Nickel Forum
This site is managed on behalf of the European Nickel Group by the Nickel Institute
Risk Assessment of Existing Substances:Nickel metal and soluble nickel compounds
The importance of nickel and nickel compounds to the economy of the European Union
CONTENTS
1. Background
2. Nickel and its importance to manufacturing industry
- General introduction
- Stainless steel
- Nickel produced alloys
- Copper produced alloys
- Cast iron
- Nickel plating and electroforming
- Nickel powders, salts and chemicals
- Downstream manufacturing
3. Nickel mining, smelting and refining
4. Nickel trading and related services
5 Nickel related employment in Europe
6. Nickel and Sustainable Development
1. Background
Nickel and modern life
Nickel makes an important contribution to the modern-day economy of the European Union with Euro 40 billion per annum total added value created by the direct nickel industry, ‘first use’ industries and intermediates, and product manufacturers that are dependent on nickel.
Europe accounts for 40% of global demand for new nickel. Total EU nickel use in 2002 was 700,000 tonnes, of which around 40% was satisfied by recycled nickel. Technological advancement and innovation over the past 20 years has resulted in many new uses for nickel and demand is currently growing at an average of 3-5% per annum.
Nickel-containing products support and enable the achievement of a high quality of life in many ways – including safe processing, storage and preparation of food and beverages, provision of drinking water, attractive, safe and long lasting buildings, clean low cost energy, safe and efficient production of chemicals, low cost and safe transportation, reliable electronics and communications.
Much of the growth in use of nickel-containing products, especially stainless steels, is due to the increase of life-cycle thinking. Nickel-containing products are increasingly replacing shorter life or higher maintenance materials as the preferred choice. The fastest growth today is seen in the newly and rapidly industrialising countries, especially in Asia. European net exports of stainless steel are in excess of 1.5 million tonnes and are worth in excess of Euro 3 billion per annum.
Nickel-containing Alloys
Over 85% of the new nickel used each year goes into alloys. There are around 3000 nickel containing alloys in daily use, each developed to offer a particular combination of properties, including superior toughness, strength, corrosion resistance, special magnetic and electronic properties and the ability to withstand extremes of temperature.
The most commercially important alloys are those of iron, nickel and chromium, of which stainless steel is the best known.
Two thirds of new nickel - and most recycled nickel - is used to make stainless steel. The most common grades of stainless steel contain between 8% and 12% nickel. They are used very widely in the home, in architecture, in health care, in food processing and throughout industry.
Alloys similar to stainless steel, but with higher nickel contents, are used in the chemical,
petrochemical, energy and aerospace industries. Alloys of iron and nickel are widely used in electronics and
specialist engineering. Alloys of copper and nickel are used for coinage and in marine engineering.
Other applications
When not in alloy form, nickel is used to provide hard-wearing decorative and engineering coatings – as
“nickel-plating” or when used together with chromium as “chrome-plating”. Nickel is also a key part of many
common rechargeable battery systems – used in electronics, power tools, transport and emergency power
supply.
2. The importance of nickel to manufacturing industry
Stainless Steel:
Stainless Steel Melting
The EU produces about almost 8 million tons of stainless steel in 2001 – about 40% of the total world
production and more than any other region. It is also by far the biggest exporting region for stainless
steel; net exports in 2001 were 1.8 million tons - more than 20% of EU production.
Stainless steel is mostly produced in a few large melting shops specialising in producing flat products.
These are in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Sweden, UK and Finland. Smaller volumes of stainless
steel and other nickel-containing alloy steels are produced in other plants – usually in the long product
form. These plants are in Italy, Spain, Austria, Germany, Sweden, UK and France.
Stainless Steel Fabrication
This covers the stockholding, fabricating and finishing operations required to produce products from stainless steel. Specialist stockists and fabricators can be found in every EU country. They vary in size enormously and include many small enterprises (SMEs). Many have contractual or “family” connections with the large steel melting companies.
Stainless Steel and Nickel Recycling
Companies involved in recycling stainless steel and other nickel-containing alloys are found in every EU country. Companies tend to be larger in those countries with a major manufacturing sector and those countries that have a major stainless steel melting operation. Scale of company varies enormously from small collectors and dismantlers to large scrap stocking and blending operations. Nickel-containing scrap is imported into the EU in large volumes, especially via Netherlands, Germany, Finland, Spain and Sweden. (In 2000, net imports into the EU were about 750,000 tons of scrap, containing about 88,000 tons of nickel.)
Nickel based Alloy Production
In 2001, the EU produced over 70,000 tons of high-value nickel-based alloys, used to make critical components in jet engines, process plant and electronics. It is estimated that over 40% of this was exported. The EU share of world production has been increasing steadily in recent years and EU production is now second only to that of the USA. There are a few large companies who specialise in nickel based alloy production, notably in Germany, France, UK, Italy, Sweden but many other companies throughout the EU include some nickel-based alloys in their production.
Copper based alloy production
Nickel-containing copper alloys are produced in several countries, especially for coinage and certain specialist corrosion resistant products. The industries involved are mostly large brass mills, which have nickel- containing copper alloys as a small part of their business.
Cast iron production
Nickel is used to make certain specialist casting alloys. Many iron and steel foundries exist in every country in the EU, but castings containing nickel are made especially in Germany, France, Italy, and the UK. Many producing companies are SMEs.
Nickel Plating and Electroforming Operations
This includes plating factories and their specialist supply companies. There are a few large plating factories but overwhelmingly this industry consists of either SMEs or small specialist units attached to larger companies. Plating operations can be found in every significant manufacturing centre of the EU.
Nickel Powders, Salts and Chemicals
This includes the production of special powders for the powder metallurgy industry and the production of specialist chemicals for catalyst and battery production. Much of this is exported outside the EU, including to Japan. Small powder or chemicals operations are found in most countries but larger-scale operations are found in Denmark, Germany, France, Finland, Netherlands and Sweden.
Manufacturing industry
Many different industries throughout the EU are involved in machining, fabricating and assembling components made from nickel and from nickel-containing alloys – for example, industries making aero engine and gas turbine components, chemical plant, oil and gas machinery, architectural supplies, catering equipment, plumbing and washing equipment, food and drink processing equipment, military equipment, medical equipment, batteries. Nickel containing products of many different kinds are included in EU assembled automobiles and electronic equipment. EU manufactured products containing nickel are exported widely throughout the world. Of particular strategic significance is nickel-using activity in the EU on gas turbines, oil and gas production, chemical equipment and defence equipment.
Many of these are critical applications of nickel or nickel containing alloys that significantly transform either the production process or the end product being manufactured in many important end products. This transformation cannot be achieved in any other way or only through substantial reduction in performance of the product or the production process. These products are “nickel dependent”.
3. Nickel Mining, smelting and refining
Nickel ore is mined on a large scale in Greece, and on a much smaller scale in Finland. Nickel containing
ore is usually smelted either to produce a product as a raw material for the steel industry (ferronickel) or
to produce a product for subsequent refining into nickel metal or chemicals. Nickel smelting operations take
place in Greece, Austria and Finland. High purity or special forms of pure nickel and nickel chemicals are
produced in special nickel refineries. Important nickel refineries operate in the UK, France and Finland. In
addition to producing nickel for the EU, several of these refineries also produce added-value nickel products
that are exported worldwide.
4. Nickel Trading and Related Services
Nickel is freely traded – exported and imported – at every stage of its life cycle from nickel ore to end of life nickel products. Nickel sales and trading companies and associated warehouse service companies exist in all EU countries. These are usually small enterprises or are the subsidiaries of international companies. A concentration of trading related companies is found in major financial centres (especially London) and near major international ports (especially Rotterdam, Antwerp and Hamburg).
5. Nickel related employment in Europe
700,000 European jobs are dependent on nickel. This number includes the direct nickel industry, ‘first use’ industries and intermediaries and 200,000 jobs created through income and supplier multiplier effect.
Many of these jobs are found in clusters in a number of European countries where the nickel using
industries are the focus of major employment for many communities.
6. Nickel and Sustainable Development
Nickel is one of the most recycled materials in today’s global economy. In the EU, almost all process scrap and about 80% of end of life nickel-containing products are collected and reused by the industry. It is collected and recycled, mostly in the form of alloys. About half of the nickel content of a stainless steel cooking pan in the shop today will have come from recycled sources – and most of that will be from recycled end-of-life sources.
Nickel recycling is encouraged by the high value of most nickel-containing products at the end of their life. Nickel is worth too much for people to just throw it away. The market price per ton of nickel fluctuates but is usually about two to three times more than aluminium and more than ten times more than steel. Recyclers and industrial users recognise this value.
The collection, sorting and re-use of nickel-containing products are today sophisticated industries with operations in all nickel-using countries. In 2000, it is estimated that over 290,000 tonnes of nickel in scrap was used in the EU, of which about 200,000 tons originated in the EU as process scrap and end-of-life product scrap. As the average nickel content of the scrap was probably about 10%, this means that the EU scrap industry handled about 3 million tons of nickel-containing scrap. This use and reuse can continue indefinitely. Nickel produced and put into use today should therefore be considered as a resource reserve for future generations.
Moreover, most nickel-containing products have long useful lives. The average life of nickel-containing products is probably about 25-35 years. Many products last much longer. Because of their long life, nickel-containing products often provide the optimum solutions to practical challenges – lower life-cycle cost and less use of resources, including energy.
The full Weinberg report on the socio-economic impact of the nickel industry in the EU is available on request.
For further information contact:
Rosemarie Evans
Telephone: 44 1527 584777
revans@nickelinstitute.org
Paola Di Discordia
Téléphone : 32 2 775 6313
didiscordia@euronickel.org
Valid at 15/01/04
