Aluminium Circles & Discs (1050, 1060, 3003)

DC and CC aluminium circles for cookware, lighting and traffic signs by alloy, temper, diameter and thickness

Aluminium circles are discs blanked or cut from rolled sheet, and a cookware maker buys them on how they behave in the press: alloy, temper, grain, earing and surface. 1050 and 1060 are the commercially pure grades for utensils, pressure-cooker bodies, lighting reflectors and anodised ware, where formability and a bright finish count; 3003 adds manganese for a stiffer, stronger pot or non-stick pan body. Temper is O (annealed) for deep drawing and spinning, or H12 and H14 where the part is shallow and needs more stiffness. The stock is either DC (direct-chill cast and hot-rolled), which gives finer grain, lower earing and a better surface for deep draws and anodising, or CC (continuous cast), which is cheaper and adequate for shallow draws and signs; buyers name which they want. EN 941 sets the requirements for circles and circle stock for culinary utensils, with chemistry to EN 573-3 and, for food-contact ware, EN 602; ASTM B209 applies where the buyer orders to US standards. The buyer specifies diameter and thickness with their tolerances, earing limit, grain size, surface (mill finish, no scratches, oil-free for anodising or non-stick coating) and mechanical properties, and the mill test certificate reports them. Traffic-sign blanks are typically 1050, 3003 or 5052 cut to sign shapes and pre-treated for reflective sheeting. On classification, the Harmonized System treats flat-rolled aluminium of non-rectangular shape as plates, sheets and strip under heading 7606, in subheadings 7606.91 (not alloyed) and 7606.92 (alloys), unless the disc has been worked into an article. UN Comtrade 2024 export declarations for the whole HS 7606 heading, which includes circles alongside rectangular sheet and coil, put the reporter total at USD 34.5 billion and 8.35 million MT, led by China at 3.42 million MT (about USD 3,041/MT declared), with Türkiye at 0.30 million MT (about USD 3,379/MT) and India at 67,000 MT (about USD 3,108/MT) among the origins that also run circle lines.

The buyers are cookware and utensil makers, pressure-cooker and non-stick pan plants, lighting and reflector manufacturers, traffic-sign and road-safety fabricators, and the distributors that supply circles to small spinning and pressing shops across the Middle East, Africa and South and Southeast Asia. CBIL is a commodity brokerage company and brokers aluminium circles from rolling mills and circle cutting lines in Asia, Türkiye and Europe to those buyers against a mill test certificate reporting alloy, temper, chemistry, mechanical properties and dimensions, and stating the country where the primary aluminium was smelted and the country where it was cast, with no metal of excluded origin in the chain; the EU, UK and US check smelt-and-cast origin on import. Circles fall under the EU carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) with the rest of HS 7606, so the EU importer needs the mill's embedded-emissions data. Anti-dumping and countervailing duties on aluminium sheet from certain origins apply in several destinations and can reach circles under the same heading, so checking the rate for the mill and origin at the port of discharge is the buyer's check before contracting. Circles are stacked with interleaving paper, wrapped in plastic film and packed in fumigated wooden cases or on wooden pallets in 20-ft containers, on FOB, CFR and CIF terms. Send the alloy and temper, DC or CC, diameter and thickness list with quantities, earing and surface requirements, the end product, monthly tonnage and discharge port.

Excluded origins are not offered, including product re-exported, blended or re-processed through a third country. Every lot moves with a certificate of origin naming the producing plant, mine or grower country, and nothing is quoted before the seller and loading point are known.