Why Are Automakers Substituting Iron and Steel with Metal Alloys?

The slump induced by the COVID-19 pandemic seems to be way in the past, as automotive sales around the world have risen to 35,603,479 units in the first half of 2021, compared to 27,799,942 units during the same period last year, says Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d'Automobiles (OICA). This is driven by the strong desire of people to own a vehicle for practical purposes and to show off their social status. However, with the continuous rise in the number of vehicles on the roads, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are also rising.

This is why P&S Intelligence has forecast huge growth for the automotive alloy market in the years to come. As per the International Energy Agency (IEA), the transport sector was responsible for 8.5 Gigatons of GHG emissions in 2019. Therefore, governments around the world are taking numerous measures to clean up the transport system, such as implementing stringent emission regulations, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Tier 3 norms, European Union (EU)’s Euro 6 norms, and India’s Bharat Stage VI (BS6) emission standards.

One of the best ways to reduce the emissions is to make automobiles lighter. By doing this, the load on the engine decreases, which leads to a lower consumption of fuel, thereby ultimately decreasing tailpipe emissions. Therefore, in order to comply with the stringent emission regulations, automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are replacing the traditional iron and steel in the automobile body with lightweight yet strong alloys (mixtures of different metals).

Currently, Asia-Pacific (APAC) is the largest automotive alloy market simply because it accounts for the highest production of electric and conventional automobiles. According to the OICA, China, Japan, India, and South Korea rank one, three, five, and six, respectively, on the list of countries with the highest automotive production. Further, they are also among the most-polluted countries on earth, which is why the emission regulations here are rather strict. For the same reason, their governments are doing everything they can to boost EV production and uptake.

Hence, with the rising automobile production in a world reeling under a rapidly deteriorating air quality, the usage of lightweight alloys will increase.