1. Research background
At present, the real estate market continues to slump, the marginal demand for aluminum profiles is weak, Shanghai aluminum prices continue to fall, and industrial silicon as one of the raw materials of aluminum alloy, the price is also "falling", causing market concern. In order to deeply understand the actual impact of this trend on aluminum profile factory processing and future price trends, the team aims to evaluate the production cost and market demand of aluminum alloy through field investigation and analysis.
2. Research time
July 22, 2024
3. Survey site
An aluminum factory in Sanshui district, Foshan City
Iv. Research content
1, aluminum alloy scale
The factory has seen orders fall in recent years, reducing overall production capacity, and workers are now working two 24-hour shifts a day. For the small number of orders, often the factory will take a certain increase in processing costs to ensure machine operation and workers' wages and other costs and profits, in the case of a large number of orders, the factory will also be based on the original processing price for a certain discount to ensure the supply of orders.
2, aluminum profile processing process and consumption
The process of producing aluminum profiles in the factory: Aluminum ingots or aluminum rods are purchased from the outside as raw materials for processing, and the required alloying elements (such as silicon and magnesium) are put into the natural gas furnace to melt and cast into bars (or directly purchase the proportioned mixed aluminum silicon alloy ingots for melting and casting), and then the bars are sent to the die casting workshop for heating and pressing into strips, and processed into different types of aluminum profiles according to customer needs. If the customer has a coloring demand for aluminum profiles, it is sent to the electrophoresis workshop for oxidation coloring.
According to factory personnel, the current market is more general, the real estate is depressed, and the demand for aluminum profiles is reduced by one-third. When the market was good before, aluminum profile consumption had a seasonal, small demand in summer and large demand in winter, but the seasonality has been weakening in recent years, and the demand throughout the year is about the same.
3. Procurement mode of raw materials
The procurement mode of the factory is based on sales, and raw materials (aluminum ingots, aluminum rods, etc.) are purchased daily according to the order quantity, and there is no need to establish raw material inventory.
4, factory production maintenance plan
Work throughout the year without downtime, in the Spring Festival season, employees have a holiday of nearly a month, using this month for equipment inspection and repair.
5, the demand for industrial silicon and sources
The proportion of aluminum alloy consumption demand for industrial silicon in 2023 has been reduced to 17%, and it is expected to further decline to 15% in 2024. The aluminum plant's demand for industrial silicon is mainly arranged according to the type of aluminum alloy, and the dealer will be equipped with materials according to the aluminum alloy varieties of the order, and directly make semi-finished aluminum alloy containing silicon to the factory.
The demand for industrial silicon in aluminum alloy is theoretically maintained at 0.3% tons of industrial silicon for 1 ton of aluminum alloy, but the specific amount needs to be adjusted according to the proportion of industrial silicon demand for different varieties of aluminum alloy.
6, the cost impact of industrial silicon on aluminum alloy
Although the proportion of industrial silicon in aluminum alloy is not high, the factory takes into account the single product price of industrial silicon itself is not low, according to the processing costs, the cost of industrial silicon raw materials will still have a certain impact on the price of aluminum alloy.
