BRAZILIAN ALUMINUM - solutions for sustainable living

BRAZILIAN ALUMINUM SOLUTIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE LIVING 15 CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE ALUMINUM INDUSTRY IN BRAZIL enabling a secure regulatory environment that ease the burden on and encourage long-term investments at all the other steps of the production chain. That might potentially help to set up a healthy business environment with clear-cut regulations and a more rational tax framework that does not burden producers. The types of incentives to the aluminum industry might range from the major producing countries in the world, although economic development and job generation remain as their core (focus). Whether in upstream (e.g. bauxite, alumina, primary aluminum) or downstream(e.g. processedproducts) production, the chief levers for industrial policies comprise energy, labor, investments, tax and duties. Energy has been the most common lever when it comes to securing access to energy or energy prices that are more propitious for the electro-intensive industry. As for labor, the competitive advantage lies in stimulating people’s skill development and lowering manpower costs (like in the Middle East). Investments are related to better funding conditions and access to goods (i.e. mainly China and the Middle East). Boosting the Brazilian aluminum industry as a measure to mitigate global greenhouse gas emissions might be another way of thinking this issue. ABAL has surveyed those CO 2 emissions connected with the international move on such products, reaching the findings below:  Shipping bauxite and alumina exported from Brazil to North America, for example, emits about 50 kg of CO 2 per ton of product shipped.  Differently, shipping imported aluminum from Russia to Brazil emits about 37 kg of CO 2 per ton of aluminum.  Only in 2015, if the bauxite and alumina produced in Brazil and aimed for exports had been processed locally, thus preventing imports of primary aluminum to supply the Brazilian processing industry, generating nearly 900,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions only in shipping would not have occurred.  If in 2015 all those products processed in Brazil had beenmanufactured using Brazil-produced aluminum, at least 1.25 million tons of CO 2 e emissions would have been prevented. Below are a few examples of aluminum industry incentives in other regions: AluQuébec - The Québec Aluminium Industrial Cluster: In Canada, the presence of high-potential hydroelectric power that could be exported to the US has spawned higher socioeconomic value for the aluminum industry. AluQuébec is an initiative engaging producers, customers, suppliers, research and training centers, government bodies and other stakeholders focused on carrying out projects for doubling the volume of aluminum processed in Québec over the next ten years, with the United States as their desired main destination. Massena, NY: The prolonged power supply contract in Massena, NY, USA, helped secure 900 jobs at the plant, thus causing a current economic impact of about US$ 160 million in the region. China: The less-developed provinces in the countryside of China, those