The move will intensify competition with rivals such as lightweight metals manufacturer Alcoa who are investing in the world's second-biggest automobile market and with steelmakers who are defending their traditional auto business through the use of lighter products.
UACJ, Japan's biggest rolled-aluminium products maker, began production of sample aluminium sheets for automotives last month at a new US$150 million plant in Kentucky, built with Dutch partner Constellium. The annual output capacity stands at 100,000 tonnes. The company also spent US$155 million earlier this year to buy SRS Industries, a Michigan-based US manufacturer of automotive aluminium structural materials.
"We are also considering an expansion of the joint venture with Constellium, possibly adding two more finishing lines to triple capacity to meet rising demand," UACJ senior managing executive officer Takayoshi Nakano told Reuters.
Faced with stricter environmental rules, car makers in the US and Europe are turning to aluminium over steel for exterior body panels and structural components. Aluminium can cut the weight of a car by about 30 percent and can be more easily recycled, reducing its life-cycle emissions. While aluminium has been used in premium-brand cars for decades, the latest moves by fabricators follow the success of Ford Motor's best-selling F-150, its first aluminium-body pickup truck.
UACJ is hoping aluminium sheet used in passenger vehicles will increase ten-fold to a million tonnes by 2025. Mr Takayoshi also said the company aims to win about 20 percent of the U.S. aluminium automotive sheet market. "Our expectation is the trend in the US and Europe to use aluminium for auto bodies and structural frames will eventually spread to other areas like China and Southeast Asia where we want to take the lead," he said.
Kobe Steel, which makes both aluminium and steel, said in May this year it will invest US$46.7 million to build an aluminium plant in Kentucky to build parts for car frames and bumpers, and also wants a plant for aluminium sheets.
"We are still looking to invest in the U.S. market to make aluminium sheets, although the timing is not known yet," Kobe Steel president Hiroya Kawasaki said.
"We expect aluminium use per vehicle will grow to 500 pounds by 2025 from 390 pounds in 2015," said Tom Boney, chairman of the US Aluminium Association's transportation group, citing tougher emission targets and wider consumer acceptance in terms of safety.
