Mar 15 2013
Aleris today announced the opening of a new cold rolling mill at its Duffel, Belgium, facility to meet increasing demand for wide automotive body sheet.The completion of the mill, when combined with the facility's continuous annealing line, creates a dedicated automotive center that further equips the company to produce the widest aluminum sheet currently available in the industry.
Aleris announced the $70 million expansion in 2011. The company is the second-largest supplier of heat-treated auto body sheet in Europe.
"Our investment in new capacity and an innovation center in Duffel further solidifies our full commitment to the automotive industry and the development of solutions to help support our customers' future growth," Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Steve Demetriou said. "As more of our automotive customers turn to aluminum as a solution to meet new fuel-efficiency standards, we believe our new cold mill will help us meet increased demand worldwide."
The new automotive facility produces wide auto body sheet, reducing design limitations and improving productivity for automotive customers. The Duffel facility's continuous annealing line is the widest available, which provides customers with wide auto body sheet that has high formability at enhanced levels of consistency and quality.
Backed by a world-class research and development capability, the new facility enables the company to better partner with customers to deliver lightweight solutions that can provide a more sustainable approach to the design and manufacture of vehicles.