The spring breeze of automotive aluminum can really blow the spring of aluminum industry

[China Aluminum Industry Net] Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Industry Department of the Ministry of Industry and Technology organized a seminar on the promotion and application of aluminum materials for transportation. According to its disclosure information, participating companies generally believe that the performance of some aluminum materials for transportation in China can basically meet the needs of freight trains and freight cars. The focus of promotion and application of aluminum materials should be on commercial vehicles and freight trains.

With the increasingly stringent national requirements for environmental protection and energy-saving and emission reduction, lightweighting of the vehicle body has become a long-term topic in automobile manufacturing. The automobile body consumes approximately 70% of its own weight of fuel. The density of aluminum is 1/3 of that of steel. The effect of weight reduction is prominent. Aluminum is used instead of steel to produce automobiles. The weight of the whole vehicle can be reduced by 30% to 40%, which greatly reduces fuel consumption. The automotive aluminum industry is also an area in which aluminum companies are conducting deep processing of aluminum materials and converting excess production capacity.

At present, Europe, North America and other regions are accelerating the pace of improving the passenger car aluminization rate. HIS Automotive, the world’s largest automotive industry research company, predicts that global body aluminum will add 8.7 million tons of demand in 2025, and the proportion of models using all-aluminum bodies will reach 30%. Despite the broad market prospects, the promotion of aluminum for automotive use in China is facing harsh realities such as high costs, imperfect technologies, and prejudices on consumption by manufacturers and the general public. Fundamentally, the bigger issue is still price. Although the current price of aluminum has fallen to a low point, its price is still much higher than that of steel. Aluminum also far surpasses steel in processing and assembly costs. Alcoa's automotive structure experts once said that an all-aluminum car has a premium of 65% over steel. At the same time, Volkswagen and some manufacturers lack understanding of aluminum materials, and there is a low security prejudice against aluminum alloy cars. Coupled with high prices, a considerable portion of consumers and manufacturers are not enthusiastic about using them.

The key to the smooth promotion of aluminum vehicles lies in reducing costs through technological breakthroughs. Automotive aluminum materials require high processing technology. Aluminum processing companies and automobile manufacturers should join together to enhance aluminum sheet performance, develop low-cost aluminum alloys and advanced aluminum alloy forming processes, and develop connection technologies between different materials. The use of aluminum alloy castings, etc., made continuous efforts to reduce the production costs of aluminum vehicles. Changing people’s perceptions of aluminum cars and consumer attitudes is also an important factor in promoting automotive aluminum. Consumers should be made aware that although the price of aluminum cars is higher than that of traditional steel cars, due to their light weight and low fuel consumption, a lot of fuel costs can be saved each year; the weight per unit area of ​​aluminum absorbs energy in collisions. Times, aluminum cars have a higher safety factor in the event of an impact.

At the symposium on the promotion and application of aluminum materials for transportation, the raw material department said that the next step will be to strengthen cooperation with relevant departments and departments on the promotion and application of aluminum materials in the transportation field, and accelerate the research and development of high-strength aluminum alloy materials and further improve the use of transportation. Aluminum promotion and application work. Domestic aluminum companies and automobile manufacturers are also working hard to promote the production of aluminum vehicles. Zhongwang, Changzhou, CITIC, and other companies develop and cooperate in automotive aluminum projects such as aluminum foil and aluminum wheels. Some progress has been made. It is believed that under the conditions of relevant policy support, gradual improvement of technology, and gradual reversal of the concept of people's consumption, the spring breeze of automotive aluminum can really blow the spring of the aluminum industry.