Pushed by new applications in the automotive and light truck marketplace, aluminum extrusions look to be in the driver's seat heading into 1997.

Even the building and construction sector, which has been plagued with material substitution away from aluminum extrusions, expects to see growth this year. Due to overcapacity for soft alloy extrusions, however, further rationalization of operations seems a distinct possibility.

Shipments of aluminum extrusions have risen continuously over the past several years and are expected to rise again this year, according to Michael J. Ott, national sales and marketing manager for the extrusions division of Reynolds Metals Co., Richmond, Va. Ott predicted that approximately 3.71 billion pounds of extrusions will be shipped this year, up 4.7 percent from the 3.55 billion pounds shipped in 1996.

Shipments, he said, will be bolstered by an anticipated 9-percent increase in demand to 967 million pounds within the transportation sector, including a 11.28-percent increase to 217 million pounds in the use of aluminum extrusions in automobiles and light trucks.

"There has been a big push by the aluminum industry in cooperation with the automotive producers and governmental agencies to make cars more lightweight, and the result has been the use of more aluminum, including extrusions, per vehicle," Manfred F. Schroeder, chairman of the Wauconda, Ill.,-based Aluminum Extruders Council (AEC) and former chief executive officer of VAW of America Inc., said. Schroeder contends that aluminum is an excellent choice for an automotive building material in that it is about a third of the weight of steel.

Already aluminum and aluminum extrusions have gained quite a bit of ground in the automotive market. For example, in 1991 the average American car contained only about 182 pounds of aluminum, according to Ott. Last year, he noted, automotive aluminum content rose to 242 pounds, and by the 2000 model year, aluminum content per vehicle is expected to jump to 350 pounds. Extrusions will be one of the growth areas, Ott said, adding that aluminum extrusions are expected to rise to about 45 pounds per vehicle by 2000 from their current level of between 16 and 26 pounds.

One prime example of this move is the contract General Motors Corp. (GM), Detroit, recently awarded to Alumax Inc., Norcross, Ga., to supply radiator enclosures for its redesigned Chevrolet C/K and GMC Sierra pickups as well as its Suburban, Tahoe and Yukon sport utility vehicles. This contract, which is expected to account for 20 million pounds of aluminum extrusions a year over a 10-year period, constitutes the largest existing application for extrusion stock in the domestic light-truck or passenger car industry today and is reportedly larger than any application in the history of the North American automotive industry. GM will start producing these vehicles in 1999.

There are, meanwhile, several new automotive applications for extruded aluminum, including structural applications in cars already on the road, especially in 1997 model-year automobiles. Richard Larimer, vice president of sales and marketing for Hydro Aluminum Automotive Structures Inc., Holland, Mich., said that his company alone is involved with projects that have added at least 21.5 million pounds of aluminum extrusions into the marketplace this year.

These projects included seat-back frames for the Chevrolet Malibu and Oldsmobile Cutlass, third-row seat cushion frames for the Ford Expedition and front and rear bumper beams and power seat tracks for the Buick Park Avenue.

"We are also working on other things for 1998 and 1999 which are extremely high volume," he said.

One significant move, according to a spokesman for Easco Inc., Girard, Ohio, is that extrusions are now starting to play a major role in the frame of the vehicle.

"Previously (extrusions) had been used for head rest supports, bumpers and bumper reinforcements. Now it is being used for rails for the structure itself," he said.

Larimer agreed, noting that before the 1997 model year the only structural extrusions were found in some seat tracks and in the rear frame of the Chevrolet Corvette. The dearth of structural applications, he asserted, was because automakers have a distinct comfort zone with steel and, in the past, weight and fuel economy did not have as high a priority as it does today.

But design requirements are changing, according to Jay M. Linard, president of Alumax Extrusions Inc., Cressona, Pa. "Auto engineers are becoming more comfortable with aluminum and they are beginning to see the real benefits of our light-weight metal," he said.

Further acceptance, however, will be greatly influenced by the price of aluminum, Rick Matalone, vice president of merchandising for Marmon/Keystone Corp., Butler, Pa., stressed. "When the price is down, as it has been, aluminum extrusions become more competitive. But if ingot goes sky high, then we will see people go back to other products," he said.