Jan/Feb 2013

Happy new year to all readers of Aluminium International Today and welcome to our first issue of 2013, which is jam-packed, as usual, with a lot of interesting articles and interviews. We kick off the new year with an exclusive interview with Svein Richard Brandtzaeg, CEO of Norway-based global aluminium producer Norsk Hydro. Svein Richard is optimistic for the future of the aluminium and believes strongly in the light metal's 'climate-positive' credentials.

Sticking with Hydro, there's also an interesting article from the company that reinforces Svein Richard's green objectives for the business. Hydro is transporting more and more goods by sea in an effort to reduce costs and emissions. In Norway alone, the company hopes to reduce the number of trucks on the road by up to 5,000 per year.

In fact, there is a distinctly Norwegian flavour to this issue as Italo Dal Porto, senior engineer at Norway-based HMR Hydeq argues that metal tapping with vehicles increases overall efficiency and fewer risk zones.

The Gulf is one of the most important regions of the world for aluminium production and promises to remain so. Our editor, Matthew Moggridge, who was in Qatar late last year, reports on the Arab Aluminium (Arabal) conference and also writes about two leading Gulf producers, Dubal and Emal.

Marco Georgiou, editor of the CRU Group's Aluminium Long Term Outlook Report is also writing about the Gulf and claims that the region is one of the largest aluminium production hubs outside of China.

We have news updates from India and the USA, advice on how to eliminate 'butt swell' and the views of ECL, FATA Hunter and Claudius Peters in our Perspectives Q&A features. All in all, a perfect issue to start the new year.