Novelis Inc., the world's leading producer of aluminum rolled products, is positioning itself to meet the growing global demand it sees in markets for consumer packaging, transportation light-weighting and sustainable design applications. Erwin Mayr, Novelis SVP and Chief Strategy Officer, presented the company's long-term outlook at Harbor International's Third Annual Aluminum Outlook Conference in Chicago this week.
The substitution of aluminum as the material of choice is being fueled by compelling trends in economic growth in emerging markets around the globe," said Mayr. "Three macro-economic trends – increasing urbanization, the spreading of wealth throughout emerging markets and the continued move toward sustainability – are all converging to drive demand for aluminum rolled products for the foreseeable future."
Mayr pointed to the relative stability of the rolled products segment versus other aluminum product forms as reason for the company's optimism. "Aluminum rolled products usage and growth is based on a diverse group of end-product market segments," noted Mayr, "from packaging to transportation to building to consumer goods. This makes for a higher level of predictability in terms of planning for future demand and capacity expansion."
In addition to presenting the historical case for continued expansion of aluminum rolled products, Mayr also posed a number of "what if" questions illustrating the potential for step change growth in the years ahead. "What if every Brazilian were to consume as many canned beverages as people do in the U.S.? What if 50% of all car doors were built from aluminum? And what if per capita usage of rolled aluminum in China were to reach the level in Germany today?" asked Mayr. "Any one of these occurrences would significantly accelerate the growth of global aluminum FRP demand, extending well beyond the broadly expected 4% compound annual growth rate throughout this decade."
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