AIT Mar/Apr 2013

This month Aluminium International Today breaks with tradition and offers readers not one, but two EXCLUSIVE interviews with CEOs from major aluminium companies. We travelled to California to meet Jack Hockema, Kaiser Aluminum's CEO and we made a slightly shorter journey – into London, the UK capital – to discuss the global primary aluminium industry with UC Rusal's deputy CEO, Oleg Mukhamedshin.

What both men have in common is optimism. Jack explains how the aerospace industry's move to monolithic design has been extremely beneficial to the well-being of Kaiser Aluminum. Oleg says he is optimistic because the situation can't get any worse. The solution, he says is to adopt a rational approach to production.

Aerospace virtually kicks off the issue with Myra Pinkham's USA Update focusing on the emergence of carbon fibre composites, a discussion that continues in the Jack Hockema interview.

There's an interesting China Update from CRU's Ling Wong who discusses Xinjiang province in North Western China, widely touted as 'the new Henan' thanks to cheap power and zero tax incentives. And then, as a kind of precursor to our exclusive interview with Oleg Mukhamedshin, Eugene Gerden looks at how depressed aluminium prices have forced UC Rusal to revise its future development strategy.

Mahmood Daylami, the Gulf Aluminium Council's secretary-general, looks at how the Gulf region is developing its downstream industry while Sapa North America's Jeff Henderson argues that interesting opportunities for aluminium extruders exist in the automotive and construction industries.

SMS Meer discusses heavy duty rolling presses, Otto Junker looks at log and billet heating and Ametek says that aluminium recycling requires accurate testing equipment to determine the identity of different alloys.

We take a look at mining and refining with articles from consultants David Sugden on what it takes to make a bauxite mine; and Peter-Hans ter Weer on the economies of scale of alumina refining.

LOI Italimpianti's Hermann Meyer and BWG's Dr. Andreas Noé are the subjects of this month's Perspectives articles.