On Sep 28, 6:44*am, "Trevor Wilson" wrote:
Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Tue, 27 Sep 2011 15:57:31 +1000, "Trevor Wilson"
wrote:

**Not at all. Aluminium smelting can utilise any electrical energy
source. Nukes, geo-thermal, Solar, wind, tidal, whatever. And, just
to press the point home, I did a little research a while back on the
aluminium industry.

* Back in 1989, electricity costs were around 50% of the present
level (in Australia).
* Aluminium was around US$600.00/Tonne.
* The electricity cost to smelt 1 Tonne of aluminium in 1989 was
approximately $200.00/Tonne.
* The aluminium industry (in Australia) was profitable in 1989.
* The electricity cost to smelt 1 Tonne of aluminium today was
approximately $400.00/Tonne.
* The aluminium price today is close to US$2,500.00/Tonne.
* Even using the most pessimistic cost increases, due to greenhouse
reduction costs, the aluminium industry (in Australia) will still be
very profitable.

The aluminium industry continually bleats about high costs. They
don't menton the massive profits.

Interesting. *I excavated some US numbers on aluminum. *Each page has
about 5 years worth of annual costs. *Sorry for the mess:
http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/aluminum/mcs-2011-al....
http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/aluminum/alumimcs06.pdf
http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/aluminum/050302.pdf

* Price (not adjusted for inflation)
* * *US$ per lb
2010 * *1.214
2009 * *1.252
2008 * *1.205
2007 * *0.794
2006 * *1.017
2005 * *0.688
2004 * *0.649
2003 * *0.681
2002 * *0.840
2001 * *0.880
2000 * *0.771
1999 * *0.655
1998 * *0.657

Looks to me like the price of aluminum doubled between 1998 and 2010
in the US. *That's about right considering the increased cost of
industrial electricity. *However, it seems that the price in Australia
went up by 4.2 times. *Was there something that happened in Australia
during this time period to produce this difference?

**The prices I cited were international ones. Hence the use of US Dollars..
Although the cost of electricity rose by a factor of approximately 2 between
1989 and now, the cost to aluminium processors is not so clear. Aluminium
processors do deals with suppliers that do not reflect the real cost of
energy. In at least one case, the producers has their own power generating
plant (here in Australia).

I'll attempt to locate my cites with the relevant information.

--
Trevor Wilsonwww.rageaudio.com.au

If it is like everything else, permit fees, outrageous environmental
regulations, rates, taxes and other charges
are the usual suspects.