China is a large aluminum foil production and consumption, production, consumption has been stable for many years. Relevant data show that in 2020, China's aluminum foil production is about 4.15 million tons, up 3.8 percent year-on-year, accounting for about 65 percent of the world; the apparent consumption is 2.993 million tons, up 7.7 percent year-on-year, accounting for about 45 percent of the world. After years of development, the technology and equipment of aluminum foil rolling in our country are at the level, and the quality of products is constantly improving. Under the background of double-cycle and double-carbon target, aluminum foil enterprises are actively innovating, developing new products and exploring new areas of downstream application. At the 2021 China International Aluminum Industry Exhibition held on July 7 ~ 9, many new products and applications of aluminum foil were displayed.

Innovation, green, open up a new "blue sea" of aluminum foil application

Because of its characteristics, aluminum foil has been widely used in transportation, packaging containers, architectural decoration, mechanical and electrical fields. In recent years, facing the fierce competition in the industry, aluminum foil enterprises actively develop new products, through innovative design, improve product performance and further expand the application field of aluminum foil. For example, the aluminum foil compound tile produced by Qianqing Tile Co. , Ltd. , Luoyang, is displayed in the public welfare exhibition area of aluminum packaging. Both sides are made of aluminum foil compound tile. According to "National Chemical Building Materials Testing Center" testing, reflective ratio of 84.5% , with the function of heat insulation. Every hot summer, Color Steel Tile, asbestos tile due to heat absorption, indoor temperature is usually above 40 degrees, and aluminum foil composite tile indoor temperature can be controlled below 30 degrees, with energy-saving effect, it is an ideal tile material for breeding factory building, which is expected to replace Color Steel Tile and asbestos tile and be widely used in building energy saving field.

In spite of China's aluminum foil overcapacity, but still rely on imports in some products, which has become the focus of aluminum foil enterprises in recent years, and has made some achievements. At this exhibition, some aluminum foil enterprises also brought their technology innovation is expected to achieve the replacement of imported new products. For example, the ultra-thin aluminum foil with cathode current collector produced by Jiangsu Changlu Aluminum Group Co. , Ltd. has tensile strength greater than 250 MPA, conductivity greater than 57.5% ICAS, limit thickness only 10 M, import substitution is expected. In addition, LX02-solid state capacitor low voltage anode foil developed by Ruyuan Lidong Electronic Technology Co. , Ltd. is the key material for solid state aluminum electrolytic capacitor, this field was monopolized by JCC and KDK , the performance index of the product meets the demand of the product, breaks the foreign monopoly, and is beneficial to the rapid development of China's capacitor industry. Under the low-carbon background, aluminum foil enterprises are also actively developing new products to meet the requirements of energy saving and consumption reduction. At the beginning of 2020, a new "plastic ban" policy was introduced, which proposed that China would ban and restrict the production, sale and use of some plastic products in an orderly manner, actively promote alternative products, and standardize the recycling of plastic waste, establish and improve the management system of the production, circulation, use, recovery and disposal of plastic products. With its hygiene, high and low temperature resistance, green environmental protection, renewable energy saving, sealing good, beautiful, convenient and fast food market plastic tableware to become a good alternative. Dong Chunming, general manager of Shangqing Times Metal Information Consulting (Beijing) Co. , Ltd. , told reporters that at present, more and more businesses in the catering and take-away markets have adopted aluminum foil lunch boxes and containers, including Shanghai Disney Resort, Xibei restaurant, typhoon shelter food, Ma Xiansheng box, real Kungfu restaurant, old mother and uncle and many other brands. On the exhibition spot, also had many exhibitors to bring its aluminum foil meal box, matches the meal container product. Recent scientific studies have shown that the new coronavirus has a shorter survival time (2-8 hours) on the surface of aluminum than other materials such as plastic, steel, paper, glass and wood. This also indicates that aluminum foil packaging will likely be used for fresh, food and medical equipment cold chain storage and transportation of good packaging materials. Fresh food, prefabricated food modified atmosphere packaging, body-fitted packaging, high-temperature sterilization sealing aluminum foil tray will be a growth potential market. The aluminum foil composite bag in the packaging and rice, millet, grain vacuum packaging, will also be aluminum foil in the field of agricultural applications to open up a larger market. In addition, the sealing and barrier of the aluminum foil lunch box can also ensure that food is not contaminated by bacteria and viruses during transportation and distribution, effectively prevent food from spoilage in high temperature environment, and ensure food and public health. After dinner, aluminum foil can be compressed on-site storage and transportation, greatly reduce the amount of hospital garbage, improve disposal capacity. Based on the above advantages, aluminum foil meal box has also become a good food packaging scheme during the daily work of hospitals and epidemic prevention and control. During last year's Hubei anti-epidemic war, Qingdao Weile daily Necessities Co. , Ltd. donated 250,000 sets of aluminum foil lunch boxes from Hubei Epidemic area to be put into use in four shelter hospitals in Wuhan and hospitals in Shiyan.

2. Packaging and new energy field, aluminum foil application prospects

"Aluminium foil is already widely used in China and the consumption structure is changing as the economy and society transform. As a result of fluctuations in real estate and infrastructure investment, consumption of aluminium foil in traditional consumption areas such as air conditioning and construction fluctuated, but in packaging and applications such as household foil and new energy, consumption of aluminium foil in general continued to grow, " Dong Chunming said at the "2021 Aluminium Packaging and Sustainability Forum" held concurrently with the exhibition. He said that at present, Chinese aluminium foil accounts for 60 per cent of technical applications, while packaging and household foil (including containers) accounts for 40 per cent, while packaging in Europe accounts for as much as 75 per cent, the future packaging area of aluminum foil consumption growth is still larger space. Dong Chunming said that aluminum foil packaging and containers can be fully recycled, recycling technology, policies, systems are supporting the recovery rate. Expanding the application of aluminum foil packaging conforms to the new era of national economic transformation, social development, consumption upgrading, the expansion of internal circulation of many new trends and new requirements. But at the same time, he pointed out that at present, packaging users, the public and consumers still have misconceptions about aluminum foil, which affects the expansion of the application of aluminum foil packaging; aluminum foil packaging also urgently needs to adapt to new consumption trends and new consumption concepts, to develop its strengths and avoid its weaknesses, to forge its weaknesses and to make up for its weaknesses, continuously meet the needs of customers and consumers. In addition, the application prospect of aluminum foil in new energy field is also very promising. With the rapid development of new energy vehicles, the future demand for battery foil will continue to rise. Speaking at the 2021 China International Aluminum Processing Forum, Wu Jun, general manager of wanji Aluminum Processing Co. , Ltd. in Luoyang, predicted that the share of power flexible bag batteries will increase rapidly with the booming development of the new energy industry, the market demand of aluminum foil for flexible battery will also rise sharply. By 2020, the domestic consumption of aluminum foil for flexible battery will reach 19,200 tons, and is expected to reach 132,000 tons by 2025. "We hope that the majority of enterprises will continue to strengthen their innovation capacity, continue to extend downstream, and strive to expand the application of aluminum foil, so that the aluminum foil industry can be used more efficiently and the aluminum foil industry can be used more efficiently, " Zhang said. 

Source: China Non-ferrous metal