For the secondary European aluminium producers, the situation is not as critical. Many of the refineries compensate the competitive disadvantage on high energy prices by adding value to their products. For example, ETEKINA partner FAGOR EDERLAN is a leading global automotive supply specialist, offering complete product solutions for chassis and powertrain applications and expertise in high and low pressure aluminium injection, iron casting and machining for those automotive components.
Nevertheless, even to an aluminium automotive parts producer, it is important to keep a close eye on energy efficiency. With the ETEKINA prototype being designed and installed in one of their productions units, FAGOR EDERLAN expects to benefit not only from a direct cut in their energy costs, but also from applying the concept to many more of their production lines.