Annual Growth in Aluminum Demand to Top 25% in China

Luxury carmakers striving to meet future fuel economy rules will drive 25% annual growth in worldwide consumption of lightweight sheet aluminum, Bloomberg News reports.

But demand in China will grow even faster, predicts Shashi Maudgal, president of Novelis Asia. The company's Mumbai-based parent Hindalco Industries Ltd. describes itself as the world's largest maker of automotive aluminum.

Novelis has been supplying customers in China, including Audi and Mercedes-Benz, from facilities in Europe. Last week the company began erecting its first automotive aluminum sheet plant in China. The facility will have annual capacity to make 120,000 tons of the metal per year when it opens in Changzhou late in 2014.

Maudgal cites an analysis by the University of Aachen in Germany that estimates switching to aluminum can reduce the weight of some automotive components by as much as 40% compared with an 11% savings possible with high-strength steel.

Bloomberg notes that China hopes to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 45% from 2005 to 2020.