Versatile
Durable, flexible, lightweight, energy-efficient, corrosion-resistant and recyclable. These are some of the unique properties of aluminum.
Aluminum
Why alumínio?
Products
Discover our complete line of primary and processed products:
Primary products
They are used in the manufacture of cables and wires and in the foundry, rolling and deoxidation industries.
Veja mais detalhes sobre as especificações dos produtos primários da CBA.
Processed products
Used in the transport, automotive, construction, energy, packaging and consumer goods industries.
Veja mais detalhes sobre as especificações dos produtos transformados da CBA.
Learn more about our production process
Mining
Bauxite is mined in Itamarati de Minas, Miraí and Poços de Caldas, in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais, and in Barro Alto, in the Midwest state of Goiás, using best practices in sustainable land management. The bauxite ore is then beneficiated and transported—first by truck and then by rail—to the plant in Alumínio (SP). Mined land is reclaimed and returned to surface landowners with the same or better physical and chemical properties than before it was mined.
Beneficiation
The bauxite ore is hauled on trucks from different mine fronts for beneficiation. The ore is crushed, screened and stored in piles before being shipped to the plant in Alumínio.
Alumina refinery
On arrival at the Plant, the bauxite ore is blended based on its physical and chemical properties. At the Refinery, the first step in the process is extracting aluminum oxide (alumina) from the bauxite. This is achieved through chemical reactions using alkaline solutions at high temperatures, in what is known as the Bayer process. The bauxite residue, or red mud, is stored in a dam.
Smelters
The alumina is carried in silo trucks to smelting facilities. At the Smelters, anode paste—a mix of coal-tar pitch and petroleum coke—and electrolyte bath—consisting primarily of fluorides—are added to the alumina. Electrolytic reduction in Soderberg cells transforms the alumina into molten aluminum, which is then carried in trucks to different departments at the Casthouse.
Casthouse
The molten aluminum is fed along with master alloys and scrap into the Casthouse furnaces, where it is cast into ingots, billets, plate sheet, caster rolls and rod. In addition to the Alumínio (SP) plant, this process is used at our Metalex operation in Araçariguama (SP) to produce billets, and at our Itapissuma (PE) operation to produce slabs and caster rolls. Both operations use a mix of ingots and scrap.
Downstream
Value-added, semi-fabricated products are manufactured via rolling, extrusion and surface treatment processes. Many of these products are custom-developed with our customers to meet their stringent needs. Our Alumínio (SP) plant produces the full range of semi-fabricated products, while the Itapissuma (PE) operation is dedicated to rolled products.
Applications
Whether you’re at home or at work, whether you’re enjoying recreation or riding a bus, or whether you’re opening a food or pharmaceutical package. You’ll find that aluminum is much more present in your life than you might think.
CBA’s primary and semi-fabricated products are developed for applications in a wide range of industries that have transformed society.
Auto
Building & Construction
Consumer goods
Transportation
Packaging
Solar energy
Did you know?
CBA produces aluminium products that are used across all three segments of the electricity supply chain: generation, transmission and distribution.
Generation
In generation, we provide solutions for photovoltaic panels, aluminum roofing structures for floating plants, and aluminum for large hydroelectric dam structures.
Transmission
In transmission, we supply sheet and foil to transformer manufacturers.
Distribution
In distribution, we supply aluminum profiles used to make conductor tubes for substations.
Innovation and market development
We recognize that a better future can only be built by working together. That is why we develop co-creation and co-engineering projects that leverage our delivery of solutions and create and share value from our projects.
This provides opportunities to deploy new technologies and new business models, and strengthens our long-term relationships.
Innovation Manifesto
At CBA we believe that each of us can INNOVATE!
Innovation is a part of our history. For more than six decades, we have delivered products, services and solutions that have helped to shape society, driving transformations beyond our industry.
We believe transparency and employee engagement with the external environment, combined with a trust-based working environment that is open to new ideas, can catalyze innovation. In this journey, we give employees autonomy to experiment and gain new experience, and we implement initiatives and methodologies that encourage intra-entrepreneurship, in line with our values of product safety and quality.
Innovation and collaboration in practice
Whether it’s within the company—such as optimizing our logistics to make it more sustainable—or for our customers, we work to innovate in our business, processes and solutions to support our markets’ development.
See some selected case studies below
Agile methodologies
CBA has an average of 80 to 100 innovation and co-creation projects in our pipeline at any given time, using a combination of different methodologies including Design Thinking, Quick Prototyping, Lean Startup, Value Proposition Canvas, Scrum and Kanban. These projects all take environmental, social and governance considerations into account, and are led by squads—or multidisciplinary teams of experienced professionals with their own defined goals, which they work towards autonomously.
Opportunities for innovation can come from different sources, such as CBA’s IdeAl ideation program, market intelligence, technology insights, inputs from commercial teams, customer requirements, innovation programs and industry interactions. We develop those ideas into products by co-creating with our customers, who play an active role throughout the process. We also draw inputs from key players in our value chain, including suppliers, specialized consultants, research institutions, universities, end users, startups and innovation hubs.
Solutions and services
CBA has two Solutions & Services Centers (CSS), one at our plant in Alumínio (SP) and the other at our facility in Caxias do Sul (RS).
These centers cater to customers’ aluminum processing needs within co-engineering projects, such as grit blasting, anodizing, coating, special cutting operations, machining and market-ready kit assembly.
Some of our ongoing project-related services include:
Co-engineered solutions
CBA has pioneered the development of co-designed and co-engineered automotive solutions and structural components.
Examples of these solutions include aluminum door protection bars and bumpers that increase vehicle safety. The high-strength extruded aluminum used to make these parts offers geometric flexibility and avoids the high tooling costs involved in producing stamped steel parts.
Co-engineered solutions are expanding CBA’s portfolio of high-strength alloys for structural applications, previously only available in other markets.