Rusal and Gränges ink rolled automotive aluminium agreement

2021-05-31

May 23, 2021 - Russian Federation aluminium behemoth UC Rusal and Swedish rolled aluminium firm Gränges AB have signed an agreement to collaborate on aluminium alloys for use in the global automotive market.

The agreement will have Rusal develop new aluminium alloys, new slab casting techniques, and new heat treatment processes, while Gränges develops a new process for rolling and fabricating flat rolled aluminium for global automotive buyers.

“This partnership with Gränges offers new prospects for the development of original alloys and strengthens our leading position in the aluminium solutions market for automotive applications,” explained Rusal’s technical director Viktor Mann in a press release.

“We believe that the new alloys have significant market potential,” noted Kent Schölin, Senior Vice President Technology and Innovation, Gränges AB.

“Aluminium alloys with competitive pricing, high electric conductivity and workability will replace copper-based products already in the market.”

Rusal notes that its aluminium-scandium product ScAlution is tailored to the automotive market, as the aluminium-scandium alloy help lighten vehicles, thereby cutting emissions and boosting gas mileage.

Begun in 1873 in Stockholm, Sweden as Trafik AB Grängesberg-Oxelösund, Gränges AB was resurrected in 2013 as a private company specializing in rolled aluminium heat exchangers. It employs almost 1,800 employees at the present time at two plants – one in Finspång, Sweden, that opened in its present configuration in 1972, and a second in Shanghai, China, opened in 1996. The firm boasts a total nameplate capacity of 420 thousand metric tons per annum and an annual sales total of SEK13 billion (US$1.35 billion).