SouthWest Aluminum: Next year The Capacity of Auto-use Aluminum Sheet will Reach 5000 Tonnes



SouthWest Aluminum: Next year The Capacity of Auto-use Aluminum Sheet will Reach 5000 Tonnes

Following supplying supporting aluminum products for “Shenzhou” spacecraft, “Long March" rocket, Boeing and Airbus, SouthWest Aluminum again tapped new economic growth points, i.e. automobile-use aluminum products. According to what the reporter has learned from SouthWest Aluminum Group recently, this group has finished early stage technological research for auto-use aluminum material, in the first half of next year it will fulfill batch production, the estimated annual capacity may reach 5000 tonnes.

In recent years, under the pressure of energy saving, emission reduction, and improving fuel efficiency, automobile industry’s light weight demand is becoming increasingly urgent, the tide of replacing traditional sheet with auto-use aluminum sheet is surging. Nevertheless, due to limitation in R&D technologies, China is unable to manufacture aluminum alloy auto sheet by itself.

“At present domestic and overseas automobile manufacture all use aluminum materials, but most of the usages are for manufacture of structural parts, automobile-use aluminum sheet is not totally popularized.” According to chief persons of SouthWest Aluminum’s technological department, automobile-use aluminum sheet is mainly used at the vehicle’s four doors, engine hood and trunk lid, currently in the European market the annual demand for automobile-use aluminum sheet is over 100,000 tonnes.

Why does aluminum sheet for automobile use become favored? According to this chief person, this is related to the industrial requirement on energy saving and emission reduction of the current automobile industry. Under the same volume, the weight ratio between aluminum product and steel product is 2.7 : 7.8, in other words using aluminum sheet can effectively reduce vehicle weight, whereas for each 100 kg of weight reduced for an automobile, its fuel consumption can be lowered by about 2%, therefore replacing steel material with aluminum material represents the general trend.

It is reported that within this year SouthWest Aluminum will complete R&D of three new products including high crimping performance automobile-use aluminum sheet, high strength vehicle body interior-use and exterior-use aluminum sheet, up till now some joint venture brand and self-owned brand automobile manufacturers have expressed intention of product purchase to SouthWest Aluminum.