The aluminum smelter located in Kuala Tanjung, Sei Suka District, Batu Bara Regency, North Sumatra is the only aluminum smelter in Indonesia. At least this 200-hectare factory is capable of producing around 250,000 thousand tons of aluminum per year.
The factory owned by PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminum (Inalum) continues to operate every day producing 3 aluminum products for domestic industrial consumption. The 3 superior products are aluminum ingots, billets, and alloys.

“Inalum has one product that has been produced since Inalum was first established, namely ingots, and two superior products that have only been produced since 2017, namely billets and alloys. These two superior products are the management’s concern to increase the company’s added value,” said Deputy Corporate Secretary of Inalum Mahyaruddin Ende to detikcom at the Inalum Factory some time ago.

So what are the differences between the three products and the use of the finished goods later?

Aluminum Ingot – Photo: Pradita Utama/detikcom
Aluminum ingot is an aluminum bar that is usually remelted to make various products. For example, for automotive materials, namely rims, to packaging commodities such as food and beverage cans.

Each aluminum ingot from Inalum weighs 22.7 kg with 2 types of product quality, namely 99.90% and 99.70%. This product has also been registered on the London Metal Exchange (LME) on September 23, 1987.

“This aluminum ingot is usually purchased by the industry which will then be remelted. Usually it is for various general aluminum industry needs such as automotive, construction, household appliances and others,” said Ende.

Aluminum Billet

The second superior product produced by Inalum is aluminum billet. Different from aluminum ingots which are in the form of bars, aluminum billets are shaped like long pipes. The use of aluminum billets is also very important for construction, because it can be used for building construction materials.

Aluminum Alloy

For the third product, namely aluminum alloy, which is another derivative of aluminum products. This product is said to have high market potential, considering that aluminum alloy is a product that can be melted to be made into other materials.

“This aluminum alloy has a good market, the automotive industry is looking for this type of aluminum. Because they no longer need to melt aluminum ingots into alloys. Production costs will also be cheaper, considering that they do not carry out a major aluminum melting process,” said Ende.

Inalum’s aluminum alloy products weigh approximately 10 kg per rod, with a length of 730 mm. In practice, these three superior products from Inalum can be used as rims to car frames, aircraft frames and other automotive components.

In the manufacturing process, these three products must go through a fairly long process. There are at least 3 processes that Inalum must do to produce the 3 superior products they have, namely the process in the carbon factory, reduction factory, and printing factory.

For information, detikcom together with BUMN Holding Mining Industry Indonesia (MIND ID) held a Mining Exploration program containing an expedition to mining areas in Indonesia. The detikcom team visited mining industry cities in Indonesia to capture a complete picture of how the lives of the community and mineral-producing areas are and how they are processed.

source: https://finance.detik.com/energi/d-5625601/mengenal-produk-aluminium-ingot-billet-alloy-ini-kelebihannya.