Novelis predicts OEM demand for its aluminum to more than double by 2025

　　Novelis global automotive Vice President Pierre Labat predicted that growing Asian demand and mixed-material vehicles would more than double its aluminum sales, Reuters reported Thursday.

　　“Typically what we see is an increase of aluminum percentage of the (automotive) body, which is why we’re projecting to grow from 1.5 million tonnes of aluminum demand this year to 3.5 million tonnes a year in 2025,” Labat told Reuters.

　　If you’re planning on being in the collision repair industry seven years from now — or even during the 2018-25 interval posting such aluminum growth, this matters to you. Aluminum can require dedicated tools and equipment to prevent galvanic corrosion. It also can demand additional precision from shops, such as compensating for the incredibly quick rate of oxidation after the substrate is brought to a bare metal state.

　　Labat told Reuters that Asian nations would grow from a mere 10 percent of the global demand for aluminum to nearly a third of it by 2025.

　　The U.S. doesn’t seem as hot for electric vehicles as China — perhaps making aluminum weight savings to grow battery range and offset battery mass less of a factor. However, American demand could grow.

　　Tesla Model 3s are selling extremely well, electrical infrastructure besides Tesla’s own network is slated to boom, and Audi has predicted that electric cars will be the second of what are considered the four key automotive megatrends (connected, electric, shared, autonomous, in that order) to have an impact.

　　If OEMs opt for global vehicle architecture platforms to reap gains like economies of scale and manufacturing efficiencies, the same vehicles being bought in China could be to a large degree similar to ones sold in the U.S. Which means both Chinese and American repairers would need to be able to properly handle the aluminum on the same vehicle.

　　Novelis also demonstrated American demand for automotive aluminum in May, when it announced it had broken ground on a $300 million automotive sheet aluminum facility in Kentucky capable of putting out 200,000 metric tons of the metal.

　　“The increased adoption of aluminum in cars, trucks and SUVs, coupled with more automotive manufacturing plants in the southeast makes Guthrie a strategic location to serve our customers,” Novelis CEO Steve Fisher said in a statement. “With the strong, highly-skilled workforce in Kentucky, we believe our culture and commitment to building a sustainable world together will have a lasting and positive impact on this community.”