OCCASION This publication has been made available to the public on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation. DISCLAIMER This document has been produced without formal United Nations editing. The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this document do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries, or its economic system or degree of development. Designations such as “developed”, “industrialized” and “developing” are intended for statistical convenience and do not necessarily express a judgment about the stage reached by a particular country or area in the development process. Mention of firm names or commercial products does not constitute an endorsement by UNIDO. FAIR USE POLICY Any part of this publication may be quoted and referenced for educational and research purposes without additional permission from UNIDO. However, those who make use of quoting and referencing this publication are requested to follow the Fair Use Policy of giving due credit to UNIDO. CONTACT Please contact [email protected] for further information concerning UNIDO publications. For more information about UNIDO, please visit us at www.unido.org UNITED NATIONS INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATION Vienna International Centre, P.O. Box 300, 1400 Vienna, Austria Tel: (+43-1) 26026-0 · www.unido.org · [email protected] 201./-qq • INTER-AFRICAN MANUFACTURING AND TRADING IN THE ALUMINIUM INDUSTRY TECHNICAL REPORT SPONSORED BY THE UNITED NATIONS INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATION (UNIDO) AND THE UNITED NATIONS ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR AFRICA (UNECA) Prepared By ENG. SOLIMAN REDA, Chairman & Managing Director, Al11minillm Company ofEgypt (EGYPTALUM) With the Assistance of ABOUSEIF AMAAR G.M. E.xport Dept. EGYPTALUM CAIRO 1993 • •·· 2 TABLE OFCONTENTS 1-0 Introduction 3 • 2-0 Executive summary 4-13 3-0 Status of the world aluminium industry relative to the 14-16 African aluminium industry 4-0 Summary of the aluminium industry of some African countries 17 4-1 Algeria 11-19 4-2 Cameroon 20-22 4-3 CoteD'MORE 23 4-4 Egypt 24-28 4-5 Ghana 28-31 4-6 Guinea 32-39 4-7 Kenya 39-41 4-1 Morocco 41-42 4-9 Siem Leone 42-43 4- 10 Tanzania 44-45 4 - 11 Tunisia 45-46 4-12 Zambia 46-47 5-0 Information about other countries - not covered by the mission 48-52 6-0 ANNEXES 53 6-1 Tables 54- 76 6-2 Bibliography 77 6-3 Job Description 78-79 6-4 List of people met. 80-88 3 INTRODUCTION This study was sponsored by the UNECA and UNIDO with a view to promoting the increased production and utilization of aluminium in the African region by all development actors including African governments, the domestic and foreign private sectors, and all other interested parties. Particular emphasis in this study is directed to possible areas of cooperation among development actors in the African countries so that the development oft his important metal may contribute to regional economic integration, pursuant to the requirements of the 1991 Abuja Treaty establishing the African Economic Community. The two sponsoring institutions (UNECA) and (UNIDO) plan to disseminate the study to all interested parties so that relevant actions concerning the development of the African aluminium industry can be taken. Additionally the study will act as an input to consultative meetings among aluminium development actors organized by the two institutions, in collaboration with other interested aluminium development operators in the African region, so that the African aluminium industry actors may determine how best to develop and use the metal in the African region. lbe lint part of the document provides an executive summary that summarizes the major issues, condusions and recommendations of the study. The second part reviews the status of the world aluminium industry relative to the African aluminium industry. The third part assesses the existing African aluminium industry on the basis of information derived from the rdevant countries and other institutions . The fourth part contains summaries of national reviews of the aluminium industries of some African countries visited by the writers of the report. The fifth part gives information about some African Countries not visited by the mission. The study was prepared by consultants Eng. SOLIMAN REDA, Chairman and Chief Executive of EGYPTALUM, assisted by ABOUSEIF AMAAR. G.M. OF E1port Dept. of EGYPTALUM. The writen of this report wish to express their appreciation to all the individuals and institutions that provided them with support while undertaking their assignment. 4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The main purpose of this report is to bring to attention of the officials in the African countries the huge mineral and metal resources in the continent with high light on Inter-Alia bauxite and alumina that are the basic raw materials for production of aluminium industry :aiming at the following : * assessment of the structure of this industry and the utilization of the existing capa~ities and production. * The current conoeumption of aluminium in the countries covered by the mission and to some extent • · other African countries according to the availability of such information. * prospects of industrial and trade cooperation between the African countries. For this purpose the memben of the mission have visited the countries which were a~ to be covered in this mission (Ghana, Guinea, Sierra-Leone, Cameroon, Cote J'ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt) to bring the up-dated information by meeting the officials in these countries, sometimes in view of limiting of information and up-dated statistics availability the team have used such information from other sources as international organizations where needed to bridge the gap. In our report we hope that we can focus on the possibilities of co-operation commercially and technically. Also we will try to identify the existing reserves of bauxite, alumina capacities and aluminium production, in the same time the possibility of trade between countries, and the barrien will be explored. Overlook on Bauxite, Alumina and Aluminium Industry Background Bauxite, Alumina Industry Bauxite production grew in the last thirty yean at a very high rate. Although production of bauxite is reported to be in more than 26 countries all over the world, the actual production is more or less concentrated in few countries which produce the majority or the international output of the Western world countries. 5 In this concern Australia on the top, about 44 million MIT, Africa ranked as the third producer of alumina in the world after Latin America with 36 million too, and after it comes Africa, about 19 million MIT, as shown in the enclosed Table No. (1). It is well-known that about 959/e of the mined bauxite is refined into aluminum hydroxide for aluminum industry, other uses is small in comparison but bauxite and alumina are important for the manufacture of refractories, chemical ceramics catalysts and cement. The main producers of the alumina are in Australia, Latin America, North America, Asia and finally Africa • This is inspite of the fact that around 17% ofWestem countries's bauxite production is from Guinea and Sierra Leone as shown in the endosed Table No. (1). Aluminium Indu!i " Producing aluminium met.al in electrolytic cells by reduction of the aluminium oxide (alumina) refined from impure hydrate alumina found in bauxite is still workable as basic processes inspite of many technological researches and improvements which have been made through over many years on this method since producini; the metal in commercial quantities in 1888. Because of its properties the aluminium metal is considered the most used metal after iron as it has relatively low density, high electrical and thermal conductivity, good resistance to corrosion and good malleability. It is also non magnetic, non sp:arking and highly reOective. It can be treated to get a high strength to weight ratio. The main producers of the primary aluminium metal are in USA and Canada. The total of primary production in the western world is 14.8 millions M!T, during 1992 including 617 Th MIT produced in Africa the same year as shown in the enclosed Table No. (2). • As for the Eastern Europe and China , the total production is around S.3 million Mff. The aluminium production in CIS reached around 3.3 million tons in 1992. The internal consumption reported to be 2.3 million tons the same year and the export was about 850 Tb M!T, (750 Th. Mfr to the western countries and 100 Th. M!T. to the Eastern Europe countries in the area) as shown in Table No. (3) and it is expected that CIS will continue exporting the same quantities or even more in the coming years due to the need of the hard currency and the lack of internal demand for the current circumstances. 6 Utilization of Bauxite, Alumina and Aluminium I. Bauxite and Alumina lbe utilization of Bauxite and Alumina can be summarized in the following : • Mainly in the aluminium industry as about 95'1. of the mined bauxite is refined into alumina. • Manufacturing of refractories. • Production of abrasives as then are two main varieties offused aluminium oxide abrasives white and brown about 75 of the world production of the aluminium oxide abrasives is of the brown variety. • In the aluminium chemicals as aluminium sulphat~ aluminium chloride, aluminium trihydrate and sodium aluminate. • In cement production for special uses - like when rapid hardening and resistant to chemicals is required, also for furnaces. 2. Aluminium Aluminium covets a wide range of applications in many industries.