What is Aluminum Tense scrap? (and why it differs from Taint/Tabor)
Tense is the ISRI designation for clean mixed low-copper aluminum wrought scrap — predominantly rolled sheet, radiator fins, HVAC coil, and clean industrial offcuts, with copper capped below 1% and no painted or coated material accepted. Taint/Tabor by contrast allows painted sheet and some casting content. This means Tense delivers a tighter, more predictable chemistry envelope suitable for deox-grade ingot production and master-alloy blending, while Taint/Tabor is the workhorse for general secondary smelting. Buyers choosing between the two grades weigh chemistry precision (Tense wins) against price (Taint/Tabor is cheaper).
ISRI Tense specification
Contract standard: mixed clean aluminum wrought pieces, thickness 0.2–5 mm, no paint or coating, no plastic or rubber attachments, no cast pieces, no insulated wire. Chemistry envelope: Cu ≤ 1.0%, Fe ≤ 0.7%, Si ≤ 0.6%, Mg ≤ 0.5%, Zn ≤ 0.3%, Mn ≤ 0.5%. Free moisture ≤ 1%, magnetic content ≤ 0.5%, organics ≤ 1%. Every container ships with XRF composite chemistry and a full photo dossier of each layer during loading.
Radiator and heat-exchanger source stream
A large share of our Tense inventory comes from European HVAC and automotive radiator recyclers. End-of-life automotive radiators, air-conditioning condensers and industrial heat exchangers arrive at licensed dismantling plants where copper tubes are pulled and sold separately, leaving clean aluminum fin stock. This fin stock — high-purity 3xxx-series aluminum with silicon brazing residue — is one of the highest-quality inputs for Tense. Combined with rolled-sheet offcuts from European stamping plants and HVAC-manufacturer scrap, the resulting Tense grade averages 99%+ aluminum with the copper contamination that would otherwise disqualify it for deox use kept well below the 1% cap.
Applications: deox-ingot, master-alloy, and rerolling
Tense has three primary markets. Deox-ingot manufacturers press Tense into notched aluminum bars used by steel mills as ladle-metallurgy deoxidiser — this market rewards low copper because copper is a tramp element in steel. Master-alloy producers blend Tense with high-purity magnesium and silicon to hit target compositions for automotive smelters. Rerolling mills producing utensil sheet for South Asian consumer markets consume Tense as a clean feedstock. Buyers producing die-casting alloys (ADC12, LM6) generally prefer cheaper Talon or Twitch — Tense is over-specified for that use.
Container loading and shipping specs
Tense loads loose or in 250–500 kg bales into 20GP containers at 22–24 MT net (loose) or 24–26 MT (baled). Containers are floor-lined with PP fabric, weighed, photographed and sealed. From Rotterdam we book weekly direct sailings to Nhava Sheva (18–22 days), Chittagong (22–26 days), Ho Chi Minh (26–30 days), Mersin (14–18 days) and Jebel Ali (20–24 days). Contract-to-loaded lead time is 7–14 days.
Quality control and third-party inspection
Inbound Tense is XRF-tested at the gate for copper content — any lot testing above 1% Cu is downgraded to Taint/Tabor. Accepted lots are photographed and lot-numbered. Container stuffing is documented lot-by-lot with timestamped images. Third-party inspection by SGS, BV, Intertek or CCIC is arranged on the buyer's request. Destination-country certificates (BIS for India, CCIC for China, TSE for Turkey) are provided as required.
LME-linked pricing for Tense
Tense quotes reference LME Aluminium High Grade (P1020A) cash settlement. A typical 2026 trading band is 82–88% of LME CIF Nhava Sheva — tighter than Taint/Tabor (78–84%) reflecting the lower copper content, but wider than clean 6063 (88–93%) because Tense is a mixed-source stream rather than single-alloy. Written quotes issued within 24 hours of RFQ.
Documentation and export compliance
Every shipment includes commercial invoice, packing list, weighbridge tickets, container photos, bill of lading, EUR.1 (where applicable), and EU Annex VII waste-shipment movement document under Regulation (EC) 1013/2006. Basel Convention compliant. Radiation-portal cleared. Destination-country pre-shipment inspection certificate arranged for regulated markets.