Alcoa, Pittsburgh, will invest $275 million over the next three years to expand and convert capacity at its rolling mill in Alcoa, Tenn. The project will convert some of the plant’s can sheet capacity to high-strength automotive aluminum, as well as install incremental automotive capacity. The Tennessee expansion is scheduled to be completed by mid-2015. Much of the volume for the automotive expansion is already secured under long-term supply agreements.
The project will incorporate, through Alcoa’s supply chain, the proprietary Alcoa 951 pre-treatment bonding technology, which enables adhesive bonding of automotive structures and is facilitating more cost-effective, mass production of aluminum intensive vehicles (AIVs). The Alcoa technology has become the new pre-treatment bonding standard for aluminum sheet, extrusion, and casting suppliers across the automotive industry. Alcoa is licensing the technology to the industry at the request of auto OEMs.
“We anticipate a quadrupling of auto sheet volume by 2015 and a tenfold increase by 2025,” said Alcoa Chairman and CEO, Klaus Kleinfeld. The expansion will add 200 full-time, high-value jobs upon completion. In addition, more than 400 jobs will be created during the construction phase of the expansion.
