38th International Conference and Exhibition ICSOBA 2020
Overview
- The 38th International Conference and Exhibition of ICSOBA (The International Committee for Study of Bauxite, Alumina and Aluminium) was held from 16 to 18 November 2020 online.
- Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the ICSOBA 2020 was held as a virtual event to ensure the health, safety and comfort for all delegates, in line with our vision to be “the technology conference of the aluminium industry, for the aluminium industry”.
- There were 75 high quality papers collected from the authors, and 6 distinguished keynote speakers who covered the full spectrum of subjects pertaining to bauxite, alumina and aluminium production and market.
- 280 delegates registered from all around the world as the duplicated sessions enabled them to connect most often at convenient working hours. Eleven sponsors and seven exhibitors enjoyed increased visibility and greatly contributed to the success of the event.
- Full set of documents (TRAVAUX book No 49, presentations, exhibitor documents, recorded Q&A sessions) werel available for download for the two weeks following the conference from our NexTech partner’s platform. As usual, all papers published in the TRAVAUX book are accessible from this ICSOBA website.
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 Main Stage.jpg)
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 Exhibition Hall.jpg)
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Distinguished Keynote Speakers included:
KN01 - Alba’s Journey to 1.5 Million Tonnes Site Capacity - Challenges and Opportunities.
Abstract
KN02 - Growth of Indian Aluminium Industry and Vedanta.
Abstract
KN03 - China’s Aluminium Industry – Why It Is in Seriously Bad Health.
Abstract
Christopher Baylis
Deputy Secretary General,
International Aluminium Institute, United Kingdom
Short Bio
KN04 - Long Term Sustainability of the Aluminium Sector (2020-2050).
Abstract
KN05 - Aluminium Market Outlook Across the Value Chain.
Abstract
KN05 - Aluminium Market Outlook Across the Value Chain.
Abstract
Abdulla Habib
Gobinda Gopal Pal
Paul Adkins
Christopher Baylis
Uday Patel
Carl Firman
Jerome Lucaes
Abdulla Habib
Chief Operating Officer,
Aluminium Bahrain
Biography
Dr. Abdulla Habib Ahmed is currently Chief Operations Officer, Aluminium of Bahrain (Alba). His work experience includes 25 years in various roles in Reduction Lines, R&D and Customers Technical Support. He has PhD in Chemical Engineering and Master in Aluminium Smelting and MBA from ESSEC/ French Arabian School and had his higher education from University of New South Wales, Australia.
Gobinda Gopal Pal
Chief Operating Officer,
Vedanta Limited, India
Biography
Gobinda Gopal Pal is Chief Operating Officer (Metal), Vedanta Ltd., Jharsuguda, India. With 32+ years of experience in Indian and global aluminium companies like NALCO, BALCO and BHP Billiton, GG Pal is championing Vedanta Aluminium’s vision for Jharsuguda operations to emerge as the world’s lowest-cost and most energy-efficient smelter. Under his leadership, the Jharsuguda smelter became the first in Asia and second in the world to receive ISO 50001 (Energy Management System) certification. G. G. Pal has B.E. Metallurgy degree (1987) from National Institute of Technology Durgapur. He is life member of Indian Institute of Metals and Member of Indian Chamber of Commerce, Odisha and he is a recipient of the prestigious ‘IIM NALCO Gold Medal’.
Paul Adkins
Managing Director,
AZ China Limited, Hong Kong
Biography
Paul Adkins is the Managing Director of AZ China Ltd. and has many years of experience in the aluminium industry. He previously worked for Alcoa, Alcan Australia, and Tomago Aluminium. At the end of 2004, Alcan appointed him to set up its Global Sourcing office in Beijing. Upon completion of that project, he elected to stay in Beijing, eventually establishing AZ China. Paul has an MBA from University of Newcastle in Australia and frequently speaks at industry-related conferences.
Christopher Baylis
Deputy Secretary General,
International Aluminium Institute, United Kingdom
Biography
Chris Bayliss is the Deputy Secretary General of the International Aluminium Institute. He has 18 years industry experience working on sustainability and climate related issues. Currently, Chris is taking forward the industry’s greenhouse gas pathways and health portfolios. In the last two decades, Chris has been involved in all aspects of the Institute’s activities, from data analysis to communication, and has led on the global aluminium material flow model, life cycle metrics and The Aluminium Story. Chris holds master’s degrees from the Universities of Cambridge and London.
Uday Patel
Senior Research Manager,
Wood Mackenzie, United Kingdom
Biography
Uday Patel has 30 years of experience in the metals and mining sector covering aluminium and other metals. He has joined Wood Mackenzie in 2014 as manager in the aluminium markets team. His industry experience includes Ma’aden Saudi Arabia, DUBAL. During his career he has worked on a range of projects across the entire aluminium value chain, including detailed market studies, cost analyses and strategic advisory work for clients including rolled producers, aluminium processing companies and financial organisations. Uday is a graduate of the London Business School’s executive management programme, Sussex University and the University of Exeter.
Carl Firman
Principal Analyst,
Wood Mackenzie, United Kingdom
Biography
Carl Firman is a global expert in the bauxite and alumina space, covering markets, costs and corporate strategy. He is responsible for Wood Mackenzie’s Bauxite & Alumina Cost Services and Bauxite Market analysis. Carl has authored and developed extensive bauxite databases and proprietary forecasting tools and models, and is a regular speaker in the upstream aluminium event calendar. He started his career in Metals & Mining 20 years ago, as a multi-metal analyst in Mining Journal Research Services. He has since worked, authored and led teams in a number of Metals & Mining research and consultancy firms culminating in his appointment to Wood Mackenzie in 2012. Carl has a degree on geology from London University.
Jerome Lucaes
Director Marketing and Sustainability,
RUSAL, Zug, Switzerland
Biography
Jerome Lucaes is currently Marketing Director, Sustainability, at RUSAL. His main responsibilities involve working with customers and stakeholders to accelerate the industry’s transition to zero carbon. Jerome has 22 years of international business experience in sales, marketing, business development, innovation and general management. He spent his last 15 years in the aluminium industry (both downstream and upstream sectors, previously with Rio Tinto Alcan). Jerome was also a co-founder and forefront leader of the early development of the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative. Jerome holds an engineering master’s degree from the French Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées and a MBA from Paris.
ORGANIZING and TECHNICAL COMMITTEE |
|
|---|---|
| ICSOBA 2020 President: | Claude Vanvoren |
| General Coordination: | Claude Vanvoren, Frank Feret, Andrey Panov, Michel Reverdy, MatthieuArlettaz, HoushangAlamdari, BijoySatpathy, DagobertoSevero |
| Program Directors: | Michel Reverdy |
| Subject Organisers: | Andrey Panov (alumina) Vinko Potocnik (aluminium) HoushangAlamdari (carbon) |
| Reviewers (in addition to Subject Organisers and program directors): | BijoySatpathy, Frank Feret, Carlos Suarez, EfthymiosBalomenos, Linus Perander, Martin Fennell, Roberto Seno, Stephan Beaulieu, Steven Healy Yin Zhonglin, Yves Occello (alumina) André-Felipe Schneider, Bingliang Gao, DagobertoSevero, Kristian Etienne Einarsrud, Stephan Broek, YasarKocaefe (aluminium) Gisele Azimi, DuyguKocaefe, HichamChaouki, Victor Buzunov (carbon) |
ICSOBA 2020 President
Dr. Claude Vanvoren
2020 ICSOBA President,
President, C2V Consulting
Containment strategies, travel restriction and overall economic situation of aluminium industry combine to challenge conference organisation in present time. However, promoting industry players collaboration through exchange of ideas and know-how is as important as ever to endeavour a swift recovery from COVID-19 pandemia. This is why ICSOBA 2020 is maintained and will be held as a virtual conference.
Student Grants
No student awards were considered at the virtual ICSOBA 2020 conference. However, for the last several years ICSOBA (registered in the province of Quebec) supports JER (Journée des Étudiants) conference organized by REGAL. At this year virtual conference, the recipient of the ICSOBA price was Mahmoud Osman of McGill University of Montreal.
Congratulations!
2020 Satisfaction Survey
As every year, an online satisfaction survey was carried out following Virtual ICSOBA 2020. As this conference was a first of its kind, a significant number of the 44 questions dealt with the virtual aspect of the conference. Main results could be summarized as follows:
- A response rate of 44% confirms strong interest of ICSOBA delegates to provide feedback. 123 responses were collected which is the second highest number of responses for the last 5 years we conducted such online survey. This ensures a very good representativity of the results.
- The main feedback is a very strong support to ICSOBA decision to go virtual in 2020: not only the way we addressed this very special year (90% good or excellent) but also the choice to use a virtual platform (89% support) rather than a “simple” webinar type conference.
- Duplicated sessions (91%) and pre-recorded presentations (equally 91%) were overwhelmingly supported.
- Nextech platform was very well rated both in term of connexion, navigation and comfort in watching presentations.
- Two points require further developments should we experience another virtual conference:
- The time allocated for and format of Q&A and also exchanges at large between delegates and/or delegates and speakers
- The attendance to virtual exhibition and interaction between delegates and exhibitors
- With regards to the future, it’s worth mentioning that if most of the delegates favour hybrid (43%) or classical physical (32%) conference, still 20% support a full virtual conference, even in the case of no travel restriction!
- We noted with great satisfaction that the technical quality and content, applicability, as well as innovative nature of the papers are well rated at 65 to 75%.
- Keynote presentations were better rated than last year (73% vs 60%) and Keynote as introduction to technical session looks to be a good alternative to a single Keynote session.
- A very large swing regarding the preferred communication channel with a strong come back of the bi-annual newsletter and a corresponding diminishing of significance of social media.
- Amongst conference delegates, producers are still the most represented with a percentage in the range of previous years.
- Also, with regards to delegate’s attendance, we observed a lower attendance for B&A (38% vs 48% last year) with corresponding increase for Carbon + Smelting (15 + 45= 60%).