ALUMINIUM SCRAP RECOVERY AND USAGE TO RISE Aluminium scrap recovery and usage and output of secondary metal will continue to rise, said Shearson Lehman Brothers in a review of the secondary aluminium market which details cost and demand factors. Although primary smelting costs have declined generally in recent years, the still substantial energy cost savings offered by secondary smelters will continue to make re-melted material increasingly attractive. It takes around 15,000 kilowatt hours (kwh) of electricity to produce one tonne of primary aluminium compared with around 550 kwh for one tonne of secondary metal, Shearson said. On the demand side, developments in automobiles and packaging bode well for secondary aluminium consumption. Automobile production, although expected to fall this year, is still on an upward trend and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future and, in addition, use of aluminium castings is gaining wider acceptance in the automobile industry, particularly in the U.S. In packaging, Shearson does not expect aluminium to dominate the beverage can market in any of the other major economies to the extent it does in the U.S., But says there is evidence recycling is on the increase in other countries. In addition to the cost savings involved, technology advances now enable alloys of higher purity to be produced by the secondary aluminium industry, Shearson said. There is not likely to be a problem of availability as the U.S. Has a huge scrap reservoir and this is also true of several European countries, albeit on a smaller scale.