Constellium, UACJ to create joint venture to produce body-in-white aluminum sheet

Constellium N.V. and UACJ Corp. have announced that they are joining forces to supply and market aluminum body-in-white sheet to the North American automotive industry.

To achieve this goal, Constellium and UACJ, through Tri-Arrows Aluminum Inc. (TAA) — UACJ's subsidiary with Sumitomo Corp. and Itochu Group — intend to create a joint venture company in the U.S. as an equal partnership. The joint venture is expected to include a continuous heat treatment and conversion line with an initial target capacity of 110,231 tons supplied by cold-rolled coils from both partners' rolling mills. The total joint investment by both parties is expected to amount to about $150 million.

The intrinsic lightness of aluminum makes it a suitable material to help the automotive industry meet regulations for improved fuel efficiency.

"We estimate that the U.S. market for body-in-white aluminum rolled products could grow from less than 100,000 tons in 2012 to approximately 1 million tons in 2020," said Laurent Musy, president of Constellium's Packaging and Automotive Rolled Products business unit.

Constellium develops value-added aluminum products for aerospace, automotive, and packaging markets. UACJ is a producer of rolled sheet aluminum products.