NEW YORK -- Early peeks into the U.S. aluminum industry's new business and shipment tallies in the current quarter underscore Alcan Aluminium Ltd.'s recent assessment that fourth-quarter business levels and results were falling below general expectations and Alcoa Inc.'s earlier warnings about its third-and fourth-quarter performance.

The Washington-based Aluminum Associations public tally of November bookings and October shipments is out yet, but the picture painted by early December reports of the trade groups clients on Wall Street and elsewhere showed sharp declines in key market areas.

Merrill Lynch & Co.'s Global Research & Economics group said in a report dated Dec. 14 that the industry's bookings of aluminum sheet, extrusions and other mill products "remained weak during November" and shipment volume remained weak in October.

The company's aluminum industry analyst, Dan Roling, who a week earlier had determined "aluminum fundamentals remain healthy and supportive of higher prices once the soft economic landing is confirmed," said the long downtrend in bookings "appears to have bottomed out (but) a clear trend is not discernable."

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. analyst Wayne Atwell said in a report dated Dec. 13 that "aluminum fundamentals are deteriorating in the U.S., with aluminum orders off seven of the last eight months and November down 11 percent vs. the year earlier."

Atwell also said the U.S. aluminum industry's mill product shipments "are down six of the last seven months and declined 4.6 percent in October vs. the year earlier."

Lloyd O'Carroll of Scott & Stringfellow's BB&T Capital Markets said in his December report that shipments of aluminum beverage can stock, a major item for Alcan and Alcoa, were down 2.8 percent in the first 10 months of this year. He also noted that, excluding exports, can sheet shipments were down only 1.6 percent in the period.

Morgan Stanley's Atwell said the U.S. aluminum industry's November bookings of sheet and plate were down 18 percent from November 1999 (with can stock down 10 percent), while extruded shapes were down 10 percent. Foil bookings, he said, were up 14 percent and bookings for steel reinforced aluminum cable were up 2 percent.

Many aluminum industry analysts have trimmed their ingot price forecasts for 2001 substantially in the past few weeks as the bellwether London Metal Exchange price winds down the current year averaging far short of early expectations. A major sustaining factor has been the spate of production cuts in the Pacific Northwest tied by the producers affected and by the analysts to electric power problems in the region.

Macquarie Research, after taking stock of production cuts to date, said flatly, shortly after Alcan announced its plans to cut output by 50,000 annual tonnes at Kitimat, British Columbia, that "all eyes are now on Alcoa--the producer in the region which appears most exposed to further cuts." Alcoa, which shut its 121,000-tonne-a-year smelter at Troutdale, Ore., late in June, began the year with an announcement that it planned to reactivate 209,000 annual tonnes--some of it in Australia--as the year progressed.

CORUS, the Anglo-Dutch steel group, cast further doubt yesterday on whether it will proceed with the pounds 2.7bn takeover of the Brazilian steel maker CSN, saying the deal may be subject to delay or renegotiation.

The move came as Corus confirmed that it is selling its downstream aluminium operations to Pechiney of France for EUR750m (pounds 472m). The proceeds will be used to cut Corus' debt further and will take borrowings down to about pounds 700m compared with pounds 1.7bn at the end of June.

The CSN deal has been thrown into doubt by the near certainty that a left-wing candidate will win Sunday's Brazilian elections. Although Luiz Inacio de Silva, or "Lula" as he is known, the leader of Brazil's Workers' Party, has pledged to maintain the country's financial discipline, the prospect of his election has unnerved investors and hit the value of the Brazilian currency.

Corus, run by its chief executive Tony Pedder, signed a non- binding heads of agreement with CSN in July and had planned to reach a definitive agreement in mid-November, paving the way for shareholders to vote on the all-share takeover in the first quarter of next year.

However, a spokesman for Corus said yesterday: "There could be a delay in the CSN deal due to the uncertainty politically, economically and in the financial markets. The fact that the agreement is non-binding means we can revisit the terms of the deal."

Under the agreement announced in July, Corus would pay an 87 per cent premium for control of CSN. Corus shareholders would emerge with 62.4 per cent of the combined group.

The Pechiney deal is subject to regulatory approval in Europe and the US. The Corus spokesman said: "We would hope to have as quick a passage as possible although you can never be sure."

One of the areas of concern for competition authorities may be the increased market share the deal would give Pechiney in the European aerospace market. There are only a handful of companies in Europe making aluminium fuselage and wing parts for commercial aircraft and Pechiney could emerge with a dominant position.

The deal covers Corus' rolled products and extrusions businesses, which employ 4,700 people and have rolling mills in Germany, Belgium and Canada and extrusion plants in Germany, Belgium and China.

TOKYO -- Japanese production and shipments of secondary aluminum in November increased on a year-to-year basis for the 13th consecutive month, according to the Japan Aluminium Alloy Refiners Association.

November production came to 78,872 tonnes, up 3.2 percent from the same month of 1999 while shipments increased 3.6 percent to 80,257 tonnes. Shipments for the die-casting industry increased 5.3 percent to 39,730 tonnes while those for the casting segment were 21,202 tonnes, down 0.3 percent. Shipments for rolling rose 0.8 percent to 7,496 tonnes, and those for extrusions rose 19 percent to 6,865 tonnes.

We are currently forecasting an average cash London Metal Exchange (LME) price for aluminium in 2001 of $1,500 a tonne or 68 cents a pound. That compares with a 2000 average of around $1,548 a tonne (70.2 cents a pound) and a 1999 average of $1,362 a tonne (61.78 cents a pound). There are three main reasons for our caution about 2001.

The first is that we are seeing a fairly hard landing for the U.S. economy in 2001. This coincides with economic slowdowns in Europe and Asia. So aluminum consumption, in our opinion, is likely to fall by at least 1 to 2 percent in 2001, which equates, on a global basis, to a loss of between 250,000 to 500,000 tonnes.

The second reason for our caution is that primary production should rise by around 800,000 tonnes a year in 2001. This increase, the biggest increase since 1992, is from a combination of greenfield and brownfield expansions. That increase combined with the drop in consumption will more than cancel out the loss of production in the Pacific Northwest.

The Pacific Northwest is bullish, in our view, on a longer-term basis. We have lost more than 500,000 tonnes a year of production in the Pacific Northwest already. And the lower aluminum prices stay, particularly from October 2001 onwards, the more certain we can be that we will see more production cuts in the Pacific Northwest. This is particularly so if electricity prices remain at or above $50 a MWH.

These cuts are certainly not bearish! They will help to underpin aluminum prices. But unless consumption growth is really taking off, which requires a strong U.S. economy with robust growth again in the transport and construction sectors, the cuts in themselves are not enough, in our opinion, to send aluminum prices soaring.

Aluminum industry depends on auto industry

The aluminum industry is crucially dependent on the automotive industry for its growth. Unit aluminum consumption in cars has been showing an annual growth rate of around 6 percent a year and has shown no signs of slowing down.

Nor has the volume of car sales. General Motors said last year that it expects worldwide vehicle volumes to grow from 50 million in 1998 to 65 million vehicles by 2008.

The automotive industry wants both stable and low prices. The more volatile aluminum prices are, the less the automotive industry wants to use aluminum in its long-term model plans. A model platform is usually for six to seven years.

Total primary aluminum usage at present in cars is around 30 to 40 percent of the total aluminum used, depending on which region you are in. But primary usage is now growing much more rapidly in the form of sheet and extrusions. This is particularly true for the fast growing sports and utility vehicle section of the market.

That has to be good news for more primary aluminum being consumed as well as secondary. The gains in average unit use in kilos per car are absolutely breathtaking. In Western Europe, we expect to see a rise of 30 kilos per average car between 2000 and 2005. That is a gain of 33 percent. (A kilo is 2.20462 pounds.) In North America, a jump of 35 kilos per average car is expected, a gain of 25 percent. In Japan, a rise of 22 kilos per average car is expected. This is a rise of 21 percent.

Looking at the rises between 1995 and 2000, the figures are just as breathtaking. In Western Europe, the rise was 29 kilos or 47.5 percent. In North America, the rise was a massive 43 kilos per average car or a rise of 45 percent. In Japan, the rise was 33 kilos or a 44.5 percent increase.

But, we hear you ask, can the growth picture in transport really be that wonderful? And the answer is a firm NO! The first problem is that not all of that consumption growth in transport is going to be from primary aluminum.

Secondary consumption as a percentage of primary consumption continues to rise. This is to be expected and is quite normal in all metal industries. But the automotive industry, in particular, is very keen on keeping as much metal as it can circulating within a closed loop. The average annual growth rate in secondary aluminum consumption during the 1990s has shown a stronger rate of growth at 3.6 percent versus 2.9 percent for primary And, as a percentage compared to primary consumption, it continues to grow quite rapidly and now stands at 47 percent.

The second big problem is the absolute need for the aluminum industry to always build enough new capacity to keep the car industry convinced that the aluminum industry can actually go on supplying the car industry with more and more aluminum each year at stable and fair prices.

To do this you need big bucks. The capital expenditure in dollars per tonne terms is scary It costs around $2,500 a tonne for brownfield expansions and anywhere between $4,000 to $6,000 a tonne for greenfield capacity. Demand for primary metal is growing at around 3.7 percent a year compound.

NEW YORK -- Norwegian light metals, energy and fertilizer giant Norsk Hydro AS has reorganized its Hydro Aluminum Wells Inc. operations into three business units.


The Baltimore-based, six-plant network now includes Hydro Aluminum Wells East, which houses the company's extrusion, fabrication and finishing operations in Belton, S.C., arid Moultrie, Ga.; Hydro Aluminum Wells Midwest, which houses the Monett, Mo., and North Liberty, Ind., plants; and the Components and Assemblies Group, which includes plants in Kalamazoo, Mich., and Sidney, Ohio.

Raymond Pallen, recently-installed president of Hydro Aluminum Wells, said the reorganization is designed to "push decision-making closer to the market." The Norwegian company's Lausanne, Switzerland-based Hydro Aluminium Extrusions unit bought the former Wells Aluminum Corp. in February 2000.

New automotive applications for aluminum in North America, Europe and Asia were on display in large numbers at the SAE 2001 World Congress in Detroit earlier this month. Parts-manufacturing companies played a big role in the exhibits, hawking their wares and capabilities to anyone willing to listen. The aluminum products they displayed ranged from engine blocks and heads, transmission cases, suspension control arms, steering knuckles, wheels and structural (frame) parts made as castings, to body panels, powertrain components, luggage racks, tubing, cooling system parts, driveshafts, seat frame parts and load floors made as stampings, extrusions and forgings.

There seemed to be more aluminum parts than normal in the exhibits at the Society of Automotive Engineers' four-day event. That is not to say that parts made of steel, iron, powder metals, magnesium and other materials were hard to find--quite the contrary, those materials were well represented. But aluminum parts were showcased in large numbers by exhibitors from all over the world.

Aluminum currently is on the ground floor in a lot of applications where there is room for growth, and the exhibitors evidently felt this was a good time to show what they can do with the light metal. The global aluminum industry as a whole seems to be focusing on the opportunities for doing more business in the auto market, and doing so in a united way rather than as a host of individual companies.

Among the thousands of people attending the SAE show were top officials of the Aluminum Association, Washington, and the European Aluminium Association (EAA). J. Stephen Larkin, president of the Washington-based trade group, and Richard L. Klimisch, vice president, made the rounds with Patrick de Schrynmakers, secretary general of the European association, and KarlHeinz von Zengen, EAA automotive market manager.

"Our global effort is working, and we're all pleased about that," Larkin said in an interview. "The industry is making progress in its efforts to get aluminum accepted for more and more applications in cars and trucks globally, and the willingness of the industry's participants--no matter where they're located--to exchange information and work together is one of the biggest reasons for that."

Worldwide, aluminum producers and their trade association representatives have taken some criticism over the years for not working together to remove the obstacles to using aluminum in car and truck applications dominated by other materials. The establishment of standardized test procedures in formability, surface characteristics and certain other areas was thought to have been neglected for too long, and the automakers said so. There also was a need for more cooperative research and development work in technical areas involving improved metal production, parts forming, assembling, handling, repairing and recycling methods.

About a year and a half ago, nine national aluminum trade associations on six continents decided to combine their efforts to tackle some of those matters and raise the level of acceptance of their metal in cars and trucks. The principal idea was to cooperate in all areas, from research to manufacturing to promotion, in order to expand the applications of aluminum sheet, casting, extrusion and forging alloys in vehicles, which represent the global aluminum industry's largest market.

Larkin said at that time that the nine organizations intended to keep current with each other on breaking issues and to enhance one another's efforts by exchanging information on their individual national programs. At this month's SAE World Congress, Larkin and Schrynmakers both said that progress was being made on numerous issues of importance internationally, demonstrating the power of cooperation. "We're all mindful of the fact that we have to create ways to make aluminum catch on in those applications where it has not been before, or where its position is weak," Schrynmakers said. "The more people involved in this effort, the better things are likely to go."

Von Zengen, whose former employer, Audi AG, was the first automaker in the world to build aluminum body/frame cars in volume, said that aluminum had made big strides in Europe primarily because the need for lightweighting was particularly strong there. "Fuel prices are higher there than in this country, and good fuel economy is important to most vehicle owners," he said. Von Zengen noted that Audi was "getting better at designing aluminum cars cost effectively as it gains more and more experience."

Applications for aluminum also have been growing significantly year after year in North American-built cars and trucks, and Klimisch--who heads up the Aluminum Association's Auto and Light Truck Group--said that all research projects being carried out by the relatively new Auto Aluminum Alliance were making progress. The alliance, a partnership among the Big Three U.S. automakers and a number of aluminum companies, is working on overcoming such technical challenges as the development of hydroforming for aluminum parts; producing tailored aluminum blanks economically; and sorting aluminum scrap by alloy for recycling.

TOKYO -- Japanese production of aluminum mill products in fiscal 1999 ended March 31 increased for the first time in three years, rising more than 4 percent from the previous year to 2,394,660 tonnes, according to the Japan Aluminium Association.

Production of flat-rolled products totaled 1,326,921 tonnes, up 4.4 percent from the previous year, while extrusions accounted for 1,067,739 tonnes, up 3.8 percent.

Shipments in fiscal 1999 also saw a turnaround for the first time in three years, increasing 4.2 percent to 2,408,722 tonnes.

The upturn in production and shipments resulted from a recovery of domestic market demand starting in June, the association said.

March production totaled 212,835 tonnes, a 2.5-percent increase from the same month last year and a continuous rise for 11 consecutive months. Production consisted of 120,304 tonnes of flat-rolled products (up 1.2 percent for the 12th consecutive monthly gain) and 92,531 tonnes of extruded products (up 4.3 percent, capping a steady rise for five straight months).

March shipments totaled 218,775 tonnes, up 3.6 percent from a year earlier for an uninterrupted rise for 10 months. Shipments consisted of 126,366 tonnes of flat-rolled, products (up 3.1 percent for the 5th consecutive monthly increase) and 92,409 tonnes of extrusions (up 4.4 percent).

The strongest growth in fiscal 1999 occurred in aluminum foil, where production rose 5.7 percent from the previous year to 146,068 tonnes. March production of aluminum foil totaled 13,085 tonnes, a 7.4-percent rise for a continuous 12-month gain.

Pushed by new applications in the automotive and light truck marketplace, aluminum extrusions look to be in the driver's seat heading into 1997.

Even the building and construction sector, which has been plagued with material substitution away from aluminum extrusions, expects to see growth this year. Due to overcapacity for soft alloy extrusions, however, further rationalization of operations seems a distinct possibility.

Shipments of aluminum extrusions have risen continuously over the past several years and are expected to rise again this year, according to Michael J. Ott, national sales and marketing manager for the extrusions division of Reynolds Metals Co., Richmond, Va. Ott predicted that approximately 3.71 billion pounds of extrusions will be shipped this year, up 4.7 percent from the 3.55 billion pounds shipped in 1996.

Shipments, he said, will be bolstered by an anticipated 9-percent increase in demand to 967 million pounds within the transportation sector, including a 11.28-percent increase to 217 million pounds in the use of aluminum extrusions in automobiles and light trucks.

"There has been a big push by the aluminum industry in cooperation with the automotive producers and governmental agencies to make cars more lightweight, and the result has been the use of more aluminum, including extrusions, per vehicle," Manfred F. Schroeder, chairman of the Wauconda, Ill.,-based Aluminum Extruders Council (AEC) and former chief executive officer of VAW of America Inc., said. Schroeder contends that aluminum is an excellent choice for an automotive building material in that it is about a third of the weight of steel.

Already aluminum and aluminum extrusions have gained quite a bit of ground in the automotive market. For example, in 1991 the average American car contained only about 182 pounds of aluminum, according to Ott. Last year, he noted, automotive aluminum content rose to 242 pounds, and by the 2000 model year, aluminum content per vehicle is expected to jump to 350 pounds. Extrusions will be one of the growth areas, Ott said, adding that aluminum extrusions are expected to rise to about 45 pounds per vehicle by 2000 from their current level of between 16 and 26 pounds.

One prime example of this move is the contract General Motors Corp. (GM), Detroit, recently awarded to Alumax Inc., Norcross, Ga., to supply radiator enclosures for its redesigned Chevrolet C/K and GMC Sierra pickups as well as its Suburban, Tahoe and Yukon sport utility vehicles. This contract, which is expected to account for 20 million pounds of aluminum extrusions a year over a 10-year period, constitutes the largest existing application for extrusion stock in the domestic light-truck or passenger car industry today and is reportedly larger than any application in the history of the North American automotive industry. GM will start producing these vehicles in 1999.

There are, meanwhile, several new automotive applications for extruded aluminum, including structural applications in cars already on the road, especially in 1997 model-year automobiles. Richard Larimer, vice president of sales and marketing for Hydro Aluminum Automotive Structures Inc., Holland, Mich., said that his company alone is involved with projects that have added at least 21.5 million pounds of aluminum extrusions into the marketplace this year.

These projects included seat-back frames for the Chevrolet Malibu and Oldsmobile Cutlass, third-row seat cushion frames for the Ford Expedition and front and rear bumper beams and power seat tracks for the Buick Park Avenue.

"We are also working on other things for 1998 and 1999 which are extremely high volume," he said.

One significant move, according to a spokesman for Easco Inc., Girard, Ohio, is that extrusions are now starting to play a major role in the frame of the vehicle.

"Previously (extrusions) had been used for head rest supports, bumpers and bumper reinforcements. Now it is being used for rails for the structure itself," he said.

Larimer agreed, noting that before the 1997 model year the only structural extrusions were found in some seat tracks and in the rear frame of the Chevrolet Corvette. The dearth of structural applications, he asserted, was because automakers have a distinct comfort zone with steel and, in the past, weight and fuel economy did not have as high a priority as it does today.

But design requirements are changing, according to Jay M. Linard, president of Alumax Extrusions Inc., Cressona, Pa. "Auto engineers are becoming more comfortable with aluminum and they are beginning to see the real benefits of our light-weight metal," he said.

Further acceptance, however, will be greatly influenced by the price of aluminum, Rick Matalone, vice president of merchandising for Marmon/Keystone Corp., Butler, Pa., stressed. "When the price is down, as it has been, aluminum extrusions become more competitive. But if ingot goes sky high, then we will see people go back to other products," he said.

TOKYO -- Japanese production of aluminum mill products increased for the 12th consecutive month in April to 204,880 tonnes, up 1.2 percent from a year earlier, according to the Japan Aluminium Association.
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April production of flat-rolled products remained unchanged from last year at 116,040 tonnes, with a high level of domestic demand offset by a drop in exports due to the weaker dollar. But extrusions production increased for the sixth consecutive month to 88,840 tonnes--up 2.7 percent from last' year--thanks to strong demand from the semiconductor, office equipment and automotive industries.

The association said that production of foil soared to a new April high of 12,342 tonnes, up 2.2 percent from a year ago, bolstered by strong market demand for use in capacitors.

The levy, scheduled to take effect in April 2001, is 0.43 pence per kilowatt for electricity and 0.15 pence per kilowatt for liquid fuel or natural gas. There will be exemptions to the levy--such as the electrolysis in primary aluminum production--and industries can reduce the levy by up to 80 percent by setting themselves certain targets.

The aluminum industry's target is a reduction of energy consumption by 20 percent compared with, 1999 within 10 years, according to an Alufed spokesman, but rolling and extrusions operations would not be eligible for the exemption.

Alufeds president, Paul Rata of British Alcan Aluminium Plc, attacked the British government for taking the European Union's Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive (IPPC) as a basis for eligibility. "The chosen IPPC definition actually omits to mention some parts of the aluminum industry's processes while including those in competitive industries, raising a serious competition issue," he said.

Rata noted that the hot rolling of steel was included but the hot rolling of nonferrous metals was not, although the potential for pollution was equal. "As things now stand, if you were to buy a can of Coke in a steel can the levy on the material would be 20 percent of the tax, while for the aluminum can the levy would be 100 percent of the tax. This is nonsense," he said.

Buy good saucepans
– Years ago, people bought cheap pans and expected to throw them away and buy another set. Now, the price of good pans has come down, and most people can comfortably afford a pan that will last twenty years if you look after them. The exception is non-stick pans, which last about 5 years with care if you buy a good one and don't use metal implements.
– Copper pans last for 20 years and more if they are lined with stainless steel, but wear out if they are lined with tin (you have to get them relined which can be expensive). They are great heat conductors, and they can be used on the stove and in the oven, and look great when serving food from them on the table (French Onion Soup served from a copper casserole pan is spectacular).
– You need to use the correct spatula for your pan – a non-stick one for non-stick (you can get ones that are fine up to 240ºC which means that they don’t melt if you forget that they are sitting on the pan) and whatever you like for the rest, preferably wooden spoons because you can scrape the bottom without scratching it – over time those small invisible scratches will make the food catch and burn.

Heat
– You don’t need to use a high heat on most saucepans, except to bring liquids to the boil. Pans are generally more energy-efficient now, so you need to adjust your thinking to this.
– If you put high heat under your pans, you will scorch the contents, and over time, take the good out of the pan.
– This is especially true with non-stick pans which don’t survive burning well – when the coating gets damaged they often have to be thrown away shortly after when everything starts to stick.

Small saucepans
– As you wouldn’t cook a casserole or meat stew or a steak in a small saucepan, but do cook things that can burn easily (butter, sauce or milk), it makes sense to opt for non-stick for your small saucepan.
– You could also invest in a stainless steel ‘milk pan’ which is handy for re-heating stock to add to risotto and making tomato sauce, where you may need to caramelise the celery, tomatoes and onions first, but don’t want to cook it in a larger pan. It has a handle so you can hang it over the cooker and have it to hand.

Sauté pans
– Stainless steel sauté pans are good for frying meat, browning vegetables, cooking risotto and general cooking jobs (eg caramelising onions for onion tart, sautéeing celery, onions and peppers to start off a dish in a larger pan, making the sofrito for a paella etc).
– Use non-stick for omelettes, pancakes, for frying eggs etc.
– Non-stick pans brown but don’t caramelise so if you use them to sauté meat or onions, they will go brown but you will lose the potential for that lovely sticky sweet outer coating.

Skillet
– This is a ridged pan for cooking meat and vegetables, giving them a distinctive chargrilled effect.
– Buy a non-stick or cast-iron skillet (they are not for the limp-wristed) and leave the meat to sear for at least 2 minutes before you turn it, otherwise it will stick.
– Always oil the meat, fish or poultry, not the pan – that way you won’t get that awful smeech that smokes out of the pan and makes your eyes water.
– To get a hatch pattern, put the meat, fish or chicken on the pan. Cook for a few minutes, lift one piece gently with a tongs to see can you lift it comfortably. If you can, turn it 90 degrees and leave it for another 2-3 minutes until it sears and you are able to lift it without tearing the flesh.

Match the ring to the pan
– Use a pan that fits the ring you are using.
– A large pan needs a large ring so the heat isn’t concentrated on one spot.
– A small pan will get burnt around the outside if a flame can lick up its side. It’s also dangerous.

Speed of cooking
– Over time, you will work out the speed of your pans: some pans will burn onions if they are in it only a minute or two, whereas another pan will be fine.
– We have a stainless steel sauté pan that is great for risottos, where you gently fry rice for a minute or two, then add liquid, but burns the outside of sausages on the lowest heat after ten minutes, before they get a chance to cook in the middle and caramelise. However, it delivers a lovely brown crust to the sausage!
– When you have gathered this intuitive knowledge, it will help you to work out which pans are best for what task. If you find that a pan is taking up space and not doing its job properly, give it to a charity shop where it will find its way into another saucepan collection where it fills a gap, and buy a more appropriate one.

Stainless Steel
– These are the most servicable pans, dishwasher proof with great heat conduction and they take a bit of battering.
– You can use whatever implement you have to hand (no rooting around for the non-stick spatula) but be careful not to scratch them.
– You can buy good weights of pans at a reasonable price.
– They also allow the food to caramelise, a key factor for adding flavour and getting the best from meat and poultry.
– Their downside is that they can stick, especially if you don’t let the meat cook on the outside, before lifting it. They are generally useless for frying eggs and fish sticks in them, and with the best will in the world, they are not great for omelettes (cast-iron or aluminium are much more suited).

Non-stick
– You can get great deals on good non-stick saucepans. You usually get a free frying pan or other pot when you buy a set of three. You can’t put them in the dishwasher (we tested it and it takes the non-stick coating off them, surprisingly quickly on the frying pans, it takes longer on the saucepans but please don’t try it at home. We did it so you don't have to!).
– Use non-stick implements on non-stick pans.
– Food won't caramelise, only brown in non-stick.
– Non-stick pans can emit fumes if they are heated to a very high temperature for a sustained period of time. This is another reason you should never leave a non-stick pan on the heat with nothing in the pan.

Cast iron
– Brilliant for pancakes and omelettes.
– Use a low-heat as they are highly energy-efficient and using a high heat will damage the surface over time.
– People who get Le Creuset pans as a wedding present sometimes complain that they stick, this is often because they have been using too high a heat (wouldn’t you stick if you were put on a high heat!).
– You need to be careful not to drag a cast iron pan across a surface, they are heavy and sometimes you may get a slightly rough edge on one which can scratch a surface.
– You need to season cast-iron pans in the same way as you season a wok. Heat the pan, add oil, keep the heat high and wait until it turns the surface black, turn the heat off, wipe the oil off. Repeat if it is a large pan. This will return the non-stick surface.
– Wipe them clean or wash them in soapy water and rinse well. Dry immediately or they will rust. If they rust, scrub them clean, then re-season (see above).

Clay
– A clay pot is a big bulbous pot with a lid that you make soup or stock in. You’ll find them in the Asian stores – they are quite cheap and there is something wonderfully earthy about using them.
– It uses low heat (never use a high flame, use a diffuser under the pot if you are bringing it to the boil, then turn the heat down as soon as it does).
– It doubles up as a place to store potatoes (it is very efficient, it keeps them dark, and the hole in the lid allows just enough air in). The only downside is you have to take the potatoes out to cook.
– They usually come glazed but if not, you need to soak the lid and the bottom for an hour in warm water before you use it. Ideally, you should soak the clay pot for 15 minutes after you use it each time. Better to buy a glazed one we say!
– A clay pot is like a womb for its ingredients – it helps to release the flavour and keep it within. The small hole in the lid lets out just enough steam to stop it boiling over.
– Terracotta pots or tagines need to be treated the same, they are made of clay and you have to be careful not to overheat them or they will crack. – You can use clay pots and terracotta in the oven. Make sure they do not touch the side of the oven and be careful lifting them out, they are very heavy when they are full.
– Always check for cracks when you buy a clay pot, don't buy it if it has. It is a weak spot.

Tips on getting the best from your pans
– Never heat an empty pan – always add a little fat, or some liquid. The exception is a wok.
– The dishwasher is fine for stainless steel, a huge advantage for a family cook. It is not suitable for cast iron (which rusts), copper or most non-stick pans (it removes the coating).
– Check the manufacturer’s instructions to see if the handles are suitable for dishwashing. Sometimes a plastic handle is fine, sometimes not. You don’t want them to become loose from the heat of the water as this could make them dangerous to use. Never put a wooden handled saucepan into the dishwasher.
– You can get special cleaners for copper pans.
– If you have a special omelette pan, you don’t need to wash it. Just wipe it out after use with paper towel. It will season over time and add to the flavour of the omelette and build up a non-stick surface.
– Copper should be washed with soapy water, rinsed and dried immediately. You can clean the outside with copper cleaner from specialist shops every so often to spruce them up. Make sure to rinse and buff it well afterwards to get rid of the chemicals, so it doesn’t taint the food. If you are the type of person who wants to do this everytime you cook with them, then they will drive you mad, and eventually your food will taste of copper cleaner. Pans should carry their history with them.
– If you don’t want to use copper polish, tomato ketchup is good for getting rid of tarnish on copper pans, but you will have to forego the shine. Just leave it on for 5-7 minutes, then wash in soapy water, rinse and dry well.
– If your copper pans are tin-lined, don’t scour them as you will take off the tin and the copper, which is poisonous, will come through quicker.
– Rinse non-stick pans in hot soapy water, rinse and dry. Do not scour or scrub. If you have burnt food in them, soak in hot soapy water, and gently move the food off the pan with a sponge. Repeat if you need to.

Safe use of pans
– Check the handles of your pans every so often, and tighten the screws on any that need it.
– Always keep the handles of pans turned in from the edge so that you can’t knock them on top of you or a small child can’t reach them. It also means that if you mistakenly lift a pan, forgetting that the handle is hot, when you drop it, the contents are less likely to spill on you.
– When using wooden handles, make sure they are not exposed to a gas flame as they will obviously burn! (It’s easy to forget when you are used to using pans with metal handles).
– Put pans with boiling liquids on the back rings near the wall rather than in the front of the cooker.
– When deep-frying, always have a dampened teatowel nearby in case a pan goes on fire. Better still, buy a small fire extinguisher for the kitchen or a fire blanket.
– Get to know your pans and how long it takes for the handles to get hot. You can boil a small saucepan of water, and the handle should not be so hot tht you can’t lift it to the sink. If it is, be careful when using it and don't buy that type again.
– Check that the handles of your saucepans are oven-proofed to a high temperature – if they are and you use them in the oven, get the oven gloves ready. When you see a saucepan you naturally tend to grip the handle before you realise that it is now in the oven, not on the stove and the handle has been getting hotter and hotter.
– Always use a diffuser under a terracotta or clay dish or pot.

The function of the induction sealing machine is to make caps that are used to prevent any leakage of contents from plastic and glass bottles. The cap is supplied with foil liner inserted inside it, and the bottle is filled and capped in packaging operations. The capped bottle goes under the electromagnetic wave, emitted by an induction cap sealing machine.

The process in which it works is very simple: a high-frequency state induced by a sealing head heats only the foil liner. Then it penetrates the cap and the heat foil layer rapidly melts a polymer coating that forms a hermetic seal with the lip of the bottle. Some of the frequent packaging applications of induction cap sealer machine include inner seals for ketchup, relish, water, milk, juice, barbeque sauce, mustard, drug, coffee cream, etc.

Induction cap sealer has a lot of advantages: it prevents leaks during handling and storage, prevents the air to go inside the bottle, improves shelf life of the products, and enhances customer satisfaction. The ways in which bottle caps are used to seal the openings are varied. For glass bottles, a small circular piece of metal with plastic backings is used, while plastic bottles use a plastic cap.

Induction bottle sealing machines are manufactured by a number of companies. It is because of this that we have bottle caps in various colours and designs. Very often they are colourfully decorated with the logo of the brand of the beverage. Generally, plastic bottle caps are made of different types of plastic that may be of the type of plastic used in the bottle itself. These caps may not be recyclable.

A sophisticated induction cap sealer machine can help you do the capping in various ways and for various types of bottles. You can use them to seal champagne bottles with corks, aluminium caps. You can get these machines at competitive rates after good market research and price comparisons.

The author, Robin Smith, has immense expertise about the bottle sealing machines and cap manufacturing business. He is presently associated with CapSolutions, a company dealing with all sorts of machines used in this industry. He provides professional consultancy to users of these devices with regard to maintenance and utility instructions.

THE BUILDING supplies group Novar set the scene last night for a full-blown takeover battle by serving notice that it would reject the pounds 650m bid being lined up by Melrose, the shell company led by a former Hanson executive.

A source close to Novar, which recently changed its name from Caradon, said: "You can rightly assume we don't find the price range or the structure of the bid attractive."

Melrose, a tiny AIM-listed company set up specifically to look for companies to buy, has said that it intends to bid between 140p and 150p a share for Novar using a mixture of cash and stock. It is expected to launch its offer towards the end of this week.

In a pre-emptive strike over the weekend, Novar criticised the structure of the bid, which could result in a pounds 100m profit for the four directors of Melrose, who include the former Hanson executive Chris Miller and the director general of the Institute of Directors, Miles Templeman.

The four directors hold "incentive shares" in Melrose which would entitle them to 10 per cent of any increase in the value of Novar over the next three years because of the way the bid will be funded largely using Melrose stock. If Novar doubled in value they would net pounds 70m and if it trebled the payout would be pounds 110m.

Last night, a Melrose spokesman hit back at Novar over its attack on the incentive scheme. "If the four directors turn the business around then, yes, they will do very well but so will the rest of Novar's shareholders. This is a private equity-style deal but the difference is that it is being carried out through a publicly-quoted company. What Melrose will ask shareholders to do is back its management team against the new management team at Novar."

In response to Melrose's announcement last Thursday that it was considering a bid, Novar brought forward the appointment as chief executive of Stephen Howard, who had not been due to join until next January.

Novar, which specialises in aluminium extrusions and temperature control systems, is chaired by the former Enterprise Oil chairman Sir Graham Hearne. Active Value, the investment fund which specialises in agitating for management change and which holds just under 17 per cent of Novar, is likely to play a pivotal role in the bid battle.

THE CHIEF executive of Novar, the building supplies, fire protection and cheque printing group, is to walk away with an pounds 810,000 bonus for five weeks' work after the company accepted a pounds 798m break-up bid yesterday from Honeywell of the US.

Stephen Howard, who took the helm on 4 November, is entitled to a success fee equivalent to 1.25 times his pounds 650,000 salary for pulling off the deal which trumps an earlier hostile bid from Melrose.

Analysts said the 185p-a-share offer was likely to prove a knockout price. Together with a 6.6p final dividend which Honeywell will pay Novar shareholders and the cost of taking on its pounds 300m in debt and buying out preference shareholders, the deal values the company at pounds 1.2bn.

Melrose, a buyout vehicle put together with the backing of a number of big institutional shareholders and led by a former Hanson executive, had bid 173p in a mixture of cash and shares. Following the Novar board's decision to recommend the Honeywell offer, Melrose said it was reviewing its options. But an increased bid is thought unlikely unless its institutional backers show appetite to provide more funding.

Honeywell said it only intended to keep Novar's fire alarms, lighting systems and CCTV division and dispose of the other two which specialise in aluminium extrusions and cheque printing.

Mr Howard defended the bonus he is set to collect on the grounds that the value of the company had increased by pounds 300m since his appointment. Mr Howard was made chief executive on the same day that Melrose announced its intention to bid. Honeywell's offer represents a 49 per cent premium to the Novar share price the previous day.

He said that Novar had already been looking at strategic options for the group, including a break-up, when Melrose declared its bid intentions. "We were going to move ahead regardless of what Melrose did," Mr Howard added.

Novar's biggest shareholder, Active Value, has given irrevocable undertakings to accept the Honeywell offer unless a competing bid worth at least 10 per cent more is made. There is a pounds 6m break fee if Novar sells out to another bidder.

David Anderson, Honeywell's finance director, said there would be job losses as a result of combining Novar's remaining business with its own automation and control systems division but he declined to say how many.

Mr Anderson estimated that the deal would generate $100m of additional profits a year and said he did not expect any regulatory opposition because the products and markets that the two companies operated in were largely complementary.