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Auto Industry Demand Bolsters Aluminum Prices
Growing use of aluminum as a weight-saving material in cars is helping the metal maintain its price in a commodities market where other materials are in a slump, Bloomberg News reports.
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Growing use of aluminum as a weight-saving material in cars is helping the metal maintain its price in a commodities market where other materials are in a slump, Bloomberg News reports.
Aluminum prices peaked at $2,800 per metric ton in 2011. Today the metal costs about one-third less. Still, Bloomberg points out, aluminum has held its price so far this year compared with declines of 8% for iron and 14% for copper.
The news service attributes the metal's relative success to the auto industry's quest for ways to reduce vehicle weight, coupled with new manufacturing methods that are making more applications practical.
United Co. Rusal, the world's largest aluminum producer, tells Bloomberg that automotive demand for the metal is likely to surge two-thirds to 23 million metric tons by 2020. Alcoa Inc. says the use of sheet aluminum for vehicle body panels will nearly quadruple to 1.8 million tons by 2025.
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