Automobile industry is still an important direction of aluminium application

 Under the new situation of current social development, the automobile industry has begun to develop towards new energy, lightweight, intelligent and networking. While ensuring safety, better experience and comfort are increasingly favored by consumers. As the representative material of automobile lightweight, aluminium has become the key selective raw material to enhance automobile power system and reduce body weight in the new development stage of automobile industry, which has attracted the attention of major automobile enterprises.

With the increasingly prominent problems of energy and environmental protection, many countries have introduced a number of environmental protection tax laws to promote energy conservation and emission reduction. In 2012, China began to vigorously deepen energy-saving and emission reduction policies, and the CAFC (Calculating Method of Average Fuel Consumption) for Passenger Vehicle Enterprises began to be formally implemented, which stipulated the comprehensive fuel consumption of vehicles produced by various automobile manufacturers. As soon as the regulations were issued, a large number of new energy vehicles began to flow into the market and became the new favorite of the automobile market.

The greatest advantage of aluminium in automotive materials lies in its lightweight and recyclability. It is reported that every 100 kilograms of weight loss, the average car will save 175 litres of gasoline per year, can also greatly reduce carbon emissions, reduce self-weight, increase the space of the car, can be more comfortable and safe.

Faced with the requirements of energy saving, emission reduction and recycling, new energy vehicles will replace traditional fuel vehicles in the future has gradually become the inevitable direction of development recognized by consumers, and the concept of "replacing steel with aluminium" is also quietly entering the automotive industry in China's policy guidance and industrial transformation development.

According to the estimates of Exco, the weight of automobile body structure can be reduced by 50% by replacing steel structure with aluminium alloy. By 2025, the amount of aluminium used in North American automobile industry will increase by 40% compared with that in 2012. Zhao Pizhi, chief material expert of China Aluminum Science and Technology Research Institute, said that the development of new energy automotive industry is accelerating the application of automotive aluminum sheets and components. The prelude of automobile lightweight has been opened. It is expected that by 2020, the market scale of aluminium alloy sheet for automobile panel in China will exceed 300,000 tons, and the consumption of aluminium alloy sheet for automobile will exceed 1 million tons.

According to the relevant statistics displayed by China Automobile Industry Association at the high-level forum on expanding aluminium application, at present, China's automobile industry is in the initial stage of popularization, with about 50 cars owned by 1,000 people. Generally, the initial stage of popularization will last about 12-14 years, with the average market growth rate of 5%-10%. Since then, when the number of cars owned by 1,000 people reaches 200, it marks the entry into the automobile market. In the late period of market popularization, the growth rate of the whole automobile market slowed down to less than 5%, which generally lasted for about 10 years or 20 years. When the number of thousands of cars reached 500, the automobile market entered a saturation period.

From the above data, we can see that China's automotive industry has at least 20 years of development period, the prospects are still broad. It can be predicted that such a large automotive market demand will provide a rare opportunity period and "window period" for the development of aluminium materials.