Aluminium sector eyes net zero opportunities
9 Nov 2022
Aluminium is poised to play a key role in the UK’s drive to net zero and the development of a sustainable and circular economy, says the head of the sector’s leading trade association.
Tom Jones of the Aluminium Federation (ALFED) told members that the industry had an unprecedented opportunity to support increased demand from the automotive, aerospace, construction, packaging, rail and shipbuilding supply chains, post-pandemic.
“Aluminium is so light and strong, with its green credentials unmatched. For example, our Net Zero Report highlighted that 8g of carbon emissions are saved every kilometre for each 100kg reduction in a car’s mass, thanks to aluminium-driven lightweighting,” said Jones (pictured).
“There’s up to a 50% reduction in a building’s energy consumption with intelligent facades using aluminium systems and a 40% decrease in foil thickness of packaging achieved by using this versatile material. This is beginning to sway the thinking of automotive designers, architects and specifiers and those responsible for the safe transit of goods.”
ALFED, which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, has seen membership double in the last five years to 175. Its latest report claims the sector employs more than 39,000 people and boasts a total GVA of nearly £3 billion.
However, the report, undertaken in partnership with the Fraser of Allander Institute, predicts the sector’s real value in wider economic terms is £7.4 billion and supports employment of 104,000 full-time jobs.
However, Jones warned that infrastructural support would need to improve in order to aid expansion for sustainability needs.
“Demand is definitely out there, but, as it stands, we only have one primary smelter on our domestic shores and that will just not be enough going forward. We need to build supply chain independence at both the source and downstream in the producers of castings, extrusions and profiles,” he insisted.
ALFED also has plans for the creation of a Sustain Aluminium Centre to pair industry and academia in order to develop efficiency savings and environmentally friendly processes.
Earlier this year, the American US Ball Corporation started work on creating work on what will be the largest aluminium packaging site in the UK.
Its new can-making factory at the SEGRO Park Kettering Gateway in Northamptonshire will occupy 56,000 square metres when completed in January 2023, producing more than a billion recyclable cans and generating 200 local jobs.
