WCA July 2013

sounded a very contemporary note: environmental responsibility. “Steel is an incredibly green material,” he said. “[It] can be recycled continuously without affecting its key performance attributes.” Elsewhere in steel . . . ❖ The American Iron and Steel Institute has said it expects the energy sector to be a strong source of steel demand in the US over the next ten years. Among the data cited by the AISI: ❖ Nuclear projects use 40 metric tons (mt) of steel per megawatt (MW) of installed capacity. Some 5,500MW of new nuclear capacity now under construction in the US is expected to come online between 2015 and 2018 ❖ If wind power projects expand enough to meet the stated goal of six per cent of the US energy supply by 2020, they could demand up to 13 million short tons (st) of steel ❖ To enable the nation to obtain 20 per cent of its energy from wind by 2030, the US Department of Energy recently highlighted the need for more electrical transmission lines. Some 1,000 feet of a common type of transmission wire contains 270 pounds of steel ❖ The average high-voltage transmission tower includes about 40,000-60,000 pounds of steel. Detroit’s ‘Big Three’ seize the opportunity presented by a new Chinese preference for larger cars “The models wore traditional cheongsam dresses and medieval Chinese armour . . . but the many midsize cars and sport utility vehicles on display made it look almost like an American auto show.” Keith Bradsher, the Hong Kong bureau chief of the New York Times , was in China for Auto Shanghai – the 15 th annual edition of the show that from 21 st to 29 th April put 1,300 vehicles on display in 17 halls, and hosted no fewer than 111 global debuts. “An absolute monster,” declared Motor Trend Magazine : but the Times ’s Mr Bradsher had no trouble discerning the message in the sprawl. The Chinese market, the world’s largest since 2009, is awash in large vehicles. Despite punitive taxes of as much as 40 per cent on models with large engine displacements (more than four litres), there has been a pronounced shift on the part of China’s consumers away from fuel-sipping compacts and subcompacts toward larger cars. In March, SUV sales in China were 49 per cent up from the same month of 2012 as new models poured into the market. Moreover, many exhibitors at Shanghai highlighted their luxury cars, a tacit acknowledgment of the rising affluence of the upper middle class and the wealthy in China. (“Chinese Auto Buyers Grow Hungry for Larger Cars,” 21 st April). Automotive

Steel US Steel chief asserts the current and future supremacy of “an incredibly green material” for automotive uses “It didn’t happen then. It will not happen now.” Speaking in April at an Automotive Press Association luncheon in Detroit, John Surma, the CEO of US Steel (Pittsburgh), pointed to a magazine article from 50 years back claiming that steel would eventually make up a smaller portion of a vehicle’s mass because lighter-weight materials will replace it. Not so, Mr Surma declared. (“Steel Will Remain Dominant in Auto: US Steel CEO,” Detroit Free Press , 12 th April). Clearly, reports of steel’s demise as a major automotive material are greatly exaggerated. According to the Steel Market Development Institute, steel makes up about 60 per cent of the weight of an average vehicle. Steel is less expensive than aluminium and other alternatives, and the industry has developed a lighter-weight, high-strength steel that can help automakers boost fuel economy and reduce mass. Even so, Mr Surma is probably not taking the supremacy of automotive steel for granted. Automakers are using lighter-weight materials such as aluminium and magnesium to improve mileage and meet the US government’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) goal of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. As noted by Free Press business writer Nathan Bomey, the rule of thumb is that fuel economy rises by at least 3 to 4 per cent when vehicle mass is reduced by 10 per cent. That presents a threat to steel. For certain high-end and performance cars, wrote Mr Bomey, the cost of aluminium is not prohibitive. General Motors built the frame of its 2014 Corvette Stingray with aluminium, making the sports car 99 pounds lighter and 57 per cent “stiffer” than the previous model. The automaker also recently introduced a technology designed to improve the aluminium welding process, which has historically posed difficulties on the factory floor. ❖ But the advance of the lightweights has been uneven. Industry observers have speculated that Ford is trying to convert the F-150 series into an aluminium body. However, Mr Bomey reported, the Atlas concept pickup unveiled by Ford at the Detroit auto show in January had no more aluminium than the current F-150. A Ducker Worldwide study cited by Mr Bomey projected that US automakers would incorporate 375 additional pounds of aluminium into the average vehicle by 2016. The study, funded by the European Aluminium Association, also found that aluminium would represent 16 per cent of a vehicle’s weight by 2025, about double today’s level. ❖ For his part, Mr Surma pointed out that several new vehicles, including the Cadillac ATS and Ford Fusion, use high-strength steel. He told reporters in Detroit in April: “Now as an industry we are continuing our research on the third generation of high-strength steels. Additionally, Mr Surma’s brief for automotive steel

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Wire & Cable ASIA – July/August 2013

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