic circuits out of the essential building blocks of materials - molecules - has seen a revival the past five years, and is a key component of nanotechnology. In any electronic circuit, but particularly as dimensions shrink to the nanoscale, the interconnections between switches and other active devices become increasingly important.

Their geometry, electrical conductivity, and ability to be precisely derived, make buckytubes the ideal candidates for the connections in molecular electronics. In addition, they have been demonstrated as switches themselves.
Thermal Materials

The record-setting anisotropic thermal conductivity of buckytubes is enabling applications where heat needs to move from one place to another. Such an application is electronics, particularly advanced computing, where uncooled chips now routinely reach over 100oC.

CNI's technology for creating aligned structures and ribbons of buckytubes [D.Walters, et al., Chem. Phys. Lett. 338, 14 (2001)] is a step toward realising incredibly efficient heat conduits. In addition, composites with buckytubes have been shown to dramatically increase the bulk thermal conductivity at small loadings.
Structural Composites

The world-record properties of buckytubes are not limited to electrical and thermal conductivities, but also include mechanical properties, such as stiffness, toughness, and strength. These properties lead to a wealth of applications exploiting them, including advanced composites requiring high values in one or more of these properties.
Fibres and Fabrics

Fibres spun of pure buckytubes have recently been demonstrated [R.H. Baughman, Science 290, 1310 (2000)] and are undergoing rapid development, along with buckytube composite fibres. Such super strong fibres will have applications including body and vehicle armour, transmission line cables, woven fabrics and textiles.
Catalyst Supports

Buckytubes have an intrinsically high surface area; in fact, every atom is not just on a surface - each atom is on two surfaces, the inside and outside! Combined with the ability to attach essentially any chemical species to their sidewalls provides an opportunity for unique catalyst supports. Their electrical conductivity may also be exploited in the search for new catalysts and catalytic behaviour.
Biomedical Applications

The exploration of buckytubes in biomedical applications is just underway, but has significant potential. Cells have been shown to grow on buckytubes, so they appear to have no toxic effect. The cells also do not adhere to the buckytubes, potentially giving rise to applications such as coatings for prosthetics and anti-fouling coatings for ships.

The ability to chemically modify the sidewalls of buckytubes also leads to biomedical applications such as vascular stents, and neuron growth and regeneration.
Other Applications

There is a wealth of other potential applications for buckytubes, such as solar collection; nanoporous filters; catalyst supports; and coatings of all sorts. There are almost certainly many unanticipated applications for this remarkable material that will come to light in the years ahead and which may prove to be the most important and valuable of all.

Buckytubes - An Additive For Plastics

2007-02-10T00:12:00.000-08:00

The beginning of this story has been told many times. In 1985, a confluence of events led to an unexpected and unplanned experiment with a new kind of microscope resulting in the discovery of a new molecule made purely of carbon – the very element chemists felt there was nothing more to learn about. Buckyballs – sixty carbon atoms arranged in a soccer ball shape – had been discovered and the chemical world, not to mention the physical and material worlds, would never be the same.
A Versatile Filler for Plastics

The mechanical (stiffness, strength, toughness), thermal and electrical properties of pure buckytube materials enable a multitude of applications, from batteries and fuel cells to fibres and cables to pharmaceutics and biomedical materials. Scores of additional applications emerge when one thinks of blending nanotubes with other materials to improve existing properties or to provide new ones. Using nanotubes as fillers in thermoplastics and thermosets, for example, has been discussed for several years, and is only recently undergoing rapid investigation and development as sufficient quantities of high-quality buckytube material is becoming available to enable such investigations.

One of the most important technology developments of the last half of the twentieth century was the substantial replacement of metals with plastics. Most of this replacement has been in structural applications, where plastics have been engineered to outperform steel and other structural metals by providing adequate strength or stiffness at lower weight and cost. A key property that metals will always have over plastics, however, is in electrical conductivity. Plastics are amazingly good electrical insulators; in fact, this property gives rise to many of the most widespread and important uses of plastics. Nevertheless, the applications for plastics would be broadened substantially if good solutions existed to make these materials conductive.
New Applications

These application areas include: antistatic, electrostatic dissipative, and electromagnetic shielding and absorbing materials. Electromagnetic interference and radiofrequency interference (EMI/RFI) shielding, for example, is essential in laptop computers, cell phones, pagers and other portable electronic devices to prevent interference with and from other electronic equipment. At present, there is no suitable plastic material for this purpose, and metal, in one form or another, is typically added to provide this function in electronic equipment cases, imposing substantial weight and manufacturing expense.
Electrically Conductive Plastics

For some applications, plastics have been loaded with conductive materials for years to provide conductivity. The most common filler is carbon black, which is relatively inexpensive and works well in many applications.
Critical Loading

One drawback to carbon black as a conductive filler, however, is the high loading required to provide the desired level of conductivity. It is well known that conductivity of a filled insulator, such as a polymer resin, increases with filler loading in a classic S-curve. That is, up to a critical loading, the bulk conductivity changes little, but increases very rapidly upon adding just a bit more filler. This is because high bulk conductivity requires the presence of many long conductive pathways, which are obtained only when the loading is so high that when randomly distributed, the conductive particles (e.g., carbon black) are likely to form long chains. This critical loading threshold is actually many times higher than would be required if somehow these particles could be placed in the optimal positions to form long chains with the minimal loading. But, of course, being sub-micron in size, this can’t be done. A great deal of carbon black is wasted in the redundancy required to build up above the threshold level where these long chains form.

Also well known is the fact that the critical loading threshold decreases dramatically as the aspect ratio (length to width) of the filler particles increases. This is because longer particles cover a greater distance of the conductive pathway, whereas carbon black, which is spheroidal, has to form a chain of touching particles to cover the distance that a fibre-shaped filler would cover by itself.

Why is filler loading important? Aside from weight savings, when a plastic is loaded with carbon black at 30, 40, even 50% by volume, which is often the level needed to reach the desired bulk conductivity, the mechanical properties of the composite are severely degraded. Often it is not usable at all, and typically it is no longer mouldable, which is frequently the most critical property of plastic parts.
Buckytubes As A Solution

Buckytubes offer a solution. First, Buckytubes are terrific electrical conductors, as described above. No polymer is a better conductor and none better is likely to be found. (So-called conductive polymers, a class of long-chain molecules with a conjugated backbone, would be better described as molecular resistors; they are intrinsically semiconducting.) Second, Buckytubes have a phenomenally high aspect ratio. Individual tubes are about 1 nm in diameter (about half the diameter of DNA, and about 1/10,000th the diameter of graphite fibres), and 100-1000 nm in length. Thus, the aspect ratio of buckytubes is around 100-1000, compared with about 1 for carbon black particles. This already changes the game entirely, by pushing the critical loading level downward, as described above. Finally, buckytubes naturally form, in fact are born with, a morphology that is probably ideal for conductive filler applications. Buckytubes self-assemble into “ropes” of tens to hundreds of aligned tubes, running side by side, branching and recombining. When examined by electron microscopy, it is exceedingly difficult to find the end of any of these ropes. Thus, ropes form naturally occurring very long conductive pathways that can be exploited in making electrically conductive filled composites. Initial indications are that dramatically lower loadings of buckytubes are required to reach a given level of conductivity than for any other conductive fillers.
Opportunities

The opportunities for conductive plastics, as well as thermosets, filled with buckytubes are abundant. Very low loadings (<0.1%) provide for antistatic and electrostatic dissipative applications. One example is in painting automobile body parts, which are increasingly made of plastics. Because they are insulators, plastic parts charge up, which cause them to repel electrostatically the paint droplets formed in spray-painting of the body parts. This results in a great deal of wasted paint, which is both an economic and an environmental problem. A conductive primer coat can be applied, but that extra processing step is also quite costly. the ideal situation is to make the part itself sufficiently conductive to drain away charge build up by connecting the part to ground during the painting process.

Another broad area of application for buckytube-filled plastics is in EMI/RFI shielding, which has uses, as described above, in portable electronics, and defence applications. If, as appears likely, good attenuation of electromagnetic radiation can be attained at buckytube loadings on the order of 1% or less, good mechanical stability should be maintained, allowing it to be moulded. This would represent a significant breakthrough in plastics and enable broadening of their uses. Other defence uses of buckytube composites are similarly significant such as radar-absorbing or modifying material for aircraft and missiles.

The application areas just described make use of the electrical conductivity of buckytubes where they contribute the highest added value. However, there is great promise in the development of applications that exploit the thermal and mechanical properties of buckytubes as well. Like the electrical applications described here, the possibilities are mind boggling. Stay tuned!

Bicomponent Extrusion

2007-02-09T22:51:00.001-08:00

Advances in engineering rely on the development of new materials. The materials must have improved properties, capable of being tailored to a specific application need, to fulfil the requirements of designers of the future. Ceramic fibres are playing a major part in enabling the development of new composite materials capable of withstanding the forces and temperatures exerted on components in industries as diverse as aerospace and sports goods. However, the currently available fibres have limitations or problems associated with their manufacture and use, and can be expensive.
Commercial Fibre Production

Several types of ceramic fibres are currently available for use in a variety of applications. These can be divided into two main categories.
Oxide Fibres

Mainly based on alumina, oxide fibres suffer from both grain growth problems, which destroy the fibre’s integrity, and phase change problems above 1100°C on the heating and cooling cycles. They are manufactured by three different techniques. Slurry spinning involves a dispersion of submicron crystalline ceramic particles, in an organic polymer or an alumina precursor polymer, being dry spun into a fibre.

The sol-gel method produces microscopic gels by the spinning of viscous solutions of inorganic metal alkoxide polymers and silicon alkoxide, which are then heated to drive off any volatile materials to produce porous fibres with a non-uniform cross-section. Finally, single crystal fibres can be made from the film edge defined growth process, an expensive technique which produces alumina, and yttria-stabilised alumina filaments.
Non-Oxide Fibres

Two main fabrication methods are used to produce non-oxide fibres. A polymeric route involves the reduction and thermal rearrangement of organosilicon halides, which are then melt spun to a very fine fibre (7-14µm). Chemical vapour deposition (CVD) can also be used, whereby a fine carbon or tungsten filament is exposed to an organosilicon gas, leading to a chemical reaction and the production of a ceramic fibre. The CVD process also enables the coating of fibres, to give protection against reaction or to give modified properties, but this is an extra step in the production of the final fibre, and so adds the cost.
Ceramic Fibre Usage

A variety of composite materials benefit from incorporating ceramic fibres into the structure.
Organic Matrix Composites

Organic matrix composites are generally reinforced by either glass or carbon fibres, which increase stiffness and fatigue life, and decrease the dielectric constant, improving the compressive strength. Glass matrix composites have been developed for use in gas turbine or military applications. In general, these are either lithium or magnesium alumino-silicates reinforced by silicon carbide fibres, or glassy carbon systems made from phenolic resins, reinforced by various non-oxide fibres.
Metal Matrix Composites

Metal matrix composites are very popular materials due to their high stiffness, strength, temperature properties, fatigue life and creep resistance. The main drawback to using ceramic fibres in metal matrices is that the alloying elements react preferentially with the ceramic fibres, destroying their reinforcement integrity. To prevent this, the fibres would need to be coated with another material, which would act as an interface between the matrix and its reinforcing fibre.
Ceramic Matrix Composites

Ceramic matrix composites can also benefit from the use of ceramic reinforcing fibres, but again, reaction between the fibre and the body ceramic can cause degradation.
Bicomponent Extrusion

Bicomponent extrusion is a spinning technique to simultaneously extrude two different ceramic precursors through the same orifice by dry or melt spinning. This produces ceramic fibres with mainly a core and sheath component structure, although matrix-fibril and other arrangements of the components are possible.

Bicomponent extrusion can be simply thought of as two spinning machines working one inside the other. Two sets of electric drive motors, gear boxes, drive shafts and pumps are required, and these are fed by twin reservoirs via capillary tubes using two sets of pressure transducers. However, a central temperature measurement system can be employed. The capillaries from the reservoirs feed into a central mixer head at an angle of 90° to each other, allowing the core precursor to feed directly to the core spinerette, whilst the sheath capillary divides via a cannula into two capillaries round either side of the core capillary. Following extrusion, the fibres can be cured using similar techniques to those employed to cure monolithic (single component) fibres, including heating, oxidation, radiation and chemical means.
Production Variables

The innovative production apparatus, has a maximum extrusion capability of one litre per hour from both the precursor reservoirs, giving a theoretical annual production capacity of 250kg of bicomponent fibre, an excellent rate for a laboratory scale machine. With industrial modifications, such as multiple extrusion nozzles and larger pumps, the process could produce the fibres at a phenomenal rate. Fibres with a 7-14 µm core and a 1-2 µm sheath can be produced at speeds of up to 200-300 metres per minute using the laboratory machine, figure 1. The final diameter and speed of extrusion are controlled by several factors:

· The molecular weight of the initial polymer and the minimum level of solvent which allows filament formation.

· The core/sheath spinerette ratio, and the ratio of the wall thickness of the core spinerette to the total diameter of the spinerette orifice.

· The draw down ratio, or the reduction in diameter due to extrusion required to extract enough solvent to allow solid filament formation.

· The uniformity of the polymer crystal size.

· The length of the chamber, and the direction of gas flow.

BASF To Develop Steel / Polyurethane Sandwich Plate System Bridges

2007-02-09T22:50:00.004-08:00

BASF has signed an exclusive cooperation agreement with the British-Canadian company Intelligent Engineering Ltd. (IE) for further development of the innovative Sandwich Plate System™ (SPS). The SPS technology, jointly developed by BASF Group company Elastogran and IE, is rapidly becoming established in the shipbuilding industry for the repair and construction of ship segments. New SPS applications for the civil engineering market are now being developed and a SPS licensee has already completed an initial reference project with the construction of a road bridge in Canada.

“We responded to the needs of our customers in the construction industry,” said Dr. John Feldmann, member of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF Aktiengesellschaft, when asked to explain the background to the new application for the high-tech material. “Our intention was to develop a genuine alternative to conventional steel bridge construction that would be more cost-effective and of the highest quality. We achieved precisely that with SPS.”

Because of their sandwich structure – steel-polyurethane-steel – SPS components are much less susceptible to corrosion than conventional constructions. SPS structures are also lighter and faster to build and also offer built-in protection against fire and vibration. In the case of the road bridge, built by SPS licensee Canam Manac Group Inc., in Saint Martin de Beauce, Quebec, Canada, SPS reduced the weight of the 22 meter bridge deck by 60 percent compared with concrete. And there are no negative effects on the stability of the bridge construction – on the contrary. “Our SPS polyurethane is extremely stable and does not become brittle with age. This makes SPS structures more durable than conventional solutions,” said Georg Knoblauch, who is in charge of SPS technology development at Elastogran.

This reference project in Canada opens up a second high-growth SPS market for BASF and IE. A number of bridge projects are currently under development around the world. For example, ThyssenKrupp Technologies, a SPS licensee, is currently evaluating the feasibility of the system for the construction of mobile bridge elements suitable for use at roadwork sites. SPS elements for this application are currently being subjected to repetitive stress testing at BASF’s laboratories in Ludwigshafen. The Steel Construction Department of the Aachen University of Technology (RWTH) is monitoring the test process as an independent scientific institution.

Elastogran and Intelligent Engineering are also collaborating on other applications where the outstanding material properties of the patented technology can be utilized. For instance, SPS offers many potential benefits for the construction of sports stadiums and arenas. “SPS bleachers or stands are 70 percent lighter than conventional concrete structures and are very effective at absorbing the vibrations induced when thousands of fans jump to their feet to celebrate a goal,” explained Knoblauch. This weight saving may also help in the design of earthquake-resistant buildings.

BASF is a world leader in technology for polyurethane specialties. The Elastogran Group is responsible for BASF’s polyurethanes business in Europe. BASF and Elastogran expect increasing SPS applications to result in substantial growth in the global market for polyurethane specialties. Polyurethanes are versatile plastics with a huge range of applications and their properties can be customized to suit individual uses. Polyurethane products are used in the automotive industry, for thermal insulation in construction and refrigeration technology, in the electronics industry, in the manufacture of shoes and furniture as well as in sports and leisure articles.

Aluminium/Lithium Metal Matrix Composite Al81/SiC15/Li 2/Cu 1.2/Mg 0.8 – Supplier Data by Goodfellow

2007-02-09T22:50:00.003-08:00

Al81/SiC15/Li 2/Cu 1.2/Mg 0.8 is an aluminium based metal matrix composite material.
Key Properties

Mechanical Properties

Density ( g.cm-3 )

2.62

Elongation at break ( % )

2.3

Tensile modulus ( GPa )

100

Tensile strength - longitudinal ( MPa )

550

Volume fraction of SiC ( % )

13

Yield strength ( MPa )

500

Advanced Materials for Gas Turbine Engines – High Pressure Compressors

2007-02-09T22:50:00.001-08:00

Background

The rear end of the high-pressure compressor in an aero-engine is in a temperature environment set by the overall pressure ratio chosen for the engine cycle (figure 1). Since the 1950’s, this temperature level has risen by about 300°C. Titanium alloys have progressively improved in temperature capability up to 630°C, figure 2. This would allow most compressors to be designed completely in titanium. However, practice in the United States has been to switch at approximately 520°C to nickel alloys and incur a weight penalty.

Figure 1. Schematic of a gas turbine engine.

Figure 2. Progressive improvement of the temperature capability of titanium alloys has reached 630°C with IMI834

The development of IM1834 is a good example of the metallurgist's response to the needs of the designer. The requirements were for higher tensile and fatigue strength and enhanced creep performance. These were met by optimising the structural balance between primary alpha content and the transformed beta phase in the titanium alloy.
Developments

Producing integrally bladed discs, or blisks, is a natural progression in that the blade attachment features are deleted, resulting in significant weight and cost savings. For small engines the most economic manufacturing method is to machine both disc and aerofoils from a single forging. There may be a penalty to pay in that the material strength of the aerofoil may be reduced compared to that of a forged blade. Attention to the forging method and to the manufacturing processes can overcome this.
Metal Matrix Composites

Titanium metal matrix composites can be applied to both aerofoils and discs. The use of silicon carbide fibre offers about 50% more strength and twice the stiffness of the high temperature titanium alloys, combined with reduced density. Aerofoil design will benefit from the increased stiffness due to selective reinforcement, providing the ability to control vibration modes and blade untwist. Further exploitation of this technique will be with integrally bladed rings which are expected to provide a 70% weight saving relative to a conventional geometry in titanium.
Intermetallics

Another material development project is the use of intermetallics. Compounds of nickel/aluminium and titanium/aluminium have been investigated with current emphasis on the latter. Most intermetallic compounds are brittle at room temperature. The first applications are therefore likely to be in small components such static and rotating compressor aerofoils where the advantages over titanium include higher specific strength and stiffness as well as improved temperature and fire resistance. The use of these materials could extend to more critical components. One possible application is as an alternative matrix to the titanium alloy in a metal matrix composite, although such an application will require alternative fibres, to minimise any thermal expansion mismatch, and novel processing technology.
The Future

Eventually, operating temperatures up to about 800°C will be possible, and intermetallics could offer a very attractive weight saving of around 50% compared with nickel-based alloys.

Advanced Materials for Gas Turbine Engines – Fan Blades

2007-02-09T22:49:00.003-08:00

Fan blades for high by pass aero-engines were, for many years, manufactured from solid titanium alloy forgings and were designed with mid span snubbers to control vibration. However, snubbers impeded airflow and reduced aerodynamic efficiency, penalising fuel consumption. Modern designs have deleted the snubber to provide a more aerodynamically efficient aerofoil, and increased the blade chord for mechanical stability, reducing the number of blades by approximately one third. This has been achieved at reduced weight with a hollow construction and an internal core.

For both snubbered and wide chord blades, a conventional fine grain titanium alloy - 6% aluminium and 4% vanadium (Ti6Al4V) is used. It is simple in terms of chemistry, with the aluminium offering strengthening and low density, and the vanadium making hot working of the material easier. It is used for discs and compressor blades up to about 350°C, but excellent superplastic forming and solid state diffusion bonding capabilities make it particularly suitable for the wide chord blade.

The low density core for the hollow design is an integral part of the structure. The two external skins are separated by either honeycomb filler or a superplastically formed corrugation which carries a share of the centrifugal load. Both panel-to-panel and core-to-panel joints must achieve parent material properties to withstand the effects of foreign body impact and fatigue.

For the first generation design the joints are made by a transient liquid phase diffusion bonding process, whereas the second generation employs solid state diffusion bonding in association with superplastic forming of the assembly. The cavity of the bonded construction is inflated at elevated temperatures between contoured metal dies using an inert gas to expand the core and simultaneously develop the blade's external aerodynamic profile.

The reliability of these wide chord blades has been second to none. The step in technology produced a major competitive advantage and ten years passed before an equivalent design appeared from a manufacturer other than Rolls Royce. This service record was the result of thorough development testing. Fatigue testing in both low and high cycle modes was essential. Groups of blades were repeatedly accelerated to maximum speed in vacuum to establish low cycle endurance, and high cycle fatigue was investigated on a static vibration rig up to the maximum stress levels likely to be encountered in service.

With a large forward facing area, resistance to bird ingestion is required. Ingestion of a number of medium size birds has to be demonstrated by running an engine at take-off power and requiring it to ingest four birds within the space of one second. The engine continued to deliver power, accelerating and decelerating for a total period of thirty minutes to simulate the likely operating procedure following a severe ingestion incident.

In the very unlikely event of a blade mechanical failure, the engine has to be shown to be structurally sound and to contain all the debris, even if the failure occurs at maximum power. Containment in modern engines is achieved with aluminium or titanium casings through which the blade fragments can penetrate, to be caught in external windings of Kevlar.

As an indication of the benefits of materials development and design enhancements, engines incorporating the wide chord blade have fan modules that are approximately 24% lighter and an engine which is 7% lighter (typically the Trent 800 engine as used in the Boeing 777).
The Future

Looking to the future, some believe that carbon composite materials can be used to reduce weight. At present these materials limit the speeds for which the blade can be designed, requiring a greater diameter for a given thrust. It may be that this alternative approach will converge with the hollow design because airworthiness requirements have led to the incorporation of titanium sheathing around a large part of the composite blade with, of course, some weight penalty. The composite can be considered as an alternative core to the titanium honeycomb or corrugation. Rolls-Royce is studying the future possibility of titanium based metal matrix composites with selective reinforcement provided by silicon carbide monofilaments to control blade untwist.

Advanced Materials Masters Course (MSc) – Cranfield University

2007-02-09T22:49:00.001-08:00

Available both full and part-time the MSc Advanced Materials will provide graduate scientists and engineers with a fundamental understanding of materials' properties and their processing. Students will gain the necessary skills to apply their knowledge to a wide range of careers in industry. The course also aims to develop personal skills in problem solving, research methods, teamwork and management techniques. The modular format of the taught element permits a high degree of flexibility of attendance at Cranfield for part-time students who may commence the course at any time during the year.

The course comprises three elements:
Taught Modules

Eight one-week assessed modules which include lectures and tutorials, and are assessed through written examinations and assignments. These provide the 'tools' required for the group and individual projects.
Group Project

The group project is an applied multidisciplinary team based activity. It provides students with the opportunity, whilst working in teams under academic supervision, to take responsibility for project tasks. Success is dependent on the integration of various activities, working within agreed objectives, deadlines and budgets. Many projects are industrially orientated with support from industry and other external organisations. Part-time students prepare a dissertation on an agreed topic in place of the group project.
Individual Project

The individual research project is either industrially or Cranfield University driven. Students select the individual project in consultation with their Course Director. It provides students with the opportunity to demonstrate independent research ability, working within agreed objectives, deadlines and budgets.

By choice of individual project, students can specialise in a number of areas, including advanced materials, aerospace materials, automotive materials, composites, materials processing, materials characterisation and analysis, materials recycling and sustainability, motorsport, nanotechnology and nanoscale engineering, polymer engineering, and surface science and engineering.
The Modules

· Composites Performance

· Engineering Polymers and Polymers for Composites

· Failure of Materials and Structures

· Finite Element Analysis & Materials Modelling

· General Management

· Materials Selection

· Properties and Processing of Metals

· Surface Science and Engineering

Modules are also available as short courses independent of MSc registration.
Assessment

· Taught modules 40%

· Group project 20%

· Individual project 40%

For part-time students a dissertation replaces the group project.
Entry Requirements

Candidates must possess, or be expected to achieve, a 1st or 2nd class UK honours degree or equivalent in a numerate, scientific or engineering discipline. Other relevant qualifications together with considerable industrial experience may be considered.
Start Date and Duration

The full-time MSc Advanced Materials commences each October and is of 12 months’ duration. The course is also available on a part-time basis for persons working in industry. Part-time students are expected to complete the programme within three years.
Funding

Funding opportunities exist, such as industrial sponsorship and School bursaries. For the majority of part-time students sponsorship is organised by their employers. For information on funding opportunities please visit: www.cranfield.ac.uk/sas/funding Please note that a formal offer of a place on this course must first have been received before consideration can be given for funding.
How to Apply

Application forms are available at: www.cranfield.ac.uk/sas/application
Specialist Equipment

A wide range of state-of-the-art equipment and facilities support advanced research programmes in industry in areas including aerospace, automotive, biomedical, electronics, materials processing, micro-engineering, motorsport, nanotechnology, precision engineering and sensors.

Advanced Aeroegine Materials Project – A UK Campaign Aimed at Developing Materials for Future Aeroengines

2007-02-09T22:48:00.000-08:00

A £4.7 million UK research campaign aimed at developing lighter and more capable materials for future aero engines is being spearheaded by Rolls-Royce.

Called the ADvanced Aeroengine Materials (ADAM) programme, it is a collaboration between Rolls-Royce and QinetiQ, together with several UK academic centres of excellence, co-funded by the UK Department of Trade and industry, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

Within the ADAM programme, five projects will focus on high-temperature turbine materials, lightweight magnetic and electrical technologies, advanced composites, advanced joining techniques and innovative powder material processes. These novel technologies will be delivered in a four-year timeframe, and the target date for first use in a demonstrator could be as early as 2008.

Rolls-Royce already works closely with several universities and research bodies in the area of materials, and for ADAM will collaborate with the universities of Birmingham, Cambridge, Cranfield, Manchester, Oxford, and Wales (Swansea), together with the Oxford-based Faraday Advance and QinetiQ

ADAM is one of nine Defence and Aerospace Research Partnership (DARP) projects. The DARP programme is managed by the National Defence and Aerosystems Panel Research and Technology task force, bringing together the DTI, EPSRC, MoD and industry to agree and fund suitable projects. The DARP centred on materials for aeroengines was put together by Rolls-Royce, submitted a year ago and went live on 19 April.

The academic partners will play a key role in providing a detailed scientific understanding, while Rolls-Royce will take the technical lead and act as programme manager. It will also ensure that results are delivered on time and are disseminated across the UK’s industrial and academic base, thereby creating a virtual centre of excellence for the future development of gas turbine materials.

The DARP project will also provide an established group of researchers working in a well defined field that can link in actively with other materials-related initiatives, further ensuring a coherent UK approach to materials development.

Five packages within ADAM have been launched and all of them will span the next four years. They are:

· Joining will look at the friction welding of dissimilar nickel materials, for disk and blade applications. This will support work already carried out on inertia welding to manufacture real components. According to Colin Small, Project Manager, External Research (Materials) at Rolls-Royce, ‘The challenge is that you’ve got a relatively weak piece of nickel and a very strong piece of nickel with very different properties.’

· The development of a fourth generation single crystal alloy will have particular importance for the first set of blades in a turbine, as these define what the rest of the engine can do. ‘Our current material is CMSX 4, which is a second generation material, but we’re looking to develop something that will run 50°C hotter,’ says Small. ‘We’re not just developing the base material – we’re trying to develop the whole blade alloy system. As well as developing the base material, we are also studying interactions with bond-coat, the top thermal barrier layer and how these elements can be ‘life’d’. We are attempting to develop a full system, not just one or two parts of it,’ continued Small.

· Innovative powder materials will examine HIPping with titanium powder. Rolls-Royce thinks that there is sufficient technology to go very close to full density near net shape HIPping for very large components. (HIPping is short for Hot Isostatic Processing and involves the simultaneous application of high-temperature and high gas (typically inert) pressure to a workpiece in a specially constructed pressure vessel). The company is looking to produce full engine diameter components, some two or three feet across. At the moment these are machined from solid, which takes a long time, is not very environmentally friendly and results in a component that is heavier than it needs to be because of the limitations of machining. According to Small, ‘We think that by using Russian technology we can manufacture engine components near net shape, which will allow us to optimise the design, reduce the environmental impact and do it cheaper. Initially we will work in titanium, but if successful there are plans to use all sorts of materials.’

· The fourth programme will look at the next generation of metal matrix composites - silicon carbide reinforced titanium type materials. Rolls-Royce is a world leader in this area at the moment with the engine programmes for the joint strike fighter, but the company is looking at higher temperature capabilities to extend composite’s use further.

· The final research programme is very speculative and is a long-term project - developing materials for a more electric engine. The idea is to replace actuators, oil, hydraulic and other similar engine systems with embedded electrical machines. This will require specialist magnetic materials. ‘The problem is the vibration and temperature that they will be exposed to in the engine core,’ says Small. ‘So we’re starting to examine the materials that will underpin the use of magnetic materials in that environment, in particular looking at insulators, conductors, soft magnetic materials and ways of improving capacitor performance in the engine environment.’

All these technologies are targeted at the next generation of engines currently under development. ‘We aim to have the single crystal material in service by 2008,’ says Small. ‘Overall, I think that ADAM is the single biggest materials programme in the UK,’ he concluded.

Ethylene Vinyl Acetate – EVA

2007-01-04T23:42:00.000-08:00

Improved low temperature flexibility compared to LDPE. Film has improved clarity compared to LDPE. Improved weathering. Similar flexibility to Plasticised PVC may be obtained, but without problems of plasticiser migration. May be crosslinked and radio frequency welded. Better tear resistance than LDPE. Can accept high filler loadings.
Disadvantages

Reduced chemical resistance compared to LDPE. Reduced barrier properties. Reduced creep resistance.
Applications

Stretch film for shrink wrapping, protector strips, shoe soles (crosslinked), disposable medical equipment. As a coating (for heat sealing) on PP, PET and aluminium films. Flexible toys, tubing, wire coating.

Effects of Organic Additives on Physical and Chemical Characteristics of Basic Aluminum Sulfate

2007-01-03T23:42:00.001-08:00

Basic aluminum sulfate can be prepared by homogeneous precipitation starting from admixtures of ammonium aluminum sulfate and ammonium bisulfite solutions. Powder agglomeration problems usually arise in wet precipitation processes mainly at high concentration of precursors. Some organic additives have been used in order to modify the physical and chemical properties of the final product during precipitation processes. In this work, the effects of cationic, anionic and neutral organic additives on the physical and chemical characteristics of basic aluminum sulfate (BAS) obtained by homogeneous precipitation were investigated. Dodecylethyl-dimethyl-ammonium bromide (DEA) and chitosan were used as cationic additives, whereas dodecyl lithium sulfate (DLS) was selected as anionic additive. Furthermore, poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) were used as neutral additives. The products were characterized by Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), powder x-ray diffractometry (XRD), thermal analysis (TG and DTA) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The chemical composition and crystallinity of the final product were not modified by the presence of the studied additives in this reaction media. The basic aluminum sulfates were amorphous, with chemical composition 2Al2O3·SO3·9 H2O. However, the morphology and agglomeration state of the final product were modified by the nature of the used additives. Anionic additive, DLS, produced irregular agglomerated particles. On the other hand, neutral additives, PVA and PEG, provided particles with low agglomeration state. The highest effect on dispersion was observed when cationic additives were used. Fine well-dispersed particles of basic aluminum sulfate were obtained by addition of chitosan during the precipitation process.
Keywords

Organic additives, agglomeration, basic aluminum sulfate
Introduction

Aluminas have been in use for many years as catalyst, adsorbents, desiccants, abrasives, plastic fillers as well as fire retardants for many chemical process industries. Aluminas for water adsorption, which are traditionally known as desiccants, were first introduced in 1932 [1]. Since long time ago, synthetic aluminas have been used in the chromatographic purification of biological compounds. Recently aluminas have found widespread usage in applications as diverse as municipal wastes treatment as well as in polymer and pharmaceutical industries [2].

Alumina chemicals have been applied to treat industrial and municipal waters [3]. On the other hand, aluminum sulfate is useful as a coagulant for removal of various metals, particles and undesirable organic compounds from industrial waste water. Alumina trihydroxide (gibbsite) and monohydrate (pseudoboehmites) also have been accepted as flocculants in drinking-water. Transition forms of aluminas have been used as adsorbents for removal of undesirable contaminants in both municipal and industrial waters.

As a result of more stringent conservation requirements large alumina adsorption processes have been developed for water treatment. Successful new environmental applications of alumina adsorbents include the removal of phosphate, mercaptan, arsenic, fluoride and colloidal silica compounds in ground and drinking water [4].

The most important source of aluminum hydroxides is the Bauxite refining plant. More than 94% world alumina production is accounted for by the Bayer process for Bauxite refining. The alumina product from the Bayer process is usually 99.5% pure with soda (Na2O) as the mayor impurity [5]. Therefore, when a pure alumina product is required, it must be obtained by another chemical process that uses pure aluminum salts as a raw material.

The interest to find alternative routes for the preparation of ceramic powders that avoid the inconveniences of the traditional techniques has been growing. For this reason, the development of new synthetic routes is required that allow to obtain ceramic powders with specific properties, such as small particle size, spherical in shape, narrow particle size distribution, absence of agglomerates and high chemical purity.

One of the most interesting recent developments in the preparation of aluminum hydroxide and alumina has been the introduction of BAS as monosized alumina precursors with uniform and controllable morphology. Matijevic [6] originally produced particles that contained an appreciable amount of sulfate but this contaminant could be exchanged for hydroxide species, in much the same manner as the one described by Gordon et al. [7], converting the BAS to hydrous aluminum oxide.

Other researchers have also used basic aluminum salts as high purity alumina precursors. Cornilsen and Reed studied amorphous basic aluminum succinate and BAS as potential precursors [8]. Whereas Sacks et al. [9] and Blendell et al. [10] used spherical BAS as the specific starting material for conversion to alumina.

The BAS studied by the above mentioned researchers, were obtained by homogeneous precipitation of BAS in aqueous medium. In this case, agglomeration problems of the BAS particles generally arise, especially when the precipitation process is performed at high concentrations of aluminum salt. Therefore, under this condition it is difficult to obtain monosized and non-agglomerated particles.

Brick Walls and Brickwork - Vanadium Staining

2006-12-31T23:40:00.000-08:00

Vanadium stains are evident by a yellow- green discolouration on the face of a brick resulting from the vanadium salts which are naturally present in most clays used to produce light coloured bricks.

Vanadium stains are not powdery crystalline deposits and cannot simply be brushed off. They are often mistaken for moss or algae which usually grows in damp areas across the whole face of the bricks and mortar. By contrast vanadium stains appear on dry walls, normally as patches on the brick only.
Causes

Vanadium stains are a result of water soluble vanadium salts. These salts are put into solution by excess water migrating through the bricks and brought to the surface as they dry out. During this drying out process the water evaporates leaving vanadium salts on the brick surface. The vanadium salt turns green when it crystallises in an acidic environment, such as after acid cleaning or exposure to rainwater, Which naturally acidic.

This process can occur whenever the bricks are subjected to excessive water from rain either before or (more often) during the bricklaying process. If the stains are not removed prior to cleaning with hydrochloric acid, they may turn a darker colour and be more difficult to remove.

Vanadium salts are neither permanent or harmful and they do not indicate any defects in the bricks. Such stains in exposed areas generally wash off in time, but their removal can be hastened by chemical treatment.

Brick Walls and Brickwork - Cleaning

2006-12-30T23:38:00.000-08:00

The appearance of a brick building can be permanently spoiled by bad cleaning techniques or by the use of the wrong cleaning agent. Because of this it is important to ensure that the correct cleaning methods are utilised for the best results. In order to help with this, Austral has provided some helpful hints to help reduce the associated problems with brick cleaning. Remember that the only function of hydrochloric acid is to dissolve portland cement.
Helpful Cleaning Hints

1. All mortar dags should be removed using either a metal or wooden scraper.

2. Protect all areas which may come in contact with the cleaning agent as recommended by the manufacturer.

3. Ensure that the area of brickwork to be cleaned is saturated with water.

4. Use the correct ratio of Hydrochloric acid and water

(a) Light coloured bricks - 1 part hydrochloric acid to 20 parts water

(b) Dark coloured bricks - 1 part hydrochloric acid to 10 parts water

* Under no circumstances should more than 1 part hydrochloric acid to 10 parts water be used. It is better to scrub more vigorously than to use more acid.

* Where vanadium staining appears on brickwork spot clean with a solution of 20 to 40 grams of oxalic acid per litre of water prior to cleaning with hydrochloric acid.

5. When cleaning try not to work in direct sunlight.

6. Always begin at the highest point and work down the wall.

7. Only clean small areas at a time, eg 1 square metre to ensure you have adequate time to wash off the cleaning solution to ensure no staining occurs.

8. Allow solution to remain on wall for 3 - 6 minutes before scrubbing. Be sure not to scrub the joints.

9. Rinse thoroughly, making sure that all cleaning solution has been removed.

* Light coloured bricks should be rinsed with a neutralising solution, such as bicarbonate soda or washing soda, instead of water.
Take Care With Cleaning

High pressure cleaning equipment can be used but the following simple precautions must be adhered to:

· Keep pressure low - around 1000-1200psi (6800-8500 KPa).

· Use a wide fan spray nozzle (15°)

· The nozzle should be generally 500mm from the wall or never closer than 300mm.

· Test a small unseen section prior to full scale cleaning to ensure best results.

· If the mortar joint or the bricks are being damaged then either the pressure is too high or the nozzle is too close to the wall.

Aluminium Alloys – 8BAl Master Alloy for High Conductivity EC-Grade Aluminium from Metallurg Aluminium

2006-12-29T23:36:00.000-08:00

As the global leader in the development and production of aluminium grain refiners, aluminium master alloys, metal treatment alloys and compacted alloying products, Metallurg Aluminium is constantly developing innovative products to improve casthouse efficiency. Our unique 8% boron aluminium master alloy, known as 8BAl™, is breaking new ground in cost-effective transition metal removal.
The Importance of Transition Metal Impurities

The removal of transition metal impurities is essential in producing high-conductivity aluminium for wire and cable applications. Titanium, vanadium, chromium and zirconium and other elements – present in the metal as smelter impurities – significantly impede the electrical conductivity of aluminium. These solute impurities are generally precipitated from the melt through the addition of boron aluminium master alloys.
Boron Aluminium Treatments

Boron aluminium treatment is an environmentally safer and more cost-effective alternative to borax addition to electrolytic cells or potassium borofluoride (KBF4) treatment of aluminium in the mixing or holding furnace. Boron aluminium treatment avoids boron contamination of electrolytic cells, and eliminates KBF4 refractory attack.
How Boron Aluminium Treatment Works

After the addition of BAl (with an AlB2 or AlB12 microstructure), solute Ti, V and other impurities react with the aluminium borides, and these particles are precipitated, settling to the bottom of the melt to form a boride sludge. Clean, high conductivity Al is then decanted. Boron is trapped in the sludge at the bottom of the furnace. Adding boron in the launder in rod or Castcut™ form is an alternative, and less common treatment method. In this case, borides formed would be trapped in the filters. With either method, boron recovery should not be expected in the final alloy.

AZoM - Metals, ceramics, polymers and composites - schematic representation of how the boron aluminium addition removes impurities from molten aluminium
8BAl The Cost-Effective Solution

Metallurg Aluminium’s concentrated 8BAl™ boron additive achieves the same impurity removal efficiency as lower concentration alloys, but with a reduced boron unit cost. 8BAl™ lowers the cost of boron treatment in the casthouse, lessens material handling and reduces inventory.

Advanced Materials for Gas Turbine Engines – Fan Blades

2006-12-28T23:35:00.000-08:00

Adhesives – Modern Types of Adhesives

2006-12-27T23:34:00.000-08:00

A bewildering variety of adhesives are available from a range of adhesive manufacturers. However, it is possible to simplify the choice by classifying the adhesive, and this can be done either by the way they are used or by their chemical type. The strongest adhesives solidify by a chemical reaction, Weaker varieties harden by some physical change. The major classifications are described in the following sections.
Anaerobics

Anaerobic adhesives cure when in contact with metal, and the air is excluded, e.g. when a bolt is home in a thread. They are often known as "locking compounds", being used to secure, seal and retain turned, threaded, or similarly close fitting parts. They are based on synthetic acrylic resins.
Cyanoacrylates

Cyanoacrylate adhesives cure through reaction with moisture held on the surface to be bonded. They need close fitting joints and usually solidify in seconds. Cyanoacrylates are suited to small plastic parts and to rubber. They are a special type of acrylic resin.
Toughened Acrylics

Toughened acrylics are fast curing and offer high strength and toughness. Both one and two part systems are available. In two part systems, no mixing is required because the adhesive is applied to one substrate, the activator to the second substrate, and the substrates joined. They tolerate minimal surface preparation and bond well to a wide range of materials.
Epoxies

Epoxy adhesives consist of an epoxy resin plus a hardener. They allow great versatility in formulation since there are many resins and many different hardeners. Epoxy adhesives can be used to join most materials. These materials have good strength, do not produce volatiles during curing, and have low shrinkage. However, epoxies can have low peel strength and flexibility and can be brittle. Epoxy adhesives are available in one part, two part and film form and produce extremely strong durable bonds with most materials.
Polyurethanes

Polyurethane adhesives are chemically reactive formulations that may be one or two part systems and are usually fast curing. They provide strong resilient joints which are impact resistant and have better low temperature strength than any other adhesive. Polyurethanes are useful for bonding glass fibre reinforced plastics (GRP). The fast cure usually necessitates applying the adhesives by machine. They are often used with primers.
Silicones

Silicones are not very strong adhesives, but are known for their flexibility and high temperature resistance. They are available in single or two part forms. The latter function like the two part epoxies, the former like the single part polyurethanes. When the single part adhesives cure they liberate either alcohol or acetic acid (the familiar smell of vinegar). They are often used as bath and shower sealants. Their adhesion to surfaces is only fair but like their flexibility, their durability is excellent. The two part versions need a hardening agent to be mixed into the resin. Two forms are available, those which liberate acid on curing and those that do not. As might be anticipated the two part adhesive systems give a better cure in thick sections than do the single part types.

Platinum – Exploration and Extraction

2006-12-26T01:20:00.001-08:00

Platinum is an extremely rare substance, far less abundant than gold. It is found only in a few commercially viable deposits on the earth. Most platinum is mined in three major producing regions in South Africa, Russia, and North America. South Africa is by far the largest producer supplying about 2/3 of the total world production. Russia is the next-largest producer, supplying about ¼ of world production. The rest of the platinum supply comes from North America and a few other small producers.
South Africa

South Africa has been blessed with some of the richest mineral deposits in the world. They produce large quantities of precious metals, gems, and industrial minerals. South Africa’s platinum deposits are concentrated in an area known as the Bushveld Igneous Complex, one of the largest metal-bearing intrusions in the world. Platinum group metals (PGM) are recovered from the Merensky reef that extends along the entire eastern length of the Bushveld. Several mining firms extract ores from this region, the largest being Anglo Platinum, Impala Platinum, and Lonmin Platinum.
Russia

Platinum production in Russia dates back to the 19th century when alluvial deposits in the Ural Mountains were heavily mined. These historical deposits are now mostly depleted but new richer sources have been discovered in northern Siberia. Siberian PGM production is concentrated in the Noril'sk-Tainakh complex, a set of underground veins that are part of massive copper-nickel deposits in the complex. Russian production suffered during the transition period before and after the collapse of the Soviet Union. New investment in modern plant and equipment could dramatically boost output, possibly exceeding South Africa. Russia is a wildcard on the supply side of platinum production.
North America

North America boasts three large PGM ore deposits. The Stillwater Complex in southern Montana is contains the only commercially exploitable PGM deposit within the United States. The JM-Reef formation within the Stillwater complex produces a high-grade ore. Exploitation of the Stillwater deposit began in 1987. Stillwater Mining Company holds claim to most of the richest properties. The other two North American deposits lie within Ontario, Canada. The Sudbury Mine in southern Ontario produces PGMs as a by-product of nickel mining. The Lac des Iles region north of Thunder Bay produces mostly PGM with some base metals. All of the North American deposits are primarily palladium sources with platinum being a relatively small percentage of the metal production.

Platinum - Applications

2006-12-25T01:19:00.000-08:00

Platinum is primarily an industrial metal. It is a critical material for many industries and is considered a “strategic metal” by the US Government as a military resource. It is estimated that about 20% of the products purchased by modern consumers either contain platinum or use it in production. Total demand for platinum falls into eight broad categories:

· Automotive – used in catalytic converters, spark plugs, and sensors

· Jewellery – as a substitute for gold

· Chemical processing – also as a general catalyst

· Electrical/electronics – for high-temperature and non-corrosive wires and contacts

· Glass – dies and process technology

· Petroleum refining – as a catalyst for crude oil cracking

· Dental/Medical – equipment and reconstructive

· Investment – bullion and coins
Automotive

Automotive demand for platinum consumes a large share of platinum production. Platinum is the active element in catalytic converters that convert unburned hydrocarbons into carbon dioxide and water vapour. Other automotive uses include oxygen and ozone sensors for antipollution subsystems. Recently, platinum is being used as an electrode material in long-life spark plugs. Being one of the largest consumers of the metal, platinum demand is highly correlated to automotive industry cycle, and therefore price.

Automakers are aggressively experimenting with ways to eliminate expensive platinum-based emission-control components. New “lean-burn” technologies are being developed by auto manufacturers to reduce or eliminate the need for catalytic converters. These techniques use sophisticated computer control of engine parameters to reduce emissions. Such breakthroughs would substantially reduce platinum demand and put downward pressure on the price of the metal. Other challenges to platinum in autocatalyst use come from its sister element palladium. Palladium can be used as a substitute along with other platinum group metals as a catalyst agent. Although palladium is not quite as effective as platinum, it will be substituted if the price of platinum rises too high.

On the bullish side, new automotive uses for platinum are on the horizon that could substantially increase demand for the metal. Manufacturers are experimenting with fuel-cell power plants for electric cars. These fuel cells utilize platinum to catalyse a chemical reaction using hydrogen that creates electrical energy but generates no harmful emissions. Government emissions and fuel-efficiency mandates are accelerating research in this area. It will probably be at least a decade before fuel cell automobiles enter widespread use.
Jewellery

Platinum has become a very popular choice for modern jewellery, displacing significant gold demand. Its hardness and durability allows it to be used in purer form for secure stone settings. It is much superior to silver because of its resistance to oxidation and discoloration. Its rich hue and reflectivity enhances the brilliance of precious stones. Platinum is hypoallergenic which makes it the best jewellery choice for people who suffer reactions from other metals or 14k (alloyed) gold.

Platinum jewellery has been particularly popular with Asian consumers. Many Asians feel that platinum has a more pleasing contrast with the Asian skin colour than other metals. Other ethnic groups have started to purchase platinum for similar reasons. Platinum also seems to have a marketing advantage over gold or silver. Products and awards with the “Platinum” designation are typically considered superior those labelled “Gold” or “Silver”. This gives platinum jewellery items additional prestige.
Chemical Processing

Platinum is used as a catalytic agent in processing of nitric acid, fertilizers, synthetic fibers, and a variety of other materials. In catalytic processes, the catalyst material is not consumed and can be recycled for future use. This makes chemical demand for platinum quite volatile. Platinum is essential in many of these processes and there are few satisfactory substitutes.

Palladium

2006-12-24T01:16:00.000-08:00

Palladium was discovered by Wollaston in 1803. It is found with other platinum group metals in Placer deposits in Russia, north and south America, Australia and Ethiopia. It has also been found in Ontario and South Africa in copper-nickel deposits.

Its ability to be separated from other platinum group metals is strongly influenced by which metals they are.
Key Properties

· Palladium is steel white in appearance

· It does not tarnish in air

· It has the lowest density of all platinum group metals

· It has the lowest melting point of all platinum group metals

· In the annealed state it is soft and ductile

· Cold working significantly increases harness and strength

· Palladium is attacked by sulfuric and nitric acids

· It can absorb up to 900 times it own volume in hydrogen.

· Palladium can be used for purification of hydrogen as it readily diffuses through the heated metal.
Applications

· Fine palladium powders are used as catalysts for hydrogenation and dehydrogenation reactions

· Its alloys are used in jewellery e.g. white gold, which is gold that has been decolourised by the addition of palladium

· Dentistry

· Watchmaking

· Surgical instruments

· Electrical contacts

· Multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCC)

· Oxygen sensors

· Brazing alloys

· Catalysts for auto applications

Optically Readable Hydrogen Sensor Using Pd/Y Double-Layered Thin Films

2006-12-23T01:15:00.000-08:00

The optical properties of palladium (Pd) / yttrium (Y) double-layered thin films have been investigated to realize an optical hydrogen sensor with high sensitivity at room temperature. A remarkable increase in transmittance of the Pd/Y film to about 17 times was observed when the sensor detected 100% hydrogen gas. Moreover, the response time within 8 s was much shorter than that reported previously and the recovery time of 30 s was shorter than that of the Pd film. The sensor exhibited a considerable increase in transmittance to about 8 times even with a detection of 0.1% hydrogen. Compared with previously reported Pd-based optical sensor, the Pd/Y films had a great advantage of high sensitivity and excellent response and recovery properties.
Keywords

Hydrogen Sensor; Optical Sensing; Pd/Y Thin Films; Sensitivity; Response and Recovery Properties
Introduction

The hydrogen is expected to play an important role as a secondary energy resource because it is clean and inexhaustible. The use of the hydrogen gas involves a great risk because it has a wide range of explosive concentrations and low ignition energy, as well as its colorless and odorless nature. For that reason, a sensing device for monitoring hydrogen is required to use hydrogen safely. Conventional electrical sensors, such as semiconducting ceramics (SnO2 or ZnO) [1, 2] and simple platinum wire, must be heated up to 150-400˚C to enhance the sensitivity. Therefore, this type of sensor has a risk of ignition on account of its high operating temperature and the possibility that an electrical spark could be generated on the sensing circuit.

To avoid these problems, we have developed a new type of optically readable hydrogen sensors. The principle of the optically readable sensors is based on the change in the transmittance and the reflectance of thin films such as Pd [3], Pd/WO3 [4] and Pd/MoO3 [5] on a glass substrate, due to hydride formation. These sensors have a great advantage of high safety and prevention of an explosion.

A major change in the optical properties of rare-earth metals with forming their hydrides has been reported by Huiberts et al. [6]. Yttrium (Y) was selected out of the rare-earth metals as a layer detecting hydrogen. Moreover, Palladium (Pd) with outstanding hydrogen sorption was used as a layer of catalyst on the Y layer. There is the possibility that an optical sensor with high sensitivity can be realized using these materials. However, the characteristics of their materials have not been investigated from the point of view of hydrogen sensing characteristics such as response speed, repeatability and hydrogen concentration dependence of sensitivity. In this paper, the optical properties of the Pd/Y double-layered thin films were investigated.
Experimental

The sensing devices consisting of a Y film covered with a Pd film were prepared on a glass substrate (Corning #7059) using a R. F. magnetron sputtering apparatus (Anelva, SPF-332H), which was equipped with 99.99% Pd and 99.9% Y plates. The sputtering was carried out under 1 Pa Ar atmosphere. After the deposition of the Y film on the substrate, the Pd film was continuously formed on the Y film. The Pd film plays an important role not only in protecting the Y film against its oxidation but also in catalyzing hydrogen dissociation. To compare the Pd/Y sensor with previously [3] reported Pd-based sensor, the Pd monolayered film was also prepared through the similar procedure. A 50 nm Y film covered with a 20 nm Pd film and the Pd monolayered film were prepared so as to have the total thickness of 70 nm. Moreover, the thickness of the Y film covered with the 20 nm Pd film was varied from 20 nm to 150 nm.

Johnson Matthey Reports a 20% Increase in Operating Profit

2006-12-22T01:13:00.000-08:00

Johnson Matthey a speciality chemicals company focussed on precious metals, catalysts and other fine chemicals, reported strong growth across all three operating divisions, Catalysts & Chemicals, Precious Metals and Colours & Coatings.

Commenting on the results, Chris Clark, Chief Executive of Johnson Matthey, said: "The group grew strongly last year and our businesses continue to perform well. As a result, we are investing significantly in the development of our technology and also in increased capacity, particularly for Catalysts & Chemicals. We are confident that the current year will again demonstrate the organic growth potential in Johnson Matthey. "

Summary Results

Catalysts and Chemicals Division (Inc. Autocatalysts, Fuel Cells)

Precious Metals

Colours and Coatings
Summary Results

The summary results are detailed below

Results

· Profit before tax excluding exceptional items up 25% to £180.3 million

· Operating profit up 20% to £175.0 million. All three divisions delivering strong organic growth

· Earnings per share excluding exceptional items up 22% to 58.1 pence

· Dividend for the year increased by 15% to 23.3 pence

· Strong balance sheet with net cash of £139.9 million

Business developments

· Major investment programme continues in autocatalyst, chemicals, pharmaceutical materials and fuel cells

· Site identified for fuel cell manufacturing at Swindon

· Growth in Precious Metals supported by buoyant market demand for platinum group metals

· Investment in growth markets producing good results in Colours & Coatings

· Surplus cash to be used to buy back shares

· Pursuing acquisitions to add to core businesses
Catalysts and Chemicals Division

Catalysts & Chemicals Division increased sales by 76% over the previous financial year to £1,503 million. This growth reflected increased sales volume and the effect of higher precious metal prices particularly that of palladium. Sales excluding the value of precious metals rose by 14% to £565 million. The division’s operating profit rose by 17% to £98.9 million.

The Catalytic Systems business, which encompasses Johnson Matthey’s global autocatalyst, heavy duty diesel and stationary source emission control businesses, performed very well, despite the widely publicised fall in vehicle sales in North America in the last five months of the financial year. Overall, global vehicle sales advanced by 1% but the autocatalyst market grew by around 6% benefiting from tightening standards and the geographical spread of regulations to control emissions.

Continuously Regenerating Trap (CRT TM ) and other heavy duty diesel products were also well up on last year as the result of increased retrofit activity around the world. This strong progress underlines the future growth opportunity represented by heavy duty diesel as emission standards tighten.

In March 2001 a new £10 million European autocatalyst facility was opened in Royston, UK. The 6,000 square metre plant produces more advanced catalysts to the higher specifications required to meet current and future emissions standards. The new factory has initial capacity to produce 3.5 million units a year, which will be needed to meet the rapidly growing demand for catalysts in Europe.

During the year additional production capacity has been installed to meet rapidly growing demand for autocatalysts in Asia. In early November a new autocatalyst plant was opened in India’s Harayana State, which more than doubled Johnson Matthey’s production capacity in this important market. A new autocatalyst facility in China will be officially opened later this month.

Fuel Cells – Catalysts and Conducting Polymers in Fuel Cells – Sigma Aldrich

2006-12-21T01:12:00.000-08:00

Fuel cells offer the promise of a clean energy source for stationary power generation. They produce energy from hydrogen, natural gas, alcohol, or other readily available hydrocarbon fuels. Fuel cells date back to the nineteenth century when Grove, in 1839, first published his work on the generation of electricity by partially immersing two platinum electrodes and separately supplying oxygen and hydrogen to them.1 There is considerable current interest in fuel cells as an environmentally clean alternative to fossil-fuel-burning power sources.
Catalysts for Fuels Cells

Platinum is the most common catalyst for fuel cells; however, due to its high cost it is often doped with palladium, ruthenium, cobalt/nitrogen complexes, or more recently iridium or osmium. In addition to its high cost, platinum is also quite rare. In fact, there is not enough platinum in the world to equip every vehicle in use today with a traditional (Pt-catalyst) proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell. For this reason, new catalysts, doped-platinum catalysts, and new platinum-deposition techniques are all being developed to reduce the amount of platinum needed for fuel cell catalysts.
Conducting Polymers

The discovery over twenty five years ago of relatively high electrical conductivity (~103 S/cm) of doped polyacetylene sparked extensive research in the application of conjugated polymers in such diverse fields as electronics, energy storage, catalysis, chemical sensing, biochemistry, and corrosion control. Unfortunately, the conducting polymers were found to be unstable in air and difficult to process. Significant advances in improving the desired electrical, optical, and mechanical properties, while simultaneously enhancing processability and stability, have been realized by cross-disciplinary collaborations between chemists, physicists, materials scientists, and engineers.
Polyaniline

Polyaniline is becoming the conducting polymer of choice in many applications for several reasons: its electronic properties are readily customized; it exhibits excellent chemical stability, and is the least expensive of the conducting polymers.
Polythiophenes

Polythiophenes have been studied extensively for use in light emitting diodes, among other applications, due to the chemical variability offered by substitution at the 3- and 4- positions. The regularity of the side-chain incorporation strongly affects the electronic band gap of the conjugated main chain and is critical to device performance. Sigma-Aldrich offers highly regiocontrolled alkylsubstituted polythiophenes (P3AT): almost completely regioregular head-to-tail (HT) P3AT and regiorandom (1:1 HT/HH) P3AT.10

Dental Materials

2006-12-20T01:11:00.000-08:00

Modern dental practice has become very dependent on its materials, such that the dentist's greatest challenge is choosing the right combinations of them for the benefit of their patients.
Metallic Fillings
Silver Amalgams

For over 150 years, silver amalgam has been used to fill the cavities made by dentists during the removal of dental decay from teeth. When pure silver (melting point 961°C) is mixed with mercury (mp -39°C) it produces a paste of slowly forming intermetallic compounds. When this is packed into the cavity at body temperature (37°C), the intermetallic compounds interlock and the amalgam hardens. However, setting is accompanied by a considerable expansion, and 100 years ago it was discovered that this can be controlled by adding tin to the silver. Unfortunately, this produces corrodible tin-mercury intermetallic phases, and their loss can cause breakdown of the filling.

By adding copper, the tin-mercury phase is eliminated and modern dental amalgams are made by mixing silver-tin-copper alloy powder with mercury. This results in fillings that resist both the mechanical and chemical onslaughts within the mouth for many years.

Although the amount of mercury lost from such fillings is like the contamination of a drink by a drowning midge, those determined to deny the benefits of having usefully restored teeth have over emphasised the risk, and this has generated a search for an alternative, metallic, mercury-free, filling material.
Alternatives to Silver Amalgams

Gallium (mp 30°C) has been combined with indium and tin to produce an alloy that is molten at normal room temperature, and when this is mixed with powdered silver-tin-copper it produces a paste that sets. However, packing this paste has proved to be a challenge, and the best results have been obtained when packing under ethanol. The fillings produced from these alloys are also very prone to dramatic corrosion. The jury is out over the long-term toxicological effects of gallium, which has a clean record so far.

Experimental silver-coated intermetallic particles have been cold welded under pressure to fill well-supported cavities. Unfortunately, these are not the ones in which amalgam is the most useful.
Resin-Based Composite Fillings

These tooth-coloured filling materials have reached a high degree of sophistication since their appearance on the dental scene in the early 1960s. A modern dental composite consists of a paste created by combining a mixture of dimethacrylate monomers and cross-linking agents (known in dentistry as resins) with up to 80% by weight of silane-coated, ceramic particles (the filler), whose sizes range from 0.04-4 microns. This composite paste is packed into a dental cavity and the dentist exposes it for about 30 seconds to intense visible blue light. The light activates a chemical initiator within the composite and the resins undergo free radical addition polymerisation via their vinyl groups, turning the paste into a durable, solid filling.
Disadvantages of Resin-Based Composite Fillings

Composite fillings have similar strengths to amalgam but they tend to wear away more rapidly. They also shrink as they polymerise, and efforts have to be made to prevent gaps forming between the composite and the tooth. Incremental packing and curing helps, but the dentist uses other techniques and other materials to help form a seal.

Copper – Plated Ceramic Electronic Circuits

2006-12-19T01:09:00.000-08:00

Background

Since the 1930’s and 1940’s many methods have been used for making electrically conductive interconnects on insulating substrates. The often conflicting requirements of cost, electrical insulation, thermal management, track definition, track adhesion, signal transfer speed, current-carrying capability, resistance to adverse working environments, physical strength, performance at high frequencies and so on, have meant that varying degrees of success have been achieved. However, during the last few years the process of copper-plating ceramic has been greatly improved. It can now be considered as a serious alternative to well-established interconnect methods such as etched Cu/epoxide-glass laminates, ‘screen-and-fire’ thick-film circuits, evaporated-metal-on-glass thin-film circuits and etched thick-film.
Copper-Plated Ceramics

Copper-plated ceramic addresses the interconnection requirements of many of the latest electronics systems. The key features stem from the combination of the insulator, the conductor and the manufacturing methods.
Materials and Sizes

The normal insulator used is 96% alumina ceramic. When the highest performance at frequencies above 5GHz is required, 99.5% alumina is used, but since the prices differ by a factor of ten, it is used only when applications require lower losses at higher frequencies. Individual circuits can be produced in any size up to the dimensions of the ceramic panel used, usually 100mm x 100mm or 150mm x 100mm. If more than one circuit fits on to the panel, they are usually made in multiples, with each circuit printed onto prescribed section.
Why Use Alumina for the Insulator?

The electrical properties of alumina are excellent. The insulation resistance is very high and, over the range that affects circuit boards, does not change significantly with either temperature or humidity. The thermal conductivity is reasonable, being a little under one tenth that of copper but around one hundred times that of most organic materials.
Why Use Copper for the Conductor?

The conductor is pure electroplated copper. For all practical purposes only silver has higher electrical conductivity, but copper is cheaper, much more metallurgically stable and its solderability, regarding tin-lead solders, is very well understood. Conductor thickness can range between 5μm and 100μm with only a minimal additional cost for higher thickness. At the highest thickness some loss of resolution capability occurs - the ultimate resolution is mainly limited by the surface quality of the substrate. The conductors have near rectangular cross-sections, very low surface area to volume ratio and the top surface of the conductor is as smooth as that of the substrate. The electrical resistance of the tracking is about 1 milliohm per square for a thickness of 25μm
Other Materials

Despite the fact that pure copper is eminently suitable for solder assembly, it is often necessary to add other materials for various reasons, such as:

· Preventing oxidation during storage, aesthetics, wirebonding and protection against solder-bridging and physical damage

· Organic anti-tarnish coatings prevent oxidation and discolouration by sulphur-containing gases. Plated gold (sometimes over plated nickel) is used both for aesthetics and where wire-bonding is contemplated

· Tin-lead can give retention of solderability during longer storage periods

· Photo-imaged solder mask minimises solder‑bridges and physical/handling damage

· Electroless silver is also available.

These finishes may cover the entire circuit or can be applied only in selected areas.

Computer and Electronic Scrap Recycling

2006-12-18T01:08:00.000-08:00

It is no longer unheard of for people to throw away expensive computers in order to have the latest model. Your mobile phone may be functioning perfectly, but if it doesn’t take pictures or have the latest advanced features it has got to be replaced. As a consequence, there is a growing tide of obsolete computers and other electronic products finding its way into landfill sites throughout the UK and Europe.

AZoM - Metals, Ceramics, Polymer and Composites : Computer and Electronic Scrap Recycling
Electronic Waste Initiatives

From 2004, the EU Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive will tackle the increasing waste streams of electrical and electronic equipment by requiring manufacturers to take back equipment for recycling. Responding to the need for an environmentally acceptable solution to deal with the huge problem of redundant computers and other electronic equipment, funding from the UK Government’s programme for Waste Minimisation through Recycling, Recovery and Reuse in Industry (WMR3) has helped scientists to pioneer the development of two novel methods s for recycling components and valuable metals in printed circuit boards (PCBs).
New Technology for Processing Printed Circuit Boards

Researchers at Cambridge University have collaborated with colleagues from with Alpha-Fry Ltd and EA Technology to develop a patented process that employs a specially developed chemical leaching agent to release all the valuable electronic components such as chips or condensers for recycling, and to recover valuable metals and other materials from shredded boards.
Recycling Printed Circuit Boards

Around 60 million PCBs are produced each year. Each circuit board has a metal content of up to 30% by weight. The metals present in the majority of cases are gold, silver, copper, tin and lead. Many of the processes used to recover non-precious metals are based on mechanical, pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical techniques, in which the value of the electronic component is totally lost and maximum metal recovery is not possible. The integrated approach developed at Cambridge enables the components to be separated and resold, the solder leached and re-deposited as a solder alloy and the shredded boards to be reused as a binder in aggregate use.