TPT July 2011

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July 2011 87 ›
Global Marketplace
Automotive
Battle lines are drawn by US Steel, Alcoa:
steel versus aluminium for the cars of
the future
With fuel efficiency an increasingly assertive imperative, the
market share commanded by steel and by aluminium in automobile
manufacturing is largely a matter of the relative weight, cost,
malleability and strength of the two metals. Writing in the investors’
newsletter Motley Fool, David Lee Smith noted that, in their rivalry
over business from the world of automobile design, US Steel Corp
and the aluminium giant Alcoa are seeking to attract “the scads of
engineers” ― 1,300 new hires at Alcoa in the past year alone ― who
will provide the edge in the metal-on-metal competition.
Federal CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards
mandate that vehicle fleets demonstrate 35.5 miles per gallon in
average fuel efficiency by 2016, and the race to strip weight from
cars is on. Aluminium, 10% to 40% lighter than steel, is ahead on
weight. As to cost, aluminium, which once cost twice as much as
steel, has progressively trimmed that differential.
It cannot compete on strength, of course. Of the metal consumed
by the world automobile industry, some 87% is steel and 13%
aluminium. But Mr Smith pointed out that, with lighter-weight cars
becoming a necessity, that lopsided balance is likely to shift toward
aluminium. Indeed, he wrote, “A Ford Motor executive has been
quoted as prophesying that cars could become at least 50% more
aluminum-intensive” within this decade. (“Alcoa and Its Pals Gaining
on Steel,” 11 April)
Mr Smith also observed that neither of the Pittsburgh neighbours is
going it alone in its researches into ways to pare down the carbody
skeleton, which typically accounts for a quarter of vehicle weight. US
Steel is in a major joint venture with Japan’s Kobe Steel, while Alcoa
engineers work closely with technological counterparts overseas,
like those affiliated with Australia’s BHP Billiton and Aluminum
Corporation of China Limited. (Also known as Chalco or Chinalco,
this is the largest Chinese aluminium producer.) For its part,
Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal ― not to be outdone ― is placing
automotive design centres in China and Japan.
Europeans with long memories are
slow to kindle to the improved
products of Detroit
“Opel and Ford both scored far worse than brands including
Volkswagen and Honda in a recent German study.”
The reporter, auto critic Mark Phelan of the Detroit Free Press , was
writing from the 81st Geneva International Motor Show, held 3-13
March. The reference was not to the relative performance of those
companies’ cars but to the perceptions of their brands in the minds
of Europeans. What Mr Phelan himself perceived at the event that
launched Europe’s new-car season was that General Motors and
Ford cars are seen in Europe as uncompetitive, low-budget brands
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