The Novelis plant near Oswego is one of two that will supply light-weight aluminum for the 2018 Jeep Wrangler, the company announced Monday.
The 2018 Jeep Wrangler will be about 200 pounds lighter than previous models thanks to a light-weight, high-strength aluminum built into the vehicle's doors, fenders, swing gate and windshield housing, according to Novelis.
That aluminum will be provided by the Novelis plants in Oswego and Kingston Ontario, said Novelis spokeswoman Samantha Schikowski.
She could not immediately estimate how much new business this might bring to the Oswego plant.
Novelis Inc. is already Oswego County's largest manufacturer. The company announced in May 2016 that it expected to create 250 jobs over the next four years at its expanded aluminum plant in Scriba.
The $120 million production line began making aluminum sheet for Ford's new F-Series Super Duty line of trucks at the end of 2015. Ford uses the aluminum for the body panels and bed of its 2017 Super Duty model.
The Scriba plant -- the company calls it Novelis Oswego -- produces about a billion pounds of aluminum sheet a year. Most is sold to auto makers, but the plant also makes aluminum for beverage cans and other products.
Ford is also a big customer of the plant. The plant has also supplied Ford with aluminum for its F-150 pickup truck, long the best-selling vehicle in the country,
Switching from steel to aluminum body panels allowed Ford to shave 700 pounds off the F-150. The switch has allowed it to take about 350 pounds off the Super Duty trucks, despite changes that also gave the trucks tougher underbody components.
Jeep estimates the switch to Novelis-produced aluminum will allow it to increase the Wrangler's fuel efficiency by three miles per gallon.
The company's investment in the plant includes a facility that recycles 25 million pounds of automotive aluminum scrap per month. Scrap aluminum from automakers is returned to the plant, where it is melted down and made into new aluminum sheets.
Novelis operates in 11 countries, has about 12,000 employees worldwide and reported $10 billion in revenue in its 2016 fiscal year.
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