For fans of industrial metals, patience isn’t just a virtue – it can be a necessity. When we wrote about aluminium and tin last November, our timing appeared auspicious. Tin has since appreciated by around 20%. But aluminium, having risen by 10% over the subsequent two months, is now 10% below its November level. Our play on the metal, Alcoa (NYSE: AA), has dipped by more than 30%. Today we address aluminium’s future. We also examine another two industrial metals with major recovery potential.
Aluminium is extracted from mined and refined bauxite ore. It is plentiful, cheap, durable and conductive, yet malleable and lightweight. Although pure aluminium is far too soft for most commercial applications, when mixed with metals such as copper, magnesium, manganese, silicon, tin and zinc, the resulting alloys have better resistance to corrosion, electrical conductivity, strength and workability.
What’s more, aluminium’s range of applications is unrivalled. Its “sustainability and versatility makes aluminium... one of the most important metals in the world”, notes US metals
