Automotive aluminium sheet: the road ahead Part 1

Demand for aluminium automotive body sheet (ABS) has grown rapidly over the last 2 years. Ever stringent CO2 emission standards and targets in developed economies has triggered a wave of investment by vehicle manufacturers to meet near term emission targets, much of which has been focused on light weighting. In developing markets, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are also increasingly facing the challenges posed by every tighter environmental legislation. We explore the impact of this trend on demand for aluminium automotive sheet at a granular OEM level. The impact on ABS demand varies across regions with different CO2 emission regimes generating different impacts on aluminium sheet demand. Nevertheless, we expect significant uplift in ABS demand over the next five years with a risk that our base case number could well prove to be conservative.