After falling to a four-and-a-half-year low in August last year, Alcoa, the world's largest aluminum producer, continued to rebound. It closed at a new high in the past two years as of the close on the 6th. The cumulative increase in the past six months has exceeded 50. %. At the same time, other aluminum products producers such as Century Aluminum and Kenlian Aluminum in the US stock market also strengthened.
Previously, Ford Motor just released a light concept car with more aluminum materials. Analysts believe that the release of the car further confirms that the automotive industry is increasing the trend of aluminum usage. The automotive industry is moving towards the “lightweight†era and will boost demand for aluminum products. It is expected that automotive aluminum sheets will become the fastest growing area for aluminum metal applications in the next few years.
Cars are becoming "lightweight"
Recently, Ford released a lightweight Mondeo concept car. Thanks to the increase in aluminum materials, the weight of this car is 25% lower than the average model. Su Liewen, an analyst at US brokerage Sterne Agee, later released a report saying that the release of the concept car "confirmed that the automotive industry is increasing the trend of aluminum usage", which is good for companies such as Alcoa.
As early as the Detroit auto show earlier this year, Ford released the 2015 F-150 model, 97% of the body is made of aluminum, which is 320 kg less than the previous steel body model, and fuel efficiency is increased by 30%. The F-150 has always been a classic pickup truck from Ford, and has been ranked first in the top ten best-selling cars in the United States for many years. Last year, the model sold more than 763,000 vehicles, accounting for 40% of the pickup market.
The introduction of the aluminum body F-150 is the first time that aluminum has been used to make most of the body of a full-size pickup. Goldman Sachs had released a report that it was only the tip of the iceberg in the industry. It is expected that major automakers will turn to some or all of the aluminum body in the next few years.
This is also the case. After Ford released the 2015 F-150 for a month, it was reported that GM is also pushing the use of aluminum materials in the next generation of truck design. Chrysler announced in May that its smaller Jeep Wrangler might use a lot of aluminum.
Sullivan pointed out in the latest report that the launch of the Ford F-150 "breaks the ice", and in less than half a year, the use of aluminum materials has expanded to other car brands and smaller models, "although Ford's new launch The lightweight car is still just a concept car, but it clearly shows that the market is testing a model that is suitable for more aluminum materials." This means that the use of automotive aluminum panels is expanding from trucks and luxury cars to larger-selling models.
At present, the Tesla Model S model uses an all-aluminum body, and most of its front and rear suspensions are also made of aluminum, which reduces its own weight and solves battery life problems. In addition, Land Rover Range Rover, Volkswagen Audi A8, Mercedes-Benz CLA, GM Chevrolet Corvette sports car and other bodies are also partially or entirely aluminum.
Automotive aluminum panels will be widely used
At present, the US and European markets are pursuing policies that force automakers to reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions. The US CAFE (Company Average Fuel Economy) rule mandates that the average fuel consumption of light vehicles sold by vehicle companies should not exceed the specified annual limit, and the average fuel consumption is required to increase by 35.5 kilometers per gallon in 2016, and the value added per 2025. The gallon is 54.5 kilometers. Although the EU has no sexual regulations on the fuel economy of automobiles, it also encourages consumers to purchase fuel-efficient cars by imposing a heavier fuel tax.
Normally, the body weight consumes about 70% of the fuel, so the primary problem of reducing the fuel consumption of the car is to make the car lighter. Due to its light weight, wear resistance, corrosion resistance, good elasticity, excellent impact resistance, good processing and high recyclability, aluminum, known as “light metalâ€, has become the material of choice for lightweight vehicles. It is favored for its advantages of energy saving, low consumption, safety and comfort, and strong relative load capacity.
Analysts said that considering the future car manufacturers will be committed to meet the CAFE standards, and reduce the user's concerns about fuel consumption costs, improving the aluminization rate of the body, that is, increasing the application of aluminum plates in automobiles is expected to become the development direction of automotive materials in the future. In the next few years, automotive aluminum panels will become the fastest growing area for aluminum metal applications.
In February of this year, Goldman Sachs took the lead in releasing a report optimistic about the automotive aluminum market prospects, indicating that more and more car body using aluminum materials, will become the "game rules changer" in the field of downstream aluminum applications. In the current 10 years, the demand for automotive aluminum will grow faster than any other end market. It is expected that the annual compound growth rate of the North American automotive aluminum sheet market will exceed 50% between 2013 and 2016.
Alcoa expects global sales of automotive aluminum panels to maintain a compound annual growth rate of 14% between 2012 and 2025. The company’s sales of automotive aluminum panels will increase from US$160 million in 2012 to US$580 million in 2015. It will reach $1.3 billion by 2018. According to Alcoa, 6% of the company's sales revenue in 2013 came from the automotive industry.
Aluminum giant expands production capacity
Since last year, many aluminum giants around the world have invested heavily in expanding the production capacity of automotive aluminum sheets. In January of this year, Alcoa announced a $300 million investment in the expansion of its capacity to supply automotive aluminum in Iowa. To date, Alcoa's cumulative investment in automotive aluminum sheet business has reached $670 million. Alcoa is one of the major suppliers of Ford's new F150.
In January, Kental Aluminium announced an investment of 200 million euros to significantly increase its aluminum production capacity in Europe to meet the anticipated growth in the automotive market. Novelis, a leading supplier of automotive aluminum, invested $205 million in December to further expand its global automotive aluminum production capacity to 900,000 tons per year.
Norwegian Hydro Company announced in February that it will add a new production line in a rolling mill in Germany to increase the production capacity of aluminum body panels to 200,000 tons per year. It is expected that the new production line will cost 130 million euros. The new line will be used to produce auto parts, including car hoods, doors, tailgates and side panels.
At the end of last month, Kobe Steel and Toyota Tsusho Co., Ltd. announced that they plan to set up a joint venture company in the United States to produce and sell automotive aluminum sheet and automotive heat exchanger aluminum sheet. The company said that in the context of the increasingly strengthened CAFE standards in the United States, various automobile manufacturers have accelerated the pace of lightweighting of vehicles with the goal of reducing fuel consumption. The most powerful method is to expand the use of aluminum sheets. The demand for aluminum sheets in North America is expected to increase significantly from the current annual capacity of around 100,000 tons to 1 million tons per year in 2020.
Hollow Foam Roller,Hollow High Density Epp Foam Roller,Hollow Fitness Epp Yoga Foam Roller,High Density Epp Foam Roller
Jiangsu Laiao Material Technology Co., Ltd. , https://www.jiangsulaiao.com