Photo by: Alcoa
TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – US aluminium producer and products manufacturer Alcoa has announced that it has completed a $300-million expansion at its Davenport, Iowa facility dedicated to supplying aluminium sheet products to the automotive industry.
NYSE-listed Alcoa’s executives made the announcement at the 2014 North American International Auto Show, in Detroit, where a number of vehicles featuring large increases in aluminium content were on display.
According to automakers, demand for aluminium to produce vehicles – already the second-most-used material used to make cars today – was expected to nearly double by 2025. The amount of aluminium body sheet content in North American vehicles was expected to quadruple by 2015 and increase tenfold by 2025 from 2012 levels, Alcoa said.
“2014 marks the beginning of dramatic growth for aluminium in the auto sector. Automakers are increasingly choosing aluminium as a cost-effective way to improve the performance, safety, durability and fuel efficiency of their vehicles. Our project in Iowa is the first of three capacity expansions we have under way to meet this growing demand,” Alcoa chairperson and CEO Klaus Kleinfeld said in a statement.
The company revealed that it had secured long-term supply agreements for its Iowa expansion, and was adding automotive capacity in Alcoa, Tennessee, which was scheduled to be complete in mid-2015; and at its joint venture rolling mill in Saudi Arabia, to be complete by the end of 2014.
Alcoa was investing about $670-million in the three expansions.
Alcoa said its innovations were enabling the increased use of aluminium in the automotive sector.
The company’s pre-treatment bonding technology, known as Alcoa 951, enabled more durable bonding of aluminium components in vehicles, can reduce spot weld points, and results in lower manufacturing costs.
Alcoa has licensed the Alcoa 951 technology at the request of auto manufacturers to make it available across the industry. Alcoa’s three expansions would incorporate, through its supply chain, the proprietary Alcoa 951 pre-treatment bonding technology.
The Davenport, Iowa expansion was creating 150 full-time jobs and created 150 jobs during the construction phase.