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Alcoa is building on that momentum. On May 2 it announced that
expansion in aluminium manufacturing capacity were completed
at Alcoa mills in four countries, representing a 50 per cent greater
capability in aerospace structural metallics and solutions.
And additions to heat-treated sheet and plate capacity were
announced for Davenport, Iowa; Kitts Green, UK; Fusina, Italy; and
Belaya Kalitva, Russia.
Plans for Alcoa’s power and propulsion systems include expansion
of turbine airfoil casting capacity in Whitehall, Michigan; additional
turbine airfoil core capacity in Morristown, Tennessee; expansion of
airfoil post-cast operations in Acuna, Mexico; and a new airfoil post-
cast operation in Szekesfehervar, Hungary.
The company also told aerospace analysts and journalists that it
plans to bring five additional single-crystal casting furnaces online
over the next two quarters.
Alcoa chairman Alain Belda sees market conditions as justifying the
company’s confidence. In April, Mr Belda told reporters and analysts
that he believes worldwide aluminium consumption will rise by 7.7
per cent this year, and continue to grow over the next 15 years.
Among his other projections: North America’s aluminium
consumption should level off this year; in China, aluminium
production and consumption both will grow by about 23 per cent,
exceeding earlier projections by Alcoa; in Europe, aluminium growth
will be solid; and in India, growth will be good.
Automotive
Some 480lbs of a car’s metal content
will be ‘up for grabs’ to the benefit
of aluminium makers
In other news of Alcoa Inc, the president of its auto and truck
structures unit said that aluminium makers can expect to benefit
from the push to cut automotive carbon emissions. Misha Riveros-
Jacobson told participants at the spring meeting of the Aluminium
Association, held in Nashville, Tennessee, that the striving of US
auto makers for lighter weight and greater efficiency creates
opportunities for aluminium makers to add more of the light metal
to cars.
Ms Riveros-Jacobson pointed to a recent study conducted by auto
industry research firm Ducker Worldwide that projected light-vehicle
weight will come down 2 per cent – from just above 4,100lbs in
2005 to about 4,000lbs in 2015. Over the same period, she said, an
estimated 12 per cent (480lbs) of the average vehicle will be altered
in its composition in order to meet the stricter emissions standards.
“What that means is that, over the next eight to 10 years, about
480 pounds inside of every average vehicle will be up for grabs,”
the Alcoa official told conferees in Nashville on April 27.
In 2006, aluminium surpassed iron as number-two material in a
vehicle, behind steel. Over the last 30 years, aluminium increased