WCA March 2016

From the Americas in China, with ten or 15 stations under construction there and a new one coming online every several months. The 3.6GW Fengning station being built in Hebei Province will be the world’s largest when it is commissioned around 2022, Dr Yang told Mr Roach. He also noted that China’s 22GW of installed pumped storage hydro capacity recently surpassed the 21GW total for the United States and will overtake world leader Japan (at 27GW) in 2018. The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in 2014 issued licences for two new pumped storage hydro stations, both in California. An $800 million, 400 megawatt (MW) project of the Sacramento utility district at Iowa Hill involves construction of a second reservoir 1,200 feet above an existing water body, with connecting tunnels and an underground powerhouse. Eagle Crest Energy Co (Santa Monica) is constructing upper and lower reservoirs at the old Eagle Mountain iron mine near Palm Springs: a $1.4 billion project expected to produce 1,300MW of hydroelectricity. Several dozen other American pumped storage hydro stations are in the early planning and preliminary study stages. A notable example is the $2.5 billion, 1,200MW JD Pool project in Washington State. This would site a pair of upper reservoirs between strings of wind turbines on the Columbia Plateau and a lower reservoir, located 2,400ft down the wall of the Columbia River Gorge at an abandoned aluminium smelter near a dam. Mr Roach wrote: “Planners envision close coordination among Columbia River dams, large arrays of wind turbines, and the proposed pumped storage facilities, which would hold water in reserve during steady winds and unleash it during calm periods.”  Giving some background, Yale Environment 360 observed that pumped storage hydro was first used in the 1890s to provide greater flexibility for the management of water resources in the Swiss, Austrian and Italian Alps. Widely employed in the 1960s to the 1980s to provide load shifting, the technique saw service mainly at large, inflexible assets. According to Mr Koritarov, of Argonne National Laboratory, its popularity rose and waned with that of the big nuclear and coal-fired power plants. When these fell into disfavour, he said, “Pumped storage also quit being built.” But not altogether. And signs are strong that the worthy old technique is filling a need in the increasingly ecology-minded world of today.

CEO Andrew Mackenzie of BHP Billiton Ltd said on 3 rd December in Melbourne, Australia, according to a transcript supplied by the Anglo-Australian mining group. “They want to be that top manufacturer and that top exporter.” The success of Chinese steel mills in raising exports as slower economic growth curbs demand at home has indeed defied expectations. David Stringer of BloombergBusiness noted that, compared with 2014, mills in China – which account for half of global production – shipped about 25 per cent more steel in the year to October 2015. Chinese exports may reach 110 million metric tons (mt) for the calendar year, which according to Bloomberg Intelligence tops the output of Europe’s leading four producers combined. (“China’s Booming Steel Exports Have Surprised Market, BHP Says,” 3 rd December) Chinese steel exports are unlikely to increase further, Japan Iron and Steel Federation chairman Koji Kakigi said in November. But benchmark prices of iron ore had already tumbled almost 80 per cent from their 2011 peak as demand growth faltered in China, the biggest consumer. Even so, iron ore exporters, including the world’s biggest miner BHP and Brazil’s Vale SA, are continuing to raise volumes despite weaker prices, aiming to realise cost savings by fully utilising their networks of mines, ports and railroads. On that score, days earlier Mr Stringer reported on another trend originating in China. As the nation moves to a consumer-led economy it will need more aluminium “for everything from laptops to coffee capsules.” Imports of bauxite could double over the next decade to support the Chinese aluminium industry, the world’s largest. Wrote Mr Stringer: “The worst commodity slump since the global recession and a collapse in aluminium prices doesn’t mean there isn’t money to be made from digging up the bauxite ore used to produce the [aluminium] – provided you have the right kind of mine.”  Rio Tinto Group, the world’s second-biggest metals miner, is clearly intent on having such a mine. The Anglo-Australian company, with headquarters in London, is investing $1.9 billion in a new deposit even as the price rout has forced it to slash global capital spending by $11.5 billion since 2013. According to Deutsche Bank AG, by 2019 Rio’s Amrun project in Australia will be able to unearth high-grade bauxite ore for about $20 per mt and sell it for around $50. After seven years of evaluating Amrun – located near Weipa in northern Queensland state – Rio approved the project on 4 th December. BloombergBusiness reported that most of the bauxite produced will be for sale to China. (”Metals Slump No Hitch for New Rio Mine With 60 Percent Profit Margin,” 1 st December) Dorothy Fabian – Features Editor

Steel

Under scrutiny worldwide for its response to a weaker domestic economy, China delivers some surprises on steel “China is turning out to be a much more effective exporter of its steel products than many people thought,”

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Wire & Cable ASIA – March/April 2016

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